I'm going trolling through some of my ancestors, to see if any looked anything like these people! (not counting the dogs.)
Time to do a Sepia Saturday post again! Group of people (14 adults and one boy) and two dogs, one that looks like a wet rug. What on earth would match his strange photo. There's the interaction over on the left between a very angry looking man, and the woman turned toward him smiling...and the woman next to her also looking that direction, but not quite smiling.
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Ok, here is Joseph Gresham, 1844-1895, from Alabama. He married "Mamie" Swasey (Mary Ann) 1849-1883, who was my great-grandaunt. Well that's a new relationship to me, never having heard of the term grandaunt until quite recently...and here I have many of them apparently.
Mamie was the daughter of Alexander G. Swasey, 1812-1866, ship captain and the Confederate blockade runner who spent most of the Civil War in a Union prison in Boston Harbor. Capt. Swasey was my great-great grandfather.
Anyway, Joseph Gresham looks like he could have stepped into that group photo from Sepia Saturday.
Alexander John Swasey 1853-1913 was Mamie's little brother and my great grandfather. I don't see him being willing to join the group, since he's posing stiffly in a Bartlett Photo Studio in Galveston, TX.
His wife was Zulieka Granger Phillips Swasey 1858-1935, was my great great grandmother. She's also in a studio portrait.
But wait, there's another saved photo of my great great grandmother, known as "Dear Nan" by her family...here on a post card version of a candid pose.
Here she's holding Ada Mary, the only granddaughter born to my grandmother, after three boys. Unfortunately Ada Mary died very young, 1916-1919. But there is such joy in the smile given to that little baby in this picture, it is very precious. And my grandmother went on to give birth to two more boys, one of whom became my father.
I just realized this photo is the only picture I've ever seen of my great-grandmother Bette Bass Rogers 1860-1924 (on right) with her son, George E. Rogers, 1877-1960 (my grandfather) and his first son, Elmore, who was to die before adulthood, 1906-1916. Galveston TX.
But there was a family group photo also! I've been gradually getting myself ready for it. My grandfather George E. Rogers had a big birthday party (his 70th)...and many cousins came! This was at his home in Houston TX...and had to be held outside in August 1947! And I'm even in it, the little girl in second row leaning forward with chin on elbow, with curls thanks to home perms! But my grandmother and grandfather are on the far left in the back row. My mother is on far right in back row. And my father took the photo.
Today's quote:
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI tried working on my family's ancestry, but I got stuck around my great-grand parents.
I love the photos. The one man does look angry. Take care, have a great weekend.
Thanks for commenting, as I know you're busy with critters posts today! Hope you have a lovely weekend too!
DeleteNice group photo! I wanted to make it larger but when I clicked on it, it was smaller. I wondered about that flowered fabric in the front and then I realized the photographer (your father! ) didn't notice that chair when he took the photo. So many photos I have with bottles or dirty glasses still on the table.
ReplyDeleteI really like the postcard photo of the grandmother smiling at the little granddaughter. So sad she didn't live to grow up.
Yes, that Dear Nan photo is so precious. Dad was probably waiting to get everyone to look his way...and didn't notice the chair.
DeleteThat's quite a treasure trove.
ReplyDeleteOnce photography was around, many of my relatives got at least one taken in their lifetime.
DeleteI love the picture of Dear Nan and her granddaughter.
ReplyDeleteIt is more poignant knowing the granddaughter would die so young.
DeleteTreasured photos I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteI had actually never seen Minie's husband's portrait before, and there isn't one of her. I'm glad my great grandfather and great grandmother had theirs taken.
DeleteBarbara, I have quite a number of sepia photos myself...many from the 1930's up into the early 1950s plus a number of older ones with some from the 1800s. I'm sure that the oldest photos are of relatives or my grandmother and mother wouldn't have saved them...but a number of them are a mystery. I have no idea who they are... Every once in a while I peruse through these older photos and just try to imagine the family connection. Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
ReplyDeleteGreat to have them...does anyone in your cousins, grand aunts/uncles, etc have interest in the ancestry of your family? I know one blogger connected somehow with a far distant cousin who had a box of photos of her family...and they've both shared together what they had.
DeleteThat photo of Dear Nan - she must have been well-loved - is precious. And her clothes and hat are beautiful too. All treasures!
ReplyDeleteI agree, she must have been well loved. She only had two daughters, but many grandchildren!
DeleteThis is a fun thing to do - it refreshes your own memory and is a record of times and events and ways of thinking that the teens and tweens of today cannot even imagine. I enjoyed this. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteYes, this is quite different than what can be sent on social media!
DeleteThose are wonderful.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteA nice selection of photographs to tie into the prompt. The first person I really noticed in the prompt was the woman on the right end of the front row - the one turned slightly sideways as if she were trying to keep the hem of her skirt away from the head of the dog lying down in front of her. She does seem to be a bit concerned. :) Emily Dickinson's lovely words have been put to music in a beautiful choral piece which I have sung.
ReplyDeleteOH I didn't know that Dickenson poem was put to music! That is super.
DeleteZulieka looks lovely. Did she have a nickname?
ReplyDeleteYes, she was Dear Nan.
DeleteIt’s great not only having these photos, Barbara, but knowing about your family history too. I did some genealogy sleuthing a few years ago, but ran into dead ends. All the family members who could be of help are sadly gone now. The handful of cousins who remain are not interested, so it became a dead end. Thanks for sharing your family background. Old portrait photos always turn up in shops and I always enjoy looking through them.
ReplyDeleteI found many links through Ancestry's other members...though some of them led me astray. Have to find documentation for knowing things for sure.
DeleteAll wonderful photos but the last one is a perfect match for our Sepia theme. And in contrast to so many of my photos, yours has a date, place, and names! I wonder if those people in our theme image were so lucky.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good question. I spoke of facial recognition programs that authorities apparently use all the time these days (in another comment) and wonder what those programs would come up with when looking at these older photos! Probably burn their little circuits!
DeleteI love looking at old photos and wondering the stories behind them and who in fact they are. Your first photo is so interesting...one really wonders the story behind it. Enjoy your week, happy birthday and thank you for visiting my blog this week.
ReplyDelete