Unknown Family Photos

[Lena_Horne]

I was doing a casual search on Google while working on a wallpaper when I came across a collection of anonymous old family photographs on RootsWeb. I just thought that they would be interesting to share. It's also a little sad to note that these photographs--once so treasured--have simply slipped into history:

L_H

 

[whistlebait]

It is, but thank you for sharing them with us.

 

[John in Covina]

Lost history -gotta make notes while you can.

Many people don't realize how fast the information is lost. Mom has a small cigar box with photos of relatives on my dad's side of the family, many cousins and great uncles and aunts, that no one here in the US has a clear idea as to who the heck these people are at all. I got a fair number of ordained ministers wearing those wild accordian folded collars that marks the office of the ministry.

There is a picture of my dad during or just after WWII while in the army has taken leave to visit relatives in his old home town of Molde in Norway. He has been elected to assist cleaning out the outhouse. He's got a big shovel full and he's holding it under his nose and has a hilarious facial expression like he's smelling it and it is the sweet small of success. I am sure the garden grew well that year. Skoal!

 

[Lena_Horne]

What pains me most (these for the most part I think, are from Texas) is that these are families with faces and mannerisms and shared events just completely silenced by time. In the days of old people didn't have the advantage of the camera. Then they did and lo and behold, it's all for naught.

I'm probably going to drive my children nuts with all of the photos I intend to snap.

L_H

 

[Sefton]

There is a bit of sadness to finding old photos...I always wonder who these people were and how is it that no one remembers them or cares anymore. The pictures get thrown away... At least untill someone finds them again. Thanks for the interesting pictures. Below are some that found in shop. I got the lot for about $3.

Is this the long lost relative of WildRoot?:

and last my favorite. This one has written in pencil on the lower border:
In Forest Park 2-1930

 

[Dick Tracy]

Some nice hats in those old pics. There's so much history captured in a moments time. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

That pic with the men wearing jodhpurs is great. I have a pic of my grandfather wearing that exact same look. It must have been popular at the time for "outdoors" activities like camping and the like. The bow-tie in that pic also adds a nice touch.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I sympathize with you. But let me play devil's advocate for a moment.

How far back are we supposed to "remember" our ancestors? Especially those who died before we were even born? Part of leaving this life is being forgotten eventually. I wouldn't hold onto a photo of an unknown, long-dead relative unless I liked the look of it.

[The devil's advocate rests his case.]

 

[Wild Root]

Yep.

That looks so cool! That man sure does have my taste. Those are such great hats and SUITS! Just the average three piece suit is really nice to see it in it's natural habitat.

This photo, I would say is a long lost family member...

I'd also like to mention that most of them are from the early 30's. Don't see to many hats with crown bashes. That was popular in the early 30's and it offered a very clean cut look.

Great photos all around! I love them all!

=WR=

 

[Miss Neecerie]

That looks so cool! That man sure does have my taste. Those are such great hats and SUITS! Just the average three piece suit is really nice to see it in it's natural habitat.

This photo, I would say is a long lost family member...

*giggles at the idea that the natural environment for an average three piece suit is by the side of a snowy mountain path*

Sorry WR, but I just couldn't resist saying that.

 

[Wild Root]

Oh, you're funny.

Hahaha, I see what you mean but, by the term "Natural Habitat" I meant the year it was new.

Now that I look at it, it is rather funny.

=WR=

 

[Lena_Horne]

I suppose for me, the sentimentality involved in finding long lost photos is that they remind me of the fact that I barely know anything about my family. My biological grandfather has never been involved with our family, I don't even know (or have a way of knowing for the most part) who my own relatives are beyond my great-grandparents, and even then... I couldn't tell you any of my family's country(ies) of origin because they were originally slaves in the South and you know how that goes. My maternal grandfather's birthday was even a bit of a mystery because record keeping in the Old South was... below par in some respects. I am thus a mystery. So when I see people with no idea of where they come from and who have the option of changing that, I get a little bitter or even jealous.

L_H

 

[Trickeration]

I sympathize with you. But let me play devil's advocate for a moment.

How far back are we supposed to "remember" our ancestors? Especially those who died before we were even born? Part of leaving this life is being forgotten eventually. I wouldn't hold onto a photo of an unknown, long-dead relative unless I liked the look of it.

[The devil's advocate rests his case.]

Okay my turn. I don't think it's that we're supposed to just 'remember' who they are. I think it's that we should be close enough with our parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles that we talk of family often, look at those pictures and know them 'like family'. It should be our 'job' as a members of the family to carry on the stories and history, and pass it on to our kids.

Nowadays, I think we just don't have time to sit down and learn about our family history, it's weird to hang out with the old folks, it's embarrassing to to be caught studying geneology (an old people's hobby) and so on. But it's not just history, it's who we are, our foundation. Some of what you great grandparents did, how they lived, and their fears, were passed onto their kids and explain how and why they were who they were. Your parents, who were raised by them, do or respond to some things based on how they were raised, and you surely have traits and responses that are directly connected to how you were raised. When I sit down and think about habits and things that remind me of my mom, either "mom does that so I do this because..." or I'm cautious here "because she was", they're usually things she picked up from her mom, and so on. When you start looking and tying things together, it's amazing what you find.

I guess this is a close subject for me, because just last week I got an old suitcase of my granmother's photos. Monday night I spent almost 4 hours going through the pictures and sorting them as best I could without knowing who half of the people are. So, I sorted by decade. The 1950's and up were easy, and I got a kick out of stuff like my aunt with a beehive hair-do. But the 40's back to about 1905 were harder. I'd never met anyone farther back or other than, my grandmother. And she had 10 brothers and sisters. However, I did have a picture of them all from the day they landed at Ellis Island and a later one with all of the same people with their names underneath. And I'd started working on a family tree some time ago. So I was able to put a lot of names with faces, by looking at clothes, guessing ages, and looking closely at faces. And some of the photos did have writing on the backs, so that helped filling some gaps as well. In fact. I even found the name to the "possible other brother" of my grandmother that I'd been looking for. And after a while, the faces became more familiar. At first, they were strangers with familiar features. Now many have names, and I know where they sit in the family tree.

Anyway, I've always had a strong feeling for those un-named people in the pictures you find at a swap meet or vintage shop. They were most likely gotten rid of by a younger relative who, because the faces were nameless, just thought of them as junk. They got rid of their own history. I look at it this way. If I know, for example, who plays "In The Mood" and what he looks like, why shouldn't I know one of my own relatives, who's photo was taken at the same time? It wasn't that long ago. Or what about all the history of our country that we carry around in our heads. It goes even farther back, and is passed on by writing and teaching.

That Ellis Island photo I mentioned earlier has an "unknown family" story to it. My grandmother came hear as a baby, arriving from England in 1908. A picture of the family was taken at Ellis Island, and eventually hung as a 6 foot display in the Ellis Island Museum with the caption "An Unknown English Family". It was discovered by my mom's cousin on a trip to the island to do some family history research. She had enough of her own pictures and information to give the museum and the caption now bears our family's name. It's no longer an "unknown family photo"

Lena_Horne
My grandfather on my mom's side was also never around, and my dad and his family severed contact shortly after he married my mom. Plus his mother was a bit shady and her history was vague even when my mom knew her. There are no pictures or history for his side for me. Just a couple of "possible names". So I know how you feel. My dad's whole family is a big mystery. My husband has his family traced back to the Mayflower, has diaries, documents, all kinds of stuff, and I have just a few pictures in an old suitcase. Sometimes it bugs me like crazy. But I keep plugging along and I write down every little piece of information I find. I got a book called "Unpuzzling Your Past" for next to nothing at a bookstore (geneology isn't exactly a best seller) and it has all kinds of charts you can fill out. It helped so much just getting everything on paper. And the Mormon chuch geneology libraries seem to have records for just about everybody, Mormon or not. I wish you luck in tracing your history.

An unknown family member from my suitcase, and the Ellis Island photo. Grandma is the baby.

 

[John in Covina]

I sympathize with you. But let me play devil's advocate for a moment. How far back are we supposed to "remember" our ancestors? Especially those who died before we were even born? Part of leaving this life is being forgotten eventually. I wouldn't hold onto a photo of an unknown, long-dead relative unless I liked the look of it. [The devil's advocate rests his case.]

*****
In that case you lose all connection. Actually you sever your connections. Who knows maybe one of those pictures will help prove you are the last remaining relative of the Smith family of the Redding Smiths that made their fortune in Lard. Now you've lost out on your inheritence! Or maybe a cousin needs a kidney transplant.

For me there is a chance that I may visit my relatives in Norway and Denmark in which case I will bring the photos to see if anyone can give me a clue. There is also the chance cousins may show up here and have insights on who these people are, or it may help out someone trying to do geneology research.

I guess we need to put notes on those photos, like date, event, who it is and where it is, maybe what the heck they are doing. PLUS Doesn't not knowing the past doom us to repeating it?

 

[Novella]

Family history is one of my favorite things! Trickeration, you said everything perfectly. I did the whole sorting old family photos with people I can't name thing too. When I visited my Grandma over Christmas she let me go through my Grandpa's pictures (he passed away nearly 20 years ago). It was so exciting to see dozens of photos, although most were unlabeled. As I went through them I had my Grandma label the ones she knew though. He also had a scrapbook which she let me take that he had kept while he was in the Navy in the 1950s serving in the Philippines. I'm eventually going to organize and scan everything in, but it's tough as I'm in college and feel like I'm constantly bouncing all over the place.

 

[Lena_Horne]

I very nearly shot to the moon when I found my paternal grandfather's (not biological) old snapshot book from his time stationed in the army during the 1950s. He didn't go overseas or anything but it was chock full of photos of his and my grandmother's old friends. I'm led to believe he was a little bit of a ladies man since there were quite a few girls. There was even an invitation to a dance that he'd missed in there as well as pictures of my father as a little boy. I like to look at it whenever I visit.

L_H

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Wow, Mr. Root,...that pic,....

That looks so cool! That man sure does have my taste. Those are such great hats and SUITS! Just the average three piece suit is really nice to see it in it's natural habitat.

This photo, I would say is a long lost family member...



=WR=

...could have been you in a former life! Bears an uncanny resemblance. Even the hat looks the same. :cheers1:

 

[Wild Root]

Past life...

Thanks for the compliment! I'm not a "reincarnation" believer but, I do believe that (dare I say it) our creator made such a vast amount of facial features that there's bound to be a few re-peats in life.

About the hat... very typical short brim tall crown early 30's fedora. I would say it's identical to the one I've posted in the hat room. I love to see photos of people wear hats that are very much the same as some of my collection.

Helps give a rough estimate date to the item. I've dated that hat to be from around 1929 or 1930 so, I feel I made an accurate guess.:cheers1:

=WR=

 

[Lena_Horne]

It's nice to hang out in this neck of the woods and see your avatar again Root.

That said, I found a nice little site devoted entirely to old photographs that have been forgotten and found. It's gorgeous and makes me wish I had more of an idea about where these pics had come from:

http://www.moderna.org/lookatme/

(This was one of my favorites)

L_H

 

[Lena_Horne]

More of my favorites from the above site:

L_H