Blog

11
May

Why Old Family Photos are Our Greatest Treasures

Posted by | · · · · · · | Featured Family Stories | No Comments on Why Old Family Photos are Our Greatest Treasures

Mom. Miami Beach, 1950s. My father took this photo of her on the beach, when they were newlyweds. It’s one of a set; the other is a photo of my father, taken by my mother. Being born and raised in South Florida, my Mom loved to be around the water, a love she passed onto […]

Read More
08
May

Our Old Photographs Help Us Remember Where We Come From

Posted by | · · · · · · | Featured Family Stories | No Comments on Our Old Photographs Help Us Remember Where We Come From

“Everything around us, ourselves included, is in constant change. Photography is our means of capturing now, and to remember where we’ve come from.” -Amanda Van Grandma would have been 86 this year. Here she is teaching home economics. I love her perfect cursive handwriting on the blackboard with the recipe for angel food cake! ~shared […]

Read More
04
May

My Grandparents Archived all of our family photos for future generations

Posted by | · · · · · · | Featured Family Stories | No Comments on My Grandparents Archived all of our family photos for future generations

My grandparents were the repository of all of the family photos. When someone died, all the albums and shoe boxes ended up at my grandparents’ house. There were always old photos to go through when I visited! My grandfather took great pains to reproduce some of these photos. The sight of my grandparents working on […]

Read More
01
May

Family photos are testaments to time, memory and history

Posted by | · · · · · · | Featured Family Stories | No Comments on Family photos are testaments to time, memory and history

Old photos are testaments to time, to memory, to our human history. But unlike us, they can live forever. Me, Mom and Apollo 13. JFK Space Center, 1970. Different times back then. There was no crazy security; we walked right up. And my Nana, who took this photo, had a great eye! This is straight […]

Read More
28
Apr

Family Vacation Photos are Worth Saving for Future Generations

Posted by | · · · · · · · · · | Featured Family Stories | No Comments on Family Vacation Photos are Worth Saving for Future Generations

As they say, style is something you’re born with!

My sister, my cousins and me on vacation in the early 1980s in Koblevo, a Ukranian resort on the Black Sea, not too far from Odessa. My family loved going on vacation there.

My aunt Irina gave this photo a nickname many years ago: “Julia the Foreigner,” referring to the aviator glasses I was wearing. Aviators were a novelty back then, long before I left Ukraine.

Those fab, fashion-forward sunglasses belonged to my father. I was just sporting them for this family photo. ~shared by @juliarozentalphotography

#savefamilyphotos #familyphotos #familyphoto #ancestry #familyhistory #oldfamilyphotos #vintagephotos #filmisnotdead #vintagephoto #oldphoto #oldphotos #ancestors #familyalbum

Read More
26
Apr

A Vintage Photo Reveals a Simple Moment at a Historic London Landmark

Posted by | · · · · · · | Featured Family Stories | No Comments on A Vintage Photo Reveals a Simple Moment at a Historic London Landmark

“You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.” -Ansel Adams My Nana and Uncle Tony in London, feeding the pigeons in Trafalgar Square. Though Trafalgar Square is the largest square in London, and is often […]

Read More
25
Apr

A Portrait of a Grandfather who Overcame Adversity to Start a New Life

Posted by | · · · · · · · · · | Featured Family Stories | No Comments on A Portrait of a Grandfather who Overcame Adversity to Start a New Life

My grandfather was a captain in the Polish army, right before the Nazis invaded.

He spent five years in a concentration camp until liberation by the US Army.

He met my grandma at a liberated camp in Germany. They married, took a free ride on a US Navy vessel to Boston, then a train to Chicago with a few dollars in their pocket to start a new life.

Whenever I’m about to complain, I think of their story and what they went through. And I shut up quick. ~shared by @35_gauge

#savefamilyphotos #familyphotos #familyphoto #ancestry #familyhistory #oldfamilyphotos #vintagephotos #filmisnotdead #vintagephoto #oldphoto #oldphotos #ancestors #familyalbum @militarytimes

Read More
24
Apr

The Oldest Surviving Photograph of My Father as a Young Man in India

Posted by | · · · · · · · · · | Featured Family Stories | No Comments on The Oldest Surviving Photograph of My Father as a Young Man in India

This is the earliest surviving photo of my Dad as a young man.

The photo was taken in a studio in Muktsar, Punjab when he was 16 or 17. It was 1956 or thereabouts.

I often wonder what this young man who had never been out of Punjab, let alone India, would have thought if someone told him what his future had in store? A life in London, and an English wife and children to boot!

Yet this young man left India and went on to become a lecturer in law, a leading Marxist theoretician, and the founding Chairman of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist). His early years witnessing the bloody end to the British occupation of India had a deep impact on his understanding of imperialism’s divide-and-rule policy. ~shared by @joeteebee

#savefamilyphotos #familyphotos #familyphoto #ancestry #familyhistory #oldfamilyphotos #vintagephotos #filmisnotdead #vintagephoto #oldphoto #oldphotos #ancestors #familyalbum #tbt #throwbackthursday

Read More
22
Apr

My Husband’s Family Photos from Australia are Colorful Reminders of Family Bonds

Posted by | · · · · · · · · · | Featured Family Stories | No Comments on My Husband’s Family Photos from Australia are Colorful Reminders of Family Bonds

My husband’s christening day, 1966 with his parents and both sets of grandparents.

I love the frocks, fabrics, hats and glasses! My mother says that everyone wore hats. My mother-in-law had some beauties.

My sister and I remember how our Mum used to put her step-ins and stockings on whenever we went to town.

Everyone dressed beautifully back then. But it was summer in Sydney, Australia, so those hats, stockings and suits must have been stiflingly hot! ~shared by @janemadge

#savefamilyphotos #familyphotos #familyphoto #ancestry #familyhistory #oldfamilyphotos #vintagephotos #filmisnotdead #vintagephoto #oldphoto #oldphotos #ancestors #familyalbum

Read More
21
Apr

A Tale of Five Brothers and One Little Sister, Told by an Old Family Photograph

Posted by | · · · · · · · · · | Featured Family Stories | No Comments on A Tale of Five Brothers and One Little Sister, Told by an Old Family Photograph

These are my 91-year-old Grandmother’s five older brothers with their mother around 1920. They are all gone now.

Over the years, My Grandmother has told me many stories about her brothers and their kindnesses to her as their baby sister, their adventures and misadventures. It is wonderful to hear how important they all were to her and to learn lessons from their lives.

I find it amazing to be able to gaze at a photograph and see their faces as little boys, imagining all I know about their futures.

Their father was a sea captain and was away from home most of the time. Five boys in a row was a handful. One of the often-repeated stories about them involves my Great-Grandmother employing a cast iron frying pan to break up fights in the kitchen.

I have just two of my own sons, and thanks to the many tales told by my Grandmother, I often imagine how it would be with a gaggle like this one! ~shared by @rebleckamac

#savefamilyphotos #familyphotos #familyphoto #ancestry #familyhistory #oldfamilyphotos #vintagephotos #filmisnotdead #vintagephoto #oldphoto #oldphotos #ancestors #familyalbum

Read More