Show off your parents (or relatives!)

[Trevira]

Fantastic! I just knew there'd be some treasures but I'm overwhelmed!

Starting at the top: Love the camping shot, Marie, especially that cute dog getting all the attention!

Lizzie - how great that you use a photograph of your parents as your avatar! Both pictures have such a flavour of their time.

Maggie - you're so lucky to have family photographs going back to the 1860s (that extraordinary portrait, that hat!). And I love your mother's shoes with that wide ankle strap. Jen is right - you haven't changed a bit!

Jen - another example of family photographs gracing members' pages. I love the idea that your family can be 'involved' in a sense, in your work. You have such good looking parents!

This is the best fun! :bouncy:

 

[themerchantsofvintage]

What a great thread! Great photographs everyone.

This is my paternal English grandmother Elsie. The picture was taken sometime between 1917 and 1921 (the year she came to Canada pregnant
with my dad):



My husband's grandparents wedding in the teens (guess who ran the show in that relationship!):



My parents wedding in Utretch, Holland - September 1947. During those years, they were nicknamed Red (because my dad had red hair) and Blackie (because my mom had very olive skin):



And me with my son - budda baby Danel - doing a retro-type photo - November 1978. Although you can't tell in the photograph, Danel is wearing a Pierre Cardin jumper with his signature "P" at the bottom of each foot:

 

[sues*stuff]

I've got lots more, but here's a couple to start out with:

My great grandparents

My grandparents

Sue

 

[Trevira]

Deborah - what a lovely selection.

You can read so much into your husband's grandparent's wedding photograph - her pose is pretty 'masculine' for the time, and he looks shellshocked (bless him!)

Fabulous retro style photograph of you and Daniel too. Your hair is gorgeous :drool:

Sue - what a mesmerising photograph of your grandparents - they both have such amazing figures. I've never looked like that in a swimsuit :(

 

[Trevira]

Here's an update on mum. You saw her in 1968 at the top, here she is in 2007, as featured in Good Housekeeping (UK) earlier this year:



If you want a closer look (and to read the text) you can see it here [edit: link now fixed]

 

[themerchantsofvintage]

Now that is one HOT mama!!! Very cool! Looks like she inherited great taste and fashion sense from her mama.

My husband's grandmother was quite a woman - the town's mid-wife (mid-wived 75 babies in her lifetime), mortician and part doctor (when none could be had) during the dirty 30s in a small town in New Brunswick. I don't have a copy of the picture taken about 5 years later showing the both of them in front of their one room shack in the woods with 2 toddlers and a baby in her arms - she had a brood of 13 by the end.

 

[pauline]

Ok My turn, we do not have many very old photos pre 1946 here two.
I also put up some on my mother from age 16 into her 30's they show her wearing some of the style of the time.
My Mum die many years ago she was a great mother and I have many lovely memories what you expect.
I think now how nice if we could have talked about past fashions, I remember going into her bed room whist she was clearing out her wardrobe, all 70's and 80's fashions nothing what i say remarkable apart on the pile to go was a par of very sheer nylon seamed stocking in black.
I remember that now because i cannot every remember her wearing black hosiery at all, American tan and a paler shade all the time.
Another time just before she passed on she cam up to me all dressed up (her and dad wear going out to a business function) about 1977 wearing a pale pink dress, i did say how nice she looked, thanking me for that complement she added look I wearing matching tights as I said very unusually that she worn anything than American Tan.
very strange thing to say to her son then , I now think she had a inkling into my interest in fashions. Mothers are very wise I think.
Grammar and Granddad wedding 1920's

My Great Uncle Herbert taken just before he went into WW1

My Mother from 1949 to 1967

Wearing CC41 clothes or rationed ones

A mini dress oh Mother did not know you worn those fashions

I put detail of each photo on my web site here and larger photos of each one http://www.vintage-lady.co.uk/familly/

 

[TheVintagePeddler]

I would love to look at the article on your mom but the link says it is private.

 

[cmpollack]

:wow::wow::wow:

This amazing thread just keeps getting better and better!

In addition to the fun of meeting all your illustrious ancestors (and smiling over the striking family resemblances in some of them--you know who you are!), it is just wonderful to have dated photos from such a wide range of periods to study. I am loading my printer up with paper and printing this one out--an invaluable resource as well as a VFG family photo album!

A couple of requests:

1) Jen, please do print photos of your dad in his Vitalis ad mode! (And there's one incredibly tantalizing description of a photo that isn't actually posted--could you tweak the code, perhaps, so it can be drooled over?)

2) Sarah--like Marie, I'd love to see the article about your mom but am unable to link to it (and wow, I can see why you're an aficionado of vintage/fashion--what an inspiration she must have been to you!) And thanks so much for kicking off this thread!

 

[Trevira]

Apologies for the duff link everyone! This one should work now.

Thanks Deborah My great aunt May was a midwife too! She delivered lots of babies but somehow never had any of her own.

Paul - fabulous! Looks like your mum worked at Pontins - I'm sure that's the uniform!

Carrie - I totally agree. Its not just fun, its educational as well! And you're right, mum was and still is a total inspiration to me.

 

[emmapeelpants]

I know she'd hate me for this but I think she looked fab!

Mum doing her mod 'thing', probably about '65...just pre-mini

My mum and dad at someone else's wedding...probably '68-'69ish

She never kept any of her Sixties clothes though, and I'm fairly certain my compulsive Biba/Ossie purchasing is making up for the sartorial inheritance I never had! ;)

Sadly I don't have any pics of my grandparents here, but I must scan some in soon ...

 

[Elsewhere]

Oh wow! Loved coming home to this thread -- I LOVE old photos and even more I love hearing about the people in them!

I really want to find and scan some 70's hippie pics of my mom! But in the meantime, here's some I already have handy.

Ok -- any help on this would be appreciated. Does this look like it could have been taken on the 30's? Because I *think* that the little girl on the right is my Granny (my mom's mom), who was born in... 1931?? If it's not her then it's her mother. Strong family resemblances make this difficult -- PLUS, they were very poor (yes -- that's a SHACK you see behind them!) dirt farmers in Oklahoma and hardly up to date on fashions for ANY time period. Yep -- I'm an Okie. And my Granny never let me forget it. Chased to California during the Dust Bowl.

Great Grandma & Grandpa -- 1920's. This is my mother's dad's parents. My GranPapa's family was much more "well to do" than my Granny's dirt farmer family.

And one more that seemed fun - this is my Great Grandma (same as in the 20's picture, above) with her children: my Aunt MaryLou and my GranPapa. Approx 1938 or 1939.

Really need to scan some more pics of my Granny & Mom!

 

[pauline]

Sarah
Paul - fabulous! Looks like your mum worked at Pontins - I'm sure that's the uniform!

Yes my Mum and Dad work there that year, it's very simular to the staff uniform but not provided by Pontins as there were not a direct employee but under contract for the season. I think she just had to wear white and a blue jacket.

 

[Hattysattic]

You're Patricia's daughter! How small is the world.. She wouldn't know my name but I started buying from her shop when I was about 12 and probably went in most weekends until she closed. I saw her at the vintage fair in Lincoln when I was selling and said hello as I was selling a victorian silk hanky I'd bought from her about 15 years previously! (and yes she is completely gorgeous)

Now I see where you got the bug! :D

I still haven't got stuff scanned but will do. I love seeing everyone else's relatives though, it's fascinating.

 

[hatfeathers]

Coming in late on this thread....I just used oodles of family photos as my graphics on my website redo. It was fun going through all the images and seeing what everyone looked like way back whenever.
You can get it at that link down there\/

Jenn

 

[Trevira]

I can't keep up with all these gems!

Emma - I love your mother's style. I'm trying to put my finger on who she reminds me of - she's a teensy bit Cathy McGowan but with a sweeter face!

Kristine - what an incredible photo of your great grandmother's family. The styles look pre-1WW to me, but as you point out, there can be a great time lag in fashion, especially if you're struggling to earn a living. I keep scrolling back to look at it.

Paul - thanks for the info. Mean old Pontins!

Harriet - yes! I'm so pleased you know mum! You might even have met me because I frequently worked in her shop (I was the one with short hair and my head in a book most of the time!) After mum closed up, her neighbour the antique dealer got fed up of distraught women pestering him about where 20th Century Frocks had gone and then bursting into tears!

Jenn - could you talk us through who's who? I'm particularly struck by the raving beauty who leads us to 20s/30s fashions (a bit Mary Astor with that dimpled chin), and the puppy-eyed sailor heading up the menswear is adorable!

 

[Elsewhere]

Exactly, Sarah -- hence my confusion! But, I forgot that I do have these two pics of my Granny. Thinking about it while looking at these, that pic in front of the shack above has to be of Granny's mom & siblings with their mother. Probably mid-teens, then. What a family resemblance...

As a child. Maybe aged 5?

Here's a later pic of my Granny circa 1953 with her first two children (she had 5! My Papa liked to tell me how he couldn't stay off her! LOL Too much information, Papa!)

 

[borntoolatevintage]

Late to the party as usual. Here are my paternal grandparents on their wedding day in NYC in the late 1920s:

My parents in 1957 when they met in San Antonio, Texas

My parents on their wedding day in July of 1958

My mom and I in April of 1962

 

[hatfeathers]

OK, on my site the pictures are all my relatives, with the exception of the logo gal, squidoo girls and the newsletter girl. The logo gal is a picture that has been with me for ages, I couldn't resist her devilish smile at an estate sale and she hopped in my basket.

My grandma is 16 in the womenswear pic, the online boutique and babylon links are her and my grandpa's wedding, the ebay link is her and her girlfriends (I met them all 2 years ago).

My maternal grandfather is the menswear pic and his brother and SIL are the 40s couple. My Mom represents the 70s/80s and the 60s, her cousin is the 50s girl.

My Irish (red haired) step-grandmother is 19 in the 20s/30s pic (she's still alive!) and my step-dad's great grandmother is the Vict/Edw pic.

The squidoo girls' picture was in my great uncle's stuff, along with a whole lot of army pictures and many many girlfriend's pics. He was a player!

 

[Trevira]

Kristine - your grandma looks so much like Oona Chaplin!

Thanks Viviene. What a gorgeous wedding dress - is that what you call ballerina length?

And thanks for the info Jenn.