Featured Family Stories

01
Aug

A Family Photo Treasure Hunt and An Elegant Portrait of my Grandmother

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Today’s the day! Gather your magical old family photos and share them with the hashtag and you might win an archival print on metal. (Details below.) This is a photo of Mona, my grandma, taken somewhere around 1952 when she was 19 or 20 years old. As it turns out, she hated this photo and […]

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30
Jul

I Found This Beautiful Photo in My Grandmother’s Old Cedar Chest

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I found this photo in my grandma’a old cedar chest. It shows my young grandparents, August and Faye, out to dinner at Meadowbrook in Culver City, California in June of 1946, only a few weeks after eloping to Vegas to get married. They had met at a USO dance during the war and wrote love […]

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27
Jul

Old Family Photos Help Heroes Stay Alive in Our Hearts, Minds and Memories

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Old family photos help heroes stay alive in hearts, minds and memories. My grandfather, His Honour John Rutter (2nd from right) arriving back at Cardiff Central Station in late 1945 after imprisonment in Japanese POW camps in the Far East. At the age of 19, my Grandfather’s university studies were interrupted by the outbreak of […]

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25
Jul

A Vintage Portrait of an adventurous young man, my grandfather

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Here’s my grandfather Ryszard and his friend. It was around 1950. My Grandpa was a true “bad boy.” He had only 7 fingers; he lost 3 when he was a child playing with his friends in the forest. They found a bomb and started to dismantle it. And then…Boom! He was the only one who […]

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24
Jul

All We Get From Life is Whatever We Love Enough to Save

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“All we get from life is whatever we love enough to save.” -Kathryn Schulz My mother and brother. This photo was taken in the late 1950s and is from a series my father made of my mother giving my two older brothers a bath and dressing them. This shot is with my oldest brother, David. […]

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23
Jul

A Tattered But Beautiful Family Portrait From Italy

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“Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Die knowing something. You are not here long.” -Walker Evans My mother with her family, probably around 1950 in Tuscany, Italy. My mum, Paola, is the little girl in the middle. She’s standing with her brother Giancarlo, her sister Fernanda, her mummy Augusta and […]

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22
Jul

A Family Legacy of Service, Courage and Heroism Found in an Old Photograph

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My Mom’s Dad, looking pretty badass. He was Polish, so he was fighting for not only the US, but also against the genocide of his own people. My grandfather’s name was John J. Parsick. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1923 to Polish immigrants. He served in the European theater and was headed for Japan, […]

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21
Jul

A Vintage New York City Story, Told Through This Old Photograph

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My grandfather, Harvey L. Strelzin, was born in Brooklyn in 1906, the son of Russian Jews who fled turmoil in the Ukraine. He grew up in a tenement on Grand Street in Williamsburg. Overcoming polio, he found work in a restaurant while seeking education. He graduated from City College, and attended Brooklyn Law School. In […]

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19
Jul

Why Vintage Wedding Photos Stand the Test of Time

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Mom and Dad’s wedding. 1958. My parents met on a blind date and were both terribly shy individuals. I don’t think they ever dated anybody else. Shortly after they met, my Dad ended up quite seriously ill and was in hospital for quite some time. So they mostly communicated by letter. It was only through […]

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18
Jul

A Sweet San Francisco Family Story

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My great-grandpa and grandpa in the streets of San Francisco circa December, 1940. According to my grandpa, this photo was taken on Market Street in front of the Orpheum theater. There were about five big “shows” on Market Street: the Esquire, the Golden Gate, the Paramount, the Fox, etc. It was known as “theater row” […]

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