Friday, November 18, 2005

Photo ID

Aren't these great old photos? Isn't it wonderful that these images were captured for posterity, so all of us descendants could look upon the faces of our ancestors. Even if we did not get to meet them, we could at least see what they looked like, see if maybe we resemble them a little bit. They went to the trouble to get all dressed up and posed for these pictures. The pictures were passed down from generation to generation, everyone cherishing the images of past family. Now WE have those pictures, wow, these are some great looking folks!

So who are they? I don't know, I thought they were your folks. No, they came from your mom's house. Wait a minute, just who are these people in these photos who we found carefully preserved, packed away in boxes in the hall closet?

These photos and many, many more like them were discovered when going through and cleaning out belongings of Buddy's parents after their passing. There are no names or dates on the back of the photos. We have asked all remaining family members, but no one recognizes them. At the time we were sorting through all the stuff at the old home place of Buddy's family, my mother was still here, living next door. We told her of all the pictures which were unidentified. She promptly pulled out all of her pictures and organized them into albums with names and dates by each picture. This was an enormous feat that took her quite some time to complete, but an invaluable one to all of us left behind.

What to do with all these old unidentified pictures? Throw them away? Give/sell them to Cracker Barrel for their décor? Claim them as kin and make up neat stories about them?

We all have boxes of photos at home. We know who they are and when they were taken, but do our kids? Our grandkids? It is time to get out all those old pictures and label them before it is too late! Family stories are important to record, but "a picture is worth a 1000 words."

spring