Imagine discovering a face that holds clues to your family history. That’s exactly why this portrait matters. This is my great-great-grandfather Valentine Wertz (1886-1976). I received this photograph of him two years ago from a gentlemen in Pennsylvania. His grandmother had it in her possession. Since he wasn’t related to Valentine, he decided to pass […]
That little boy is my father and that house is the one I visited my grandparents in when I was his age. Now I visit my father in the house I grew up in. He doesn’t recognize me. The good days are fewer. Less solace is taken from spending time and instead taken browsing through […]
It happens every day. In fact, there’s a good chance it has happened to you. A loved one dies, family members gather to grieve and to clean out their loved one’s home. And then someone makes a striking discovery: a big box of family photos stashed deep in a closet. At first, everyone is excited […]
After he retired, my grandfather used to sit on his porch with his radio, newspapers and notebook for hours. He spent a lot of time there. In fact, his children called him “deputy of the veranda” when he prematurely retired from politics. During the holidays, on that same porch, we spent so much beautiful time […]
This photo features the Yamamoto family, my great-grandparents, grandmother (center), and her siblings. It was taken in 1925 in Rosemead, California. My great grandparents came to America from Hiroshima, Japan. For a time, the American dream was theirs. They started a family and share-cropped a farm, growing flowers which they sold at the market in […]
Somehow you’ve ended up with boxes of photographs, slides and piles of albums, and now you’re the family historian! You might have some old family photos that still look good, some may be ready to scan and some may need some serious restoration. Before you begin the lengthy and sometimes costly restoration process, here are […]
Don’t apologize; everyone needs an escape. As work piles up and negative news stories assault our senses, all of us long for simpler times. We seek solace in nostalgia. That’s just one reason why #throwbackthursday #TBT is one of the most popular hashtags, consistently trending on social media feeds. And it’s no surprise – old photos seem to […]
Every family has one. In our family, it’s me. I am the “keeper of the boxes.” (Boxes of family photos!) Following is one of the treasured family photos from our box. This is a portrait of my father-in-law John as a toddler, circa 1930. His mother, Edith, was quite taken with his large eyes and […]
I don’t remember a lot of specifics from my childhood. This picture of me, as a six year old with a toothless grin, jogs my memory though. I love how my pigtails resemble the tassels hanging from the handles of my orange banana-seat bike, which my grandparents gifted me. I remember the old rope swing […]
The date stamp at the top says January of 1967, but that was the date the film was developed. The photo was actually taken in September of 1966, as my mother and father were moving into their first house. I love this glimpse of them at the very beginning of their journey together. They look […]
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