Our grandparents lived in the small town of Morehouse, Missouri, in the same house our father grew up in. It wouldn’t have been summer without a week or two at Granny and Poppy’s house, with the back yard which seemed huge to us, and the windows of that house without air conditioning thrown up at […]
Growing up, I would always document and record events that seemed meaningful. I shot hundreds of blurry pictures and recorded hours of news footage onto VHS tapes. Over the years, I have collected drawers full of old newspapers, notes, videotapes, and photos. I documented everything so that long after the event passed, I would have […]
Warm tears wound down my cheeks. I don’t remember. I can’t remember. It was bedtime with my daughter. The usual hugs, kisses, cuddles and songs weren’t enough tonight. She started asking about Great Grandma Cannon, who passed away eight years before my daughter was born. What did she look like? Like a 1940s movie star, with […]
My mother has been downsizing for years. The family photographs made the trip from Pennsylvania to Florida in the early 1990s. Then they moved from the big condo to a smaller Independent living apartment. Every time I visited, Mom would say there were lots of photographs I needed to look at and start taking back […]
How many memories deserve to be saved and shared? Thousands of priceless family artifacts are hidden in attics and basements. From family snapshots to rare documents like birth certificates and marriage records, these artifacts are waiting to be discovered. As part of our RootsTech Profile Series, we’re sharing stories of families who collaborated with innovative […]
Villa Ernest, circa 1968. Here I am with the lady from upstairs, Mamie, who introduced me to football, ancient French Francs, grand maternal love and a sense of generations and responsibilities in life. Mamie was born at the end of the XIXth century, had lost her beloved brother during WWI, her beloved husband and first […]
This is my Dad Sgt. Spencer Barringer, USAAC 1942-1946. He was stationed at Bruning AAF in Nebraska. This was a training center for pilots and aircrews. He didn’t speak much of those years except he said he took pictures of wrecked planes. I wish I knew more. Through some of his photography, I am learning […]
Although I’m biased, this is still my favorite wedding photo of all time, taken July 14, 1925. Ruby Viola Treutel and Carl Henry Frank Hanneman joined in marriage at St. James Catholic Church in Vesper, Wisconsin. They were my grandparents. At front left is flower girl Nina Treutel, 11, sister of the bride. At front […]
Family photo albums are in danger. In fact, curators and collectors like Erik Kessels have dedicated years of their lives to studying and saving family photo albums – before it’s too late. Many curators and collectors believe analog family photo albums are on the verge of extinction. The fact that every family’s photo album could be in danger has piqued the […]
This is a detail of my great grandmother Sophronia’s class picture, c. 1888. It is a huge class, too big to see in its entirety here. Though she’s not in this part of the picture, she doesn’t have to be for me to feel its profundity. Her classmates and teacher say so much about her life – way […]
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