Old Family Photos

    I recently was given this a old family portrait. The man in the oval frame is my great great grandfather on my father, father, mother's side. He was born in 1879 and died in 1954 and probably was only a few years older then I am now when he had this portrait done. In looking at this picture I can help but see my own eyes looking back at me. In addition to the portrait that will one day hang on the wall in my study I also got three albums of scrapbooks my great grandmother had made.

    What is also amazing is that I see her handwriting on every photo that she labeled with when it was takes, who was in it, and a lot of the time even where it was taken. She had saved photos of her childhood photos growing up with her parents and siblings. She has photos of herself with a women that was her great grandmother, my great great great great grandmother. This women come to the US in 1844 with her family after her mother had died. On the ship over she meet the man she would marry at St. Patricks Cathedral in NYC in 1845. By searching deeper online I was able to learn that this woman's father, my great great great great great grandfather, and I share a name although because of the language different it is spelled differently.

    Thanks to this book I can look back and see my great grandmother at  her high school graduation and see how her life progressed on to college and getting a degree in nursing. There are sadly missing photos where I can see something had once been pasted in place, my guess is that the missing photos are of my great grandparents wedding. But yet there are still some photons of a young newlyweds couple hanging out with friends.

    If I jump ahead seven year I see her and her husband holding their first child, who would end up becoming my grandfather. There are so many photos of him as a infant just like we would do today with baby's from one month up to the age of two all label and not missing one month; in fact there are some half months in the series which is amazing to see from 1937. Some even are hand colorized like they use to do.

    There are a few of my grandfather with the woman who was my great great great great grandmother as a infant. There are those classic first moments of life moments of my grandfather captured a picture, I love the one of him dressed in his first Halloween costume. She had saved Christmas card from family and friends. There are pictures of documenting family trips from just days at the beach to a visit to the state capital with my grandfather as a teenager leaning against a lamppost with his brother, sister, and aunt.

    I always thought I looked more like my mothers fraternal side but with getting to see all theres photos I can see myself in the faces of my ancestors.

Yours truly,
Nicklas