My Favorite Ancestor Photo

[Adele]

Honestly, between this thread and the other one dedicated to family photos, all I can do is smile and say "aww". I can't look at them for too long though, or I'll get happy tears.

I don't have any to contribute, unfortunately.

 

[Big Man]

One more that I think expresses the bond between my "Maw" and me. This was taken about 1958 or 1959. I believe this is my "one favorite" photo.

 

[MrNewportCustom]

My favorite is this one of my parents holding my older brother. Mark was born fifty-one years ago today, December 30. Yes, he was born with a lot of hair (he still has it thinned when he goes to the barber), and my mother told me that, while she was in the hospital (through New Year's day), every time the nurses brought him to her, his hair was combed differently. My mother remembers this picture being taken in either March or April of 1956.

Photography was my uncle Charles' hobby (my father's brother), and he made this double exposure in the camera, not the darkroom. He'd covered one side of the lens, recocked the shutter and covered the other side. If you look at the wall above the wedding picture, you can see that it's lighter from a little extra exposure.


Lee

 

[imoldfashioned]

I love this photo Lee--your Mom looks so sweet in all the pictures you've posted of her.

This is a little off topic but the tiles in that fireplace look really interesting--was that house from the arts and crafts era?

 

[dandelion-vint]

This is one of my favorites. My grandpop and my Dad, in front of the used car lot, looking at Fords I'm sure (both of them only drove Fords) Cars are a big deal in our family so that's why it's a cool photo for me, I can trace back to where the car-love started!
My grandpop was the kindest, calmest man and my Dad is the best there is. It's not a very clear photo, but I love grandpop's hat. Pretty cool for a poor NJ farmer.

 

[Big Man]

That's a really good picture that says a lot. Thanks for sharing. I remember going car shopping with my Dad when I was little. It really made me feel special to think that I "helped" to pick out the new family car. My dad was an Oldsmobile man. He liked that big 98 Olds.

This is one of my favorites. My grandpop and my Dad, in front of the used car lot, looking at Fords I'm sure (both of them only drove Fords) Cars are a big deal in our family so that's why it's a cool photo for me, I can trace back to where the car-love started!
My grandpop was the kindest, calmest man and my Dad is the best there is. It's not a very clear photo, but I love grandpop's hat. Pretty cool for a poor NJ farmer.

 

[MrNewportCustom]

I love this photo Lee--your Mom looks so sweet in all the pictures you've posted of her.

This is a little off topic but the tiles in that fireplace look really interesting--was that house from the arts and crafts era?

Thank you. My mother is one of the sweetest people you could meet. (No, folks, I'm not trying to start a "My Mother is Sweeter Than Your Mother" fracas! ) Just got home from dinner with her and a few other family members, and a future family member, mere moments ago. I love her dearly.

I'm guessing the house probably was. Although I do know that the house was (and may still be) in Highland Park, near Pasadena, Ca.


Lee

 

[MrNewportCustom]

This is one of my favorites. My grandpop and my Dad, in front of the used car lot, looking at Fords I'm sure (both of them only drove Fords) Cars are a big deal in our family so that's why it's a cool photo for me, I can trace back to where the car-love started!
My grandpop was the kindest, calmest man and my Dad is the best there is. It's not a very clear photo, but I love grandpop's hat. Pretty cool for a poor NJ farmer.

That looks like a fine coat, too. They must be die-hard Ford men, since they're completely ignoring the Packard immediately behind them.


Lee

 

[Lady Day]

Ive posted these before, but here is my grandmother for her high school graduation picture in 1938!

Here is her diploma.

I have her high school diploma, my mother's and mine all shadow boxed hanging in my apartment. I stare at them whenever I need inspiration.

LD

 

[sweetfrancaise]

Lady Day, your grandmother was a gorgeous lady--that photo just beams with pride and intelligence.

 

[Brinybay]

.
Is there one photo -- and only one -- that really captures the spirit of your grandma, grandpa, or any other relative from the past? A picture that you'd show to your descendants and say, "That's your great-grandma in a nutshell"?

Interesting thread, mind if I revive it? I posted this picture in the "Vintage Family Photos" area, but I want to include it here also:

My Dad's parents, William "Joe" (1878-1960) and Lucy Goebel (1883-1970). Grandpa did many things for a living, mostly farming and logging. Grandpa was born in Spearville, Kansas, and Grandma Lucy was born in Battleground, Washington. They met while she was a cook at a logging camp.

This was obviously taken during a hunting trip. Note that Grandpa has an apron on and appears to be wiping off a plate. Fresh venison for lunch, no doubt. Grandma is holding something in her left hand, but I can't tell what it is. I don't know where this picture was taken, but the family was in eastern Washington at the time, in or around Yakima. Another clue is there are no trees in the background. (Eastern Washington is very dry and almost dessert-like, while Western Washington has all the rain and evergreens).

Dad was the youngest of 9 kids, and there was an 18 year difference between him and the oldest, my Aunt Sophie. Consequently, my only memories of my Dad's parents are when they were elderly, and Grandpa had been paralyzed on one side from a stroke. But that didn't stop him from having a garden. My mother said he had a very nice garden and in spite of being partially paralyzed, would use a small 3-legged stool to sit on while he tended his garden. Also didn't stop him from chewing Copenhagen tobacco. To this day the smell of it reminds me of him.

Other stories were that he was ornery as hell. He killed one of their dogs once for chasing the cows and knocked his boss out cold with a shovel once for giving him a hard time when he had a job "knocking over outhouses", whatever that entailed. My Aunt Sophie told me that she used to go with Grandma to meet him after work when the family had moved to Issaquah, which is east of Seattle. He was working in a logging camp. Back then the loggers had a small wooden pail called a "beer bucket". It would contain their lunch during the day, then after work they would have it filled with beer. As my Aunt and Grandmother went to meet him, two men tried to mug him for his beer bucket (now filled with beer). Aunt Sophie said there was "beer and blood all over the place".

I didn't hear much about Grandma Lucy, she was bedridden by the time I was in my early teens, so my memories of her are also vague. I was told she was a big fan of the old "I Love Lucy" TV show (for obvious reasons) and she loved to watch wrestling on TV. (So did my Dad, now I know why).

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

Linas Crippen

Here's one of my paternal great, grandfather, Linas Crippen. I have lots more ancester photos and documents - will post some on other Family Photo thread. All the best!

 

[Ada Veen]

These are lovely. Lady Day, your gran is just gorgeous and looking at that photo of Big Man and his maw nearly made me cry!

 

[Warbaby]

This is a photo of my grandmother, taken by my grandfather around 1915:

 

[Mojito]

HarpPlayerGene, if only all photos were that clearly labelled and informative! There's nothing more frustrating then a box of unidentified family photographs that we can assume are somehow related, but aren't immediately recognisable. I found a lovely carte de viste in my grandfather's loose photographs, c. 1880s, but from a Massachusets photographer. We know that most of my maternal great-grandfather's Irish family emigrated to the US (he was the only one to come Australia), and we know that there was some contact afterwards, but have long since lost the connection. We believe the photograph is probably from the American branch of the family, but beyond that...

Warbaby, what an amazing photograph! Beautifully evocative, and so technically perfect.

 

[Warbaby]

My grandfather took some really beautiful photographs. He was also a painter, a violin maker, and held down a day job as a newspaper reporter.

Here's another of his photos of my grandmother: