Meet the family

denisebrain

denisebrain

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VFG Past President
I have inherited a treasure trove of old family photos. Most are from my father's family, a family which arrived in the US from Wales in 1685. There are photos going back to 1850, of my great great grandfather, a Delaware state senator. My family has long generations, with my grandparents born between 1868 and 1890 and my parents born in 1908 and 1920.

I collaged some photos of my grandmothers, my great-grandmothers, my mother, my aunts and cousins for International Women's Day. There are at least a thousand photos...it's hard to know where to start!

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WOW!!! How wonderful! I love this sort of thing. How lucky you are to have these images!
 
I have IDs on many people, partly because they were very carefully labeled in their time (even if sometimes with nicknames and other things that defy posterity). One of the people pictured, my cousin Nancy, is still living at age 83, and she remembers a number of people so I get help from her.
 
These are so wonderful, and I'm glad they now reside safely with you. Those girls in their bloomers!

Please talk with Cousin Nancy as soon as you can. I inherited a box of photos several years ago and they sat untouched until one day I decided to take them to my grandmother for help with identifying. At 87 she was still of sound mind and fair health, and we spent the afternoon going through the photos, her telling the best stories about some of them. Seriously, that afternoon was one of the best of my life, perhaps because Mamaw died in her sleep the very next day. It was a real lesson about not putting things of this nature off!
 
What an amazing story Lizzie! And a profound cautionary tale.

I have hired my unemployed photographer friend to scan all these photos and he is doing a beautiful job, including all the inscriptions. (He's also the guy I've hired to shoot the photos of fabrics for the fabric resource...he's meticulous.) That means these are preserved on DVD and I can work with the photos, including sending them via DVD copies to Cousin Nancy and other interested souls. There are still boatloads left to do, but I started with the older ones.

I know I'm skewed by having a vested interested in these photos, but I do think they are a rare thing. My family was really into photography and took lots and lots of casual lifestyle shots as well as the usual formal types. The subjects include very adventuresome travel, experimental photography, famous events, floods, fires and blizzards, school, teenagers (photographed by teens), family outings, and of course fashion!

I mean...isn't this fascinating? My great aunt and friends on an outing up the St. Lawrence. My friend has researched all the sights they photographed and so I even know the types of boats and lighthouses, the points of reference along the way.

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My cousin Nancy is really into genealogy and has furthered the family records. Only problem is, she's dyslexic (as am I). I was born in 1690 according to her records, making me remarkably well-preserved! :hysterical:
 
Maggie, we may be cousins......how funny that you have Watkins in your family. My cousin has been doing some research on that part of our family and she had her brother do a swab for the gene test that the Smithsonian Institute does. Another Watkins on Ancestry.com was trying to see if she was kin to our Watkins and suggested this test. It has to be a male who swabs and Jeanne, my cousin has a brother, Mike, who agreed to do the test. It was so funny to hear my cousin telling me about the results. She was extremely puzzled by what she was reading. She said she was not expecting to hear that some of our genetics showed a connection to Italy, but she knew we all had always loved Italian food and maybe that was why! She was expecting to see that we had roots in the British Isles. I was quick to remind her of who invaded those Isles.....The Romans!!! Your photos are wonderful....please keep sharing and I would love to hear more about your Watkins! My Grandfather, Arthur Watkins was born on March 23, 1876 and like you, I had grandparents and one parent who were born many moons ago(my Father, Robert Watkins born January 3, 1912) in Poquoson, Virginia which dates from 1631 and was inhabited by mostly people who came from the British Isles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poquoson,_Virginia

It's a small world, Maggie....I knew you looked Welch!
 
Thanks so much for sharing these with all of us! I don't find much time for surfing around the VFG site, but am glad I happened upon your photos.

I looooove looking at old photos. I think it's interesting that your family was really into photography and that you are, too. Our family also were avid amateur photogs, especially my mother, who shot boxes full of home movie 8mm/Super8 footage which I am now the archivist of. Over the years, I have spliced the original film onto larger reels, had it transferred to video; then DVD -- it is great to be able to see the 18 year span of footage as we two girls grew up and all our travels around the US in our camper with our dog & cat, not to mention Grandpa, Grandma and others who have since passed on, anytime by just popping a disc into a player.

Keep up the good work!
 
These are wonderful. I have a photos of my father's family taken from a few years before he was born on up (including a baby photo of him on a bear rug!) and a few of my mother's childhood, school days and early adulthood as well. One time when my father was visiting, I asked him to identify some of the people in the photos but there are a number of early ones with people I cannot identify. He was born in 1915 and passed away (in 2006). I don't have anything like 1000's but I do have some which is very special.

Linn
 
Laurie, my father was an avid single-then-super 8 filmmaker and then I made fairly long movies in high school (thought about going into filmmaking). I have put together some early footage from my father's work, and it really is an amazing joy to see the people you know only from still photos in action.

Thanks for bringing this back up Linn and Laurie. I am glad you both have some wonderful photos and film to keep memories alive!
 
Fabulous images! Love the two women in knickers, and the Red Cross decorated auto, and we may be related too! Most of my family are farmers who came to the U.S. or Canada in the late 19th century, but one branch came from Wales to Massachusetts in 1636 - beat you!
 
Whoa, that's good and early Jonathan!

I'm very fond of the one with the girls in knickers. My aunt (one of the girls) won a Model T as a young woman, and she was the only one in her family with a car at that time. She became a brave adventurer in that car, going on trips solo as well as with her friends.

Here is another photo that is pretty fun, friends of my aunt's hamming it up:

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