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I'll start. I never did get much into actual genealogy research but my mother did and she used to bring home pictures of various ancestors from her collecting trips. My eyes would glaze over when she would ramble on and on about birth dates and death dates but I loved looking at the photos. Two really neat things happened around that and both were while I was in college.
The first one was in a photo album and it was a picture of a young lady about the age I was then--older teen I think. She was very pretty but she had the snapping-est black eyes--looked almost like a gypsy. A few weeks later I went on a trip with my mother and she had to stop on the way and interview a lady--she was on a roll at that time! The woman was quite old and obese--in her 90's I think and of course I was bored. I looked up from my book at one point though and I thought, "I have seen those eyes!" We just happened to have the album with us so I brought it in and the woman was very excited. "That's me!" she cried out. So very cool and my mom thought I was a genius but she did have very distinctive eyes. I wish I had the pic now but we left it with the woman--seemed the right thing to do at the time and this was the early 80's before photography and photo reproduction really took off.
The other was about an album my mother brought back from Texas and she had no idea who the people were except that they were Dad's side of the family. There was a picture of a bridal couple from about 100 years before (again, early 80's) and the woman in it looked just like a woman in my English class--a dead ringer in fact, down to her tiniest fingernail. The interesting thing was that I had a rather uncommon German surname and the girl in my English class had the same name but off by one letter. Neither of us had ever met anyone with the same last name before.
I thought of this because lately I've been going thru the old photos and they fascinate me and I wonder what kind of people they were. One man had the most uncommonly long neck of anyone I've ever seen and his name was Hovey Christmas. Another photo shows my great great grandpa with one of his horses--they were all so beautiful! And the pic is so well "choreographed" that it looks like it could be a movie poster.
Not sure if this is "interesting" but I have a picture of my great-grandmother, who died very young, in 1916. She would have been my Dad's maternal grandmother, but died long before he was born.
The portrait was a photograph done for her engagement, prior to her wedding in 1904, but it was later "hand-colored" to look like a painting, as was fashionable in the old days. But the funny thing is, her picture looks just like my Dad, in a wig and Victorian dress. My Dad is almost 70 now, but this looks exactly like him when I was a kid. (My Dad, however, hardly ever dressed up like a post-Victorian lady).
My mother had an old picture of a cousin or something that was odd looking. A young girl sitting in a chair, dressed up, but with eyes closed and a string of drool dropping down from her mouth.
I later found out that there was a practice about that time of photos of the dead in lifelike settings. I am guessing that the girl was dead, but I never knew for sure.
My mother had an old picture of a cousin or something that was odd looking. A young girl sitting in a chair, dressed up, but with eyes closed and a string of drool dropping down from her mouth.
I later found out that there was a practice about that time of photos of the dead in lifelike settings. I am guessing that the girl was dead, but I never knew for sure.
Sounds weird by modern standards, but this is true, people did photograph the dead as a keepsake. Otherwise, they had no remembrance of the way the person looked except memory. They just weren't as snap happy as modern people where almost everyone walks around with a camera in their pocket called a cellphone.
My Dad is almost 70 now, but this looks exactly like him when I was a kid.
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.
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.
My husband resembles his father, while his brother resembles their mother.
I look like my mom and am aging into my grandmother. But I AM my dad and her families stubborn tradition is fully there. My son also has a lot of my features. I used to have a baby pic of him at two mos and one of me and we looked so alike at that age.
My favorite picture would be the one of my aunt. She didn't like cameras. The family would be together and there would be lots of pics of everyone else but few and only those where she didn't see the camera of her. So my family and my cousins were having Thanksgiving dinner, and I had my little camera with an automatic flash. She was the only one at the table who didn't know of the plot, but my younger male cousin, who was born a jokeser, had the camera and while we were talking and keeping her looking at the rest of the table, he advanced and got right next to her, said Mom and snapped.
She wasn't mad, but then she was used to him and we all laughed but its one of the dear moments in my growing up. I sure wish I had the picture. I miss *my* family, even though I've been adopted by my ex's.
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.
The whole topic is weird to me. Not THIS topic on CD, but the way we do or don't inherit physical traits.
I am female. My sons both look like me, and everyone says so, but they look NOTHING like each other (they have different fathers). Huh? I don't know.
I have a picture of myself at age 10 or 11 though, and when you compare it to my eldest at the same age, we look like siblings. Likewise I have toddler pics of myself when compared to toddler pics of my youngest, looks like the same kid (especially since his hair was longish as a toddler).
Sometimes I think I look nothing like my mom and other times I can see it. I have my Dad's smile though. And bigger frame, and slower metabolism. Thanks Dad! My son and I were discussing this today. We have bigger heads. My mom has a small head; my son and I have real trouble finding hats that fit!
My wife looks IDENTICAL to her father if you compare childhood pictures except she is clearly a girl and he is clearly male.
Okay back to the topic at hand... I don't know if this counts but I was reading an autobiography (online) that was shared by a fellow researcher that I am related to on my father's side. The entire document had been published digitally and included some photos. I was reading and scrolling down when I gasped and exclaimed out loud because a photo I came across was the SPITTING image of my father! It was a photo of the author, and I learned that he was my father's Grandfather's brother's child. So, a cousin. It was absolutely shocking, they could have passed for twins and they were born a few years apart but i don't think they knew each other at all.
I had a wierd occurance happen when I was expecting my son. Husband and I went to the store, and on the way back I got this odd feeling like someone was at the house. Didn't see anyone. Then, we go inside and I can feel my father so strongly. It was like he'd come to visit. My husband noticed, and asked if I felt something before I said anything.
Then we had a visitor. My cousin, my dad's nephew had come out to coast for a few weeks and decided to look us up. The thing was he looked like my dad, hair loss and even voice, so much I could swear it was dad. He took a picture of me and my by then protruding tummy. After he'd left I told the husband about how much he looked like Dad. He was distrubed by the 'presance' but I felt so comforted. And having it happen just as my cousin and twin to dad as I remembered him growing up was just too amazing.
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