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I grew up surrounded by dozens of photos of my ancestors. Originally, in my grandmother's home, her living room wall was covered in them. There was even one oil painting I was always creeped out by because the eyes followed you everywhere. I remember asking about them once as a child and my grandmother said "you're related to all these people" and I thought "Well, I've never met them!" At the time, I was only interested in people I knew, what was the point in learning about someone I'd never met?
Then my grandmother went into a nursing home and my mom took all the photos and hung them in our dining room. I still had no interest - in fact, I didn't become interested until I moved to another country. I guess because I missed home and missed all the photos I grew up around, I suddenly wanted to know more about them. Now I can name every single one and I know so much about some of them that I feel like I kind of do know them now. And I can even sleep in the same room as the oil painting and not get creeped out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stepka
this was the early 80's before photography and photo reproduction really took off.
I'm not sure what you mean by "took off" but photo reproduction was very available at this time. When my mom took over the family tree from my grandmom in the late 80s/early 90s, the main thing she worked on was getting negatives made from many of the photos we had.
She was a very lovely lady! Great post. I've often noted that females tend to inherit their father's features, whereas males will most resemble their mothers - at least facially.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cindiana
My husband resembles his father, while his brother resembles their mother.
It's random. My brothers and I look like our dad, except one who resembles our mom's family.
I'm not sure what you mean by "took off" but photo reproduction was very available at this time. When my mom took over the family tree from my grandmom in the late 80s/early 90s, the main thing she worked on was getting negatives made from many of the photos we had.
Yes I didn't explain very well, but as the 80's progressed, mom got where she could lay an old family photo down and make a picture of it and the quality steadily improved--either of cameras in general or of her skills. Nowadays we take that for granted but not then.
Another little story: I had laid out all the pix so I could see which duplicates I had and keep the ones that are identified and pitch the ones with too many duplicates. There were 20 or so of this one pair of small children and the baby looked like the devil's child. But the one that creeped me out a little was one of a family with 2 boys and a girl. The girl had an odd look to her and white blond hair but what was really weird was another photo of what appeared to be the same family (not identified) and while they all looked 10 years older, the girl didn't look older at all--she appears stuck at age 7. Very odd. Maybe I"ll try to post those later--it's moving day today and time to get moving!
I have a picture of my maternal grandmother as a toddler, taken around 1872 - she's otherwise simply and appropriately dressed, but is wearing an elaborate necklace that's clearly intended for an adult. The story (passed along by my mother) is that whenever anyone in the family had their picture made, they wore the necklace. My grandmother was the youngest of many siblings.
Sadly, I have no idea what became of the necklace, or if whoever has it now also knows the story. I so wish I had it and could display it next to the picture of my little-girl grandmother. Since this isn't possible, I hope the necklace descended in the family of one of her many siblings and that it is recognized and cherished as an heirloom.
We have a picture of my Mom, at about age 2, around 1948. She's standing outside on the city sidewalk, buck naked, wearing a lady's fancy hat. As kids, my sister and I loved this picture and laughed at it all the time. Now it's framed and hanging in my sister's house, and my nieces and nephew love to say that they have a naked picture of Grandma on the wall.
There's a wonderful picture of gg-gma Grace captioned "napping after a picnic". Her style of dress is 1920's so she would've been in her 50's, hefty and strong looking, somewhat splayed on the blanket with a tea ball covering her eyes.
We have a picture of my great great grandmother, who died in 1947 at the age of 94. I think it was taken in 30's, of her sitting on the front porch of my grandparents house in a rocking chair, looking happy as anything.
Smoking a corn cob pipe.
That picture is as good as the baby pictures of my dad, and one of me. Mom had a family wall of photos. On one end was Daddy's baby picture, taken around eight months old, in a little lace dress (probably his christening gown). He's smiling at the camera, so hard his eyes were little slits and his little hands were clenched in fists, and his left was higher than his right, and his blonde hair had one unruly curl that stood straight up on his head and curled up.
On the other end of the wall was my baby picture. In between were about 40 other family pictures, which Mom switched out all the time with others we had.
So -- it actually took one of my friends to really look at the wall and ask why we had two pictures exact the same of the same baby. She pointed to my Dad's picture.... and then to mine...
I had to pull them off the wall and show Mom.... they really matched. I had a different dress on, but everything down to the little fists matched. It was too weird...
And I was born three days after my Dad's 36th birthday.
Yes I didn't explain very well, but as the 80's progressed, mom got where she could lay an old family photo down and make a picture of it and the quality steadily improved--either of cameras in general or of her skills. Nowadays we take that for granted but not then.
Another little story: I had laid out all the pix so I could see which duplicates I had and keep the ones that are identified and pitch the ones with too many duplicates. There were 20 or so of this one pair of small children and the baby looked like the devil's child. But the one that creeped me out a little was one of a family with 2 boys and a girl. The girl had an odd look to her and white blond hair but what was really weird was another photo of what appeared to be the same family (not identified) and while they all looked 10 years older, the girl didn't look older at all--she appears stuck at age 7. Very odd. Maybe I"ll try to post those later--it's moving day today and time to get moving!
That child may have had a birth defect.
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