Sunday, October 19, 2008

I may have to hack off a branch of the family tree!

Now that I have your attention...

It's been all about family photos & scrapbooking around here for a couple of days. My sister Jennifer is the Scrapbook Queen, of our family at least.

When my mom passed away, all the old photos went to Jen to organize & journal. She is very good at this job, but as the youngest sibling, she did not have the privilege of knowing some of the older relatives that I did, since I am 16 years her senior. As a result, we have been spending a couple of days trying to identify as many of the unmarked photos as possible. This task has included removing photos that were glued to the black paper pages of some very old scrapbooks, since they are not acid free, etc. We were able it find names & dates on a few, which helped immensely.

Then there were the surprises! The next 3 photos in particular!

I know if these children are part of my family, they were much more lively than they appear this photo!




Perhaps this was a photo of my Grandpa and his classmates & teacher??





This stern looking woman was most certainly my Great-Great Grandma!




When we finally worked them free from the paper, guess what we found?



They are POSTCARDS? There is writing on a couple of them, and one shows that someone at least learned math!

Are these faces of family members? Did photographers create postcards for their clients to send to far-off relatives? If anyone knows whether they did this, please let me know! Or, are they interlopers in our family albums? Just images that were used by a post card printer?

I know my mother put them in the album. I also know she had a wicked sense of humor! Why do I have the feeling that she is chuckling at me right now? Well good one Mom, if this was one of your jokes...but I'll top that! I am going to have these blow up and hang them in my family gallery!

I'd like you all to meet my great-great...cousins, Merle, Stella & Ike. Then there is my Great Uncle George, who had a long & distinguished career as the headmaster of Dutch Crossing School! Lastly, my Great Grandma, Viroca Ravina, who is 1/2 Mohican Indian (this describes my real maternal great-grandma, by the way) in front of the home where she lived.

So I guess I'll keep 'em! What do you think?

Cheers! Chris
©

9 comments:

  1. How fun is this to go through old family pictures. I know I need to do this too, I have three bins in the garage full of pictures. It would take me for days and months to go through it all. But all the wonderful memories and laughs you must have shared with your sister.

    Have a wonderful day,
    Elizabeth

    ReplyDelete
  2. They did make postcards out of photos way back then. I've got several that were made by my long-ago relatives and they are labeled with names. So, I'd hold on to them - I'd guess they are your relatives.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the info pammiejo! I am hoping they are my realtives. And I am going to trat them as such!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh Chris! What a great post!! My mother would always buy picture frames that she loved that would have old-fashioned-type photographs in them when sold and my mom would hang them with those photo's because she liked the way it looked!!! Maybe your mom just liked the photo's on those postcards. We all have our quirks, some more endearing than others!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. They're wonderful old photos even if the might just be instant ancestors! Sorry I can't help with the mystery!
    xo,
    Lynda

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yes, making post card photos was common. I have one of this house that was made in 1907. They would often do this to commenmorate moving, a birth, or a special day, much like we send Christmas postacrds now.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jane Marie, thanks for your comment! I am more hopeful than ever that these are my relatives!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I had to chuckle at this! Love the pictures..uh, postcards anyway. blessings, Kathleen

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh, how fun to have a mom with a sense of humor!!! She just keeps you laughing -- even from beyond -- what a gift!!!

    I'd definetly keep them, family or not....but then you're asking a "nut" that just bought MORE pictures of strangers from an antique store, today!!!

    Blessings,
    Julie

    ReplyDelete

I'd love to hear your thoughts...