How can we know where we’re going if we don’t know where we’ve come from? This photo of my grandma is my time machine. I was born in a tiny country called Slovenia. I’m visiting my hometown this week and exploring my family history, collecting old photos, talking to old relatives, visiting archives and building […]
This is a photo of my beloved grandma, Hattie (Buoyer) Sacca. I’m not sure when this picture was taken, but I’m guessing she was around 8 years old. Hattie was born in Raeford, North Carolina in 1916 to Sallie and John Buoyer. She was one of six kids. She met Thomas Sacca, a second generation […]
“Photography brings the past into the present when you look at it.” Julian Schnabel We’re hosting a special series with our friends @thetenementmuseum + @statueellisnps to celebrate immigrant family stories, one photo at a time. Together we’re sharing stories from 97 Orchard Street, the apartment building on Manhattan’s Lower East Side that was home to nearly […]
Can we all just take a minute to acknowledge how beautiful my grandmother Shirley is? This photo was taken in 1954 in her childhood home of Buhl, Idaho at the age of 18. Most likely she sent this picture off with a letter to my Grandfather, who was stationed away in the Navy. Today she […]
My father, Antoine, and his brother Georges with his new wife Camille “Mimi,” in Belgium just after WWII. They were known among friends and family as the three musketeers; they were inseparable and always laughing together. In this photo, my father had attempted to take a portrait of the three of them using his Agfa […]
What is a “land girl?” Quickly browse the internet and you’ll find that, like many images of women from different eras, they’ve been romanticized, possibly even fetishized by the vintage boom. So I was thrilled when my Mum uncovered photographs of my Nan, a genuine Land Woman. Neither the women nor the work were glamorous. […]
This photo from around 1900 is a family portrait of my great-great-grandparents Georg Leonhard (1861-1943) and Eva Barbara (1863-1937) with four of their children. One of them is my great-grandfather Johann Georg (1889-1975). My great-great grandmother Eva was a descendant of Austrian protestants who were forced to leave their home for religious reasons. They came […]
Print your photos. Don’t wait. Start now. As it turns out, I am no better than the next digital photo lover, and I hardly see my photos in print. Look at the relics of your ancestors. Photos. Printed photos. Those are the most cherished heirlooms. My husband’s ancestors come from Citta’ Di Genova, Genoa Municipality, […]
This is my favorite photo of my grandma and her sibling in front of the only wooden part of their sod house in Colorado (pre dust bowl). If you look, you can see the sod roof and sod siding. Grandma told stories about how they lived completely off of their land (homestead) and lost everything […]
My paternal grandmother. A Valentine photo. She was almost 12 years old when this portrait was taken. She wrote later in life, “My early childhood memories are all happy. I cannot remember anything negative.” Her mother died when she was six and her relationship with her step-mother was difficult, but Grandma didn’t complain. She suffered […]
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