CLEARING THE DUST OFF MY ANCESTORS

Today I decided to plunder through some old pictures on the top shelf of my closet.

It was time to start clearing the dust off my ancestors. Occasionally, on lazy afternoons, I enjoy looking at my ancestors and comparing the photos with information that my mother compiled from her genealogy research.

Some of the photographs are professional photos. Others are random snapshots of summer picnics,

a trip to a beach, hunting, or posing with a family pet. (Just kidding)

It’s a time to connect faces to names of those relatives I’ve never met, but have similar features.

WHO DO I LOOK LIKE?

I have my father’s dark brown eyes and my mother’s gentle smile. 

I have my father’s mother’s nose. (Thanks Gladys!) And we both have a fountain of gray hair that is predominately to one side in the front. She sported her gray hair proudly (See the picnic picture above), I on the other hand, take advantage of my talented Hairstylist to hide it.

Some of the photos span several generations. One family portrait is of my father and his older sister, Frances. When Aunt Frances came to visit one day she noticed it on display in the living room and commented that she remembered that picture being taken and that Daddy had a stick of bubble-gum in his hand. I looked closely and sure enough, he held a stick of gum. I’d never noticed that before.

Surely, his parents gave it to him so he would sit still. How else do you get a two year old to sit still for a photograph in the 1930s?

Oh, the stories these photographs can tell…and genealogy!

I’ve had a story brewing in my head for quite some time now. I have a distant uncle who was a sheriff in the 1800s in Georgia. He was ordered to hang a man whom he knew was innocent. He resigned from his position as sheriff and moved away because he refused to do it.

I have a picture of him! But that is to share later when I’m working on the story.

Pull out your old pictures. What stories do you see waiting to be told?

 

Zelle