Blog

09
Oct

An Indian Patriarch on His Wedding Day in 1960

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16 June 1960, New Delhi, India. My handsome ‘nanaji’ (maternal grandfather) Amrik Singh Rana and his cousins on his wedding day. Nanaji, born during the British Raj in India, had a love for modernity. He always brought his daughters western outfits from his travels abroad and had the sweetest curiosity for his grandchildren’s new gadgets […]

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06
Oct

Memories from Family Road Trips

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The best road trips are the ones that lead us to our simplest memories. Family road trip, circa 1966. Our car is packed, looks like a bicycle and stroller are also strapped to the roof. Two large plaid suitcases, and possibly a child’s playpen, fill the back of the wagon. A wooden birdhouse is strapped […]

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27
Sep

Malaysian Memories, Picturing the Timeless Beauty of my Grandmother

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When I was visiting my uncle recently, he brought out this huge album of old photos taken by my grandpa (who was an avid photographer) and I came across this picture of my grandma. According to my mum, this was taken at their home – Sabai Estate (a rubber plantation estate, my grandpa was the […]

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20
Sep

The Real Story Behind Instagram’s Most Fascinating Historical Fiction

Posted by | No Tags | Family Photo Resources | 6 Comments on The Real Story Behind Instagram’s Most Fascinating Historical Fiction

Back in 1998, my friend Bryan and I were poking around an antique store when I found two boxes of photos. What I found that day was well-documented volume after well-documented volume of black and white photos full of women in bathing suits and dance costumes. Women traveling all over the world doing what they so […]

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20
Sep

The Couple Who Taught Me What it Means to Love and Be Loved

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I have never seen such love and mutual admiration between a couple as that from my mom and dad, John Evans and Patsy Ann Stone. . Dad ALWAYS opened mom’s car door, ALWAYS pulled out her chair at the dinner table, and ALWAYS put her desires above his own. . They only spoke positive words […]

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18
Sep

How to Be a Good Steward of Family Stories: a Professional Archivist’s Perspective on Estate Planning

Posted by | · · · · · · | Family Photo Resources | 1 Comment on How to Be a Good Steward of Family Stories: a Professional Archivist’s Perspective on Estate Planning

As the youngest of four children, with almost a decade between myself and the next oldest, I have always been fascinated with figuring out what went on in my family before my arrival. I vividly remember childhood afternoons spent poking through drawers, reading letters and poring over boxes and albums of photographs. As obsessed as I […]

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17
Sep

A Box of old Kodak Film Canisters Held a Treasure Trove of Family Photos

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WANT TO HEAR A CRAZY STORY??!! (Yes, one that warrants all caps and two question marks.) . While we were in Utah for my grandpa’s funeral this summer, I happened upon a box that had Kodak canisters inside. Etched onto the rolls of film were dates: 1955-1956. . I was so excited imagining what parts […]

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15
Sep

Old Polaroid Snapshots Show my Grandmother’s Spunk and Strength

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This is my Grandma Charlotte in 1968. Eleven years earlier, when she was still in high school, she got pregnant with my mom. Two years later, she had my uncle. When she was 22, their father left and she became a single mother. . Their lives were hard but she never gave up and she […]

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10
Sep

As a Child, I loved looking at old photo albums and asking about family stories

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For almost five years, I’ve had this photograph of my great-grandparents framed in all the places I’ve lived – at my parents’ house, in my first apartment, in the first apartment I lived with my boyfriend and now, in our home. . I see them there every day, grinning and smiling at me from my […]

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03
Sep

Discovering Undeveloped Family Film from the 1950s

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Chubby me, a few years ago. . This image is the result of discovering a perfectly intact medium format negative, which we found in a box full of other negatives, dating back as far as 1952. . My mom thought she had thrown them away, but luckily she remembered wrong. . Now we go through […]

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