My Favorite Ancestor Photo

[Big Man]

This is my Grandmother

I have always thought this picture was representative of my "Maw". Not only was she my Grandmother, she was - by far - the best friend I ever had. There is something about this picture that always reminds me of those truly great times I spent with her as a child (that's me on the front porch with her taken about 1958).

My oldest son was four when she died and has only the vaguest memory of her. She was 97 years old when my son was born, and she would sit on that same porch and play with him just like she did with me when I was a child. I guess that is why this picture is so representative of her, and why it is one of the main pictures I show my children and grandchildren when telling them about "Maw".

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Big Man, that truly is a great photo. For me, it captures everything you said about your Maw and her relationship with you. And there's something about her bare feet tucked toward each other that seems ageless and very human.


Thanks for sharing this!

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[imoldfashioned]

MA (My grandmother), Esie Ambrose Middleton, in about 1920.


I love her expression here, strong and wistful all at once. The photo makes me wonder what she was like. Your uncle was a handsome man. I've got a few family photos like your last one, where it's noted on the back who survived the war and who didn't. Very sad.

I've got a couple I'll add to the thread this evening.

 

[imoldfashioned]

Big Man, that truly is a great photo. For me, it captures everything you said about your Maw and her relationship with you. And there's something about her bare feet tucked toward each other that seems ageless and very human.


Thanks for sharing this!

.

Seconded; that picture looks like top quality photojournalism--I could see it in Life magazine or some such publication.

 

[Big Man]

Thanks for the comments about the picture of my "Maw". She was truly a very special person to me.

This is another family picture that I think captures something unique about the character of the subjects. This is my great-grandfather and great-grandmother, D.C. and Sarah Brown. The picture was taken in August, 1928 at a family reunion. My great-grandfather was 85 years old and my great-grandmother was 82 years old at the time. My great-grandmother died in December, 1928, so this was most likely the last picture of them together.

I always liked the way they were holding hands. I think that says something about them.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Surely they went through a lot of hell together: a terrible war and its aftermath. The end of a world, in fact.

.

 

[Lady Day]

These two
This one is of my Granny and her high school graduation in 1938!

One more of my Granny and my Grandpa (the couple on the left). The others are random relatives. But check out the car

And this one is a random pic of my mother. She apears to be grovin'

LD

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Great photos, Lady Day! :eusa_clap And that picture of your mom below the telephone just begs for a caption. Feels like a phone call might have had something to do with her grooving lol

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[Big Man]

My great grandparents were married in 1866 after my great-grandfather returned from the Civil War (he fought on both sides - long story). They lived for a few years here in western NC, then in 1870 moved to Kansas.

I always heard that they left NC due to the poverty and terrible living conditions following the war, and upon reaching Kansas found "the Indians and tornados were worse than the poverty". They were able to return home to NC in 1879.

They had a family of 14 children. My great-grandmother died in 1928. My great-grandfather died in 1943, being only a month or two shy of his 100th birthday. By the time of his death he had buried his parents, his wife of 62 years, four of his children, and several of his grandchildren.

I never heard any stories my great-grandparents complaining. Same with my grandmother. From what I know about her, and what I was told about my great-grandparents, they had a very positive look on life. I guess in the end we all have the choice of seeing the good or seeing the bad in just about everything. If we choose to see the good, I think we're better for it.

I hope that my wife and I can still be holding hands like my great-grandparents.

 

[Big Man]

Lady Day, that picture of your folks with the car is great. That picture says "family" to me.

 

[epr25]

I have always loved this one of my grandparents. It was shortly after my grandfather had returned from the war. The had just been married. I think it was taken in the front yard of my great grandparents. Who I was not lucky enough to meet.

[/IMG]

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Gran Re-scan.

Much better quality than before. I had never seen this picture as a child and had no idea it existed. I love the "Titanic" look of it.

 

[imoldfashioned]

Marvelous photo epr25!

LD Your Granny is so pretty -- and she has nice taste in shoes in the graduation photo.

This is my great aunt Louise, sister of my maternal grandmother, around 1915. The picture was taken for her college graduation. I was actually looking for another photo from this set but this one called to me because of her smile.

For me, she's the non-famous ancestor I think I would have liked to have met most. In the family photos she radiates a warmth, and she's relaxed and smiling without fail, unlike many of her siblings. She was the oldest in the family, a concert pianist for many years who performed even after she was married. She died relatively young at 63 in the mid-1950s.

The other ancestor I wish I could talk to is Fanny Vandegrift, cousin of my great grandfather. She was born in the Midwest, moved to Europe, met and married Robert Louis Stevenson and ended up moving with him to Western Samoa. I can't imagine what would I ask her first.

 

[panamag8or]

My great grandparents were married in 1866 after my great-grandfather returned from the Civil War (he fought on both sides - long story). They lived for a few years here in western NC, then in 1870 moved to Kansas.

I always heard that they left NC due to the poverty and terrible living conditions following the war, and upon reaching Kansas found "the Indians and tornados were worse than the poverty". They were able to return home to NC in 1879.

They had a family of 14 children. My great-grandmother died in 1928. My great-grandfather died in 1943, being only a month or two shy of his 100th birthday. By the time of his death he had buried his parents, his wife of 62 years, four of his children, and several of his grandchildren.

I never heard any stories my great-grandparents complaining. Same with my grandmother. From what I know about her, and what I was told about my great-grandparents, they had a very positive look on life. I guess in the end we all have the choice of seeing the good or seeing the bad in just about everything. If we choose to see the good, I think we're better for it.

I hope that my wife and I can still be holding hands like my great-grandparents.

What is it with the longevity in NC? My NC-born Great-Grandmother lived to 106, and even resembled your "Maw". We called her "Maw-Maw". Must be an NC thing.lol

 

[Big Man]

OK, I know the original post in the thread said "your one photo", but I just couldn't resist ...

This is my Maw and me on a picnic about 1958. Her scarf, heavy wool socks, and bedroom shoes are things that are still very much in my memory.

 

[BeBopBaby]

OK, I know the original post in the thread said "your one photo", but I just couldn't resist ...

This is my Maw and me on a picnic about 1958. Her scarf, heavy wool socks, and bedroom shoes are things that are still very much in my memory.

Just looking at pictures of your maw gives me warm fuzzies inside. You can just see the warmth in her face. I bet she could bake the best cookies ever.

 

[Big Man]

Just looking at pictures of your maw gives me warm fuzzies inside. Ypu can just see the warmth in her face. I bet she could bake the best cookies ever.

Sugar cookies with home-made jelly filling. What I wouldn't give for one of them right now.

Those cookies were about 3" across and about 1/2" thick. After I started to school she would make a run of cookies and send them and enough "milk money" for all the children in my class to have milk and cookies. She did this about once a month until I was in the third or fourth grade.

If I live to be 110 years old, I will never have a friend as good as my Maw. She was one in a million.

 

[Big Man]

This is my aunt Hazel and me about 1956. Some of you may recall that I took care of my aunt for the last couple years of her life. She passed away one year ago (1 Oct.) at the age of 98. Hazel was 48 years old in this picture. The expression on both our faces exemplifies our relationship over the years.

 

[sweetfrancaise]

All of you have such warm families! And the stories are fascinating!

Here is a photo of my great-grandparents, Ken and Ruth, in the early thirties (before they were married in 1932). Ruth taught in a one-room school house (her favorite subject was French) and met Ken at a school dance. Their friends almost had to force Ruth to dance with Ken (she said that he had a "mean look" to him), but once they got to talking, they fell hard for each other. They had one son, my grandpa, and ranched in Montana until the sixties when they moved to Los Angeles and started running motels. Papa Ken was one of the wittiest, kindest, common-sense smartest men I've known (between him and my Dad, the standards are sky-high!).

The ancestor I would like to have met the most, however, is my great-aunt Eleanor, who never married but went to college and traveled the world. What courage and sense of self-awareness, especially for her time!

 

[Big Man]

...Here is a photo of my great-grandparents, Ken and Ruth, in the early thirties ...

That is one great photo.