Ramblings from Early Retirement

My Grandma B. died January 1, 1990. My dad and I packed up all the photos we found and he took them home to Albuquerque. There was a suitcase full of old photos. My dad had no idea who most of the people were and little interest in finding out.

My dad died in 1992 and it all came home with me. I barely knew any of my dad's cousins and the ones I did know were from Grandpa's side of the family. Most of the old photos are Grandma's family. So the photos have been sitting in boxes for 18 years.

Two months ago, I was contacted by Barb, a second cousin on Grandma's side of the family. She's working on a family history and had searched the internet for me. Other than fact checking on my teeny branch of the family, she was looking for a photo of our great grandparents.

"Barb, I have tons of old photos," I said, "but I have no idea who most of the people are."

I got the boxes and suitcase out of the closet and started looking at photos. I found a portrait of Great Uncle Scott and his wife that had his name on it. I found family reunion photos and guessed Grandma's other 2 siblings.

I scanned a few photos and sent them to Barb. Her dad confirmed my guesses. My grandma's 90 year old niece, Zalene, lives in a nursing home in Springfield, MO, the town my mom lives in. Barb and I met at Zalene's nursing home early this month and spent a couple of hours looking at pictures. There are a lot more left to go through. We put blue post it notes on the photos Barb wants me to scan for her. I have a lot of scanning to do.

Zalene was able to identify a lot of people, but not all. The photo in the lower right corner of the picture above is my great grandparents and their 4 children. Another picture taken at the same time has Zalene in it, so I estimate the family portrait was taken about 1919.

I've found a few pictures of Grandpa B.'s family and while I have an idea of who the people are, I'm fuzzy on the details. So this coming weekend, I'm heading to Mansfield, MO, about an hour east of Springfield. I'm going to visit two of Grandpa's nephews and I'm sure they can fill in some details.

Readers, label your photos so that future generations know who, what and when they are. The National Archives has recommendations on captioning your photos.

Grandma, thank you for keeping these photos. Yes, someone is interested in them, finally.

// posted by SusanBLuvsCrafts @ 8:52 PM