Currently dealing with the houseguest from hell. Not much time to work on the photos. Scanned and e-mailed some photos out of an album to a woman whose father is pictured in some images. She might be able to help identify some of the other people pictured. In the meantime, enjoy these delightful hand-tinted portraits.
Back, but lazy. Have made some progress on some photos. This is an unidentified photo from my own family. We think they might be cousins, some of whom were killed in Auschwitz. Waiting to hear back from Hungarian cousins. On that depressing note, back with more soon.
Heading out of town for a few days. Back soon.
I don’t anticipate being able to track these little ladies down. Instead, I plan on donating this one to a musuem in Nome, Alaska when I move there next month.
Hit a wall with the project. I’ve attempted to make contact with around 10 people now involving a number of photos and albums. None of them appear to be interested. Two have responded but don’t seem to want the photos. I don’t understand why that is.
Pictures are important to me. The past is important to me. Growing up, my sister and I were shunned by our father’s side of the family. It wasn’t an active shunning, they just didn’t care or remember that we existed. My dad never told us much about them and he died when I was a teenager. There were no photos, no stories, nothing known except where they lived. Being “fool to fancy”, I spent years making up stories about them, trying to fill in the blanks the best way I knew how. Sometimes they were Irish Travellers, secretive and reclusive, shunning us for half-breeds. Sometimes they were German farmers, other times bootleggers originally from Kentucky. They were ex-Amish, they were inbred hillbillies, they were carnies, real-estate barons, factory workers, horse people… All I wanted were pictures to prove I was right about any of it.
Years later, I was able to trace my family tree. There actually were some German farmers in there, some Kentucky roots; mostly quiet, humble people. I even found some pictures of my great, great grandparents. It was exciting. It felt like it made me a complete, real person. I had ancestors and I could prove it.
On my mother’s side there are pictures. My grandma (pictured above) had a wonderful photo album with pictures from her childhood through her days as a grandmother. I treasure those photos. My grandma, in flesh and blood, was always my Gams, my Old Bag. She was an old lady, a loving grandmother, a silly old thing to be sure, but always so old. In her album, she is a troublemaking kid, a pretty teenager with a secret club full of girlfriends in matching sweaters - they all remained lifelong friends. She was a ham, an adventurer, a world-traveler, a bride, a mother, a friend to many. I am always so thankful to have known her through her photos.
I would go to such lengths to have more photos of her or the rest of my family. I don’t understand how photos are thrown away, sold, passed over. I don’t understand not caring about them. I hoped to return the photos to people who felt that same way I do. I’ve had some luck, with D from Utah, W from Texas, etc. For the most part though, people just don’t seem to care. What’s gone is gone and that’s an end to it. On that depressing note, off to try and find some more strangers to pester about these photos.
For three years I tried to track down the identity of the man and woman wearing uniforms. This week I finally found them. After a lot of false starts, incorrect trails, and frustration, I came into contact with their granddaughter, a nice woman living in Utah. She and I have corresponded and she’s given me some information about them. I was able to find more information on them through ancestry.com. What I can tell you is this:
Lee and L were born in the early 1890s. Lee was born in Oregon, his wife born in Washington. At some point, Lee moved to Washington and met L. They married in 1920 and began having children. They had at least 5 children, LV, Sterling, LA, M, and D. Girl, boy, boy, girl, girl. Only D is believed to still be alive. LV passed away recently, Sterling in the 80s, LA was killed in action, I believe in WWII, and M has passed away as well.
Sterling’s daughter provided me with this information. Sterling had polio as a child which accounts for his crooked smile in many of the pictures below. (He is the oldest son in the 20 Years, 10 Photos post).
One of the reasons it took so long to track down the family was that I had assumed they lived in Oregon and was basing my search on that. The pictures had come from a dealer in Oregon and I had traced others there. Also adding to the confusion was Lee’s appearance which changes drastically over the years. At some point, he put on a lot of weight, while at other times he was stick thin. Sometimes I wasn’t sure I was looking at the same man. His wife and eldest daughter’s weight also seemed to fluctuate as well. Of course the biggest hindrance to the search was that all I had to go off of was the name “Lee” and possibly a son named Sterling. Along the way there was a red herring postcard that sent me off looking for completely different names.
There is another woman who frequently appears in these photos. You see her standing all the way to the right in the photo above. She is the little blonde clinging to Lee. We don’t know who she is. My guess is she is Lee’s sister. I can tell from the photos that they were all very close. I hope to find out more about her. Sterling’s daughter is making inquiries of her own and will let me know if she finds out more. I’m so happy to be mailing her the photos. I asked her if I could hold onto a few pictures, as I have become so attached to the family over the years and she has graciously allowed me to keep a few.
Unknown, August 1940
