Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Instant Ancestors

BBBH dug out an old shoe box quite filled with old pictures.  A few of the photos had been labelled, most had not.  Beautiful has an excellent memory and she did a credible job identifying many of the snapshots, but some of the really ancient postcard mounts were beyond her ken.

As she called out names, I pencilled notes on the backs.  Occasionally I would find an unidentified character that I found interesting.  A probably not-too-productive activity for a hot summer afternoon, overall.

She did identify these three ladies as her aunts, sisters to her father.





This work crew reminded me of some highway department crews I have observed, less the horses and wagon, of course.

I remarked to her that the unidentified people should be placed in a separate box so that when she has her garage sale, (she is always "going to have a garage sale") she can vend them as "instant ancestors" to people who lack old-timey family photos and would like to have some!



Would you not just love to pass these charming children off as your
great-great grandparents?
















This fellow, frozen in time, may want cigarettes, or a chew.  Or perhaps he simply needs some ice.

10 comments:

Sharkbytes said...

Fun! Several of those poses are quite casual for the era they were taken.

Vee said...

Purchasing an "ancestor" is a great idea. I met a lady who purchased and framed old photos to make the decorating in her guest room look "Victorian." When asked who they were, she admitted she didn't know. It would have been much more interesting (and much less honest) had she made up relationships.

Shelly said...

I love these old pictures. And when my husband and I first got married, I enjoyed framing some of my old family pictures for one room. However, pictures from his side were in short supply. I found n instant ancestor pic that looks like him, and it is still there today. So many people have commented over the years about the family resemblance...

Secondary Roads said...

I "inherited" a large group of photos. Nobody is identified and no one to ask about them. Only know that they have some relation to my long-deceased maternal grandmother.

vanilla said...

Sharkey, for some reason I enjoy pawing through old pictures.

Vee, I guess the ancestral picture gallery may or may not be just that.

Shelly, that is funny; yet it is true, I think, that we all have, if not a double, at least a look-alike. (When someone tells me I "look like" so-and-so, I think, "Poor fella."

Chuck, I promised myself I would leave better notations than that for my progeny, but the task is daunting, and probably won't happen.

Grace said...

I don't need instant ancestors - there were photos of them all. Of all the unforgivable things my mother did, I think #2 on the list is throwing out boxes of photos - some went back to the very old days in the old country...Agghhh! My father's army photo albums...I get upset just thinking about it.

vanilla said...

Grace, and thus today's post is an unwelcome reminder of things you'd rather forget. Sorry.

Grace said...

I love old photos - even other peoples! (But yeah it just frosts my butt...Breathe Grace - let it go...)

Lin said...

Those are fabulous photos!! We have some old ones, but when you have a lot of kids in the family, that stack somehow gets shuffled around to everyone, so we don't have many.

vanilla said...

Grace, "let it go." I find these are useful words to live by.

Lin, we are happy to have possession of lots of old pictures. But I wonder sometimes how it is that, while we both grew up in what some would consider 'straitened' circumstances, there exist so many pictures. Did someone go without food to pay for film and processing? or a photographer? :-D