Warm tears wound down my cheeks. I don’t remember. I can’t remember. It was bedtime with my daughter. The usual hugs, kisses, cuddles and songs weren’t enough tonight. She started asking about Great Grandma Cannon, who passed away eight years before my daughter was born. What did she look like? Like a 1940s movie star, with […]
How many memories deserve to be saved and shared? Thousands of priceless family artifacts are hidden in attics and basements. From family snapshots to rare documents like birth certificates and marriage records, these artifacts are waiting to be discovered. As part of our RootsTech Profile Series, we’re sharing stories of families who collaborated with innovative […]
Villa Ernest, circa 1968. Here I am with the lady from upstairs, Mamie, who introduced me to football, ancient French Francs, grand maternal love and a sense of generations and responsibilities in life. Mamie was born at the end of the XIXth century, had lost her beloved brother during WWI, her beloved husband and first […]
This is my Dad Sgt. Spencer Barringer, USAAC 1942-1946. He was stationed at Bruning AAF in Nebraska. This was a training center for pilots and aircrews. He didn’t speak much of those years except he said he took pictures of wrecked planes. I wish I knew more. Through some of his photography, I am learning […]
Although I’m biased, this is still my favorite wedding photo of all time, taken July 14, 1925. Ruby Viola Treutel and Carl Henry Frank Hanneman joined in marriage at St. James Catholic Church in Vesper, Wisconsin. They were my grandparents. At front left is flower girl Nina Treutel, 11, sister of the bride. At front […]
Family photo albums are in danger. In fact, curators and collectors like Erik Kessels have dedicated years of their lives to studying and saving family photo albums – before it’s too late. Many curators and collectors believe analog family photo albums are on the verge of extinction. The fact that every family’s photo album could be in danger has piqued the […]
This is a detail of my great grandmother Sophronia’s class picture, c. 1888. It is a huge class, too big to see in its entirety here. Though she’s not in this part of the picture, she doesn’t have to be for me to feel its profundity. Her classmates and teacher say so much about her life – way […]
My great-grandmother and my grandmother in Davenport, WA, circa 1924. My great grandparents were wheat farmers. By the time I was born, they were done with farming, but still had their house and barn, both of which I adored as a child. That old dusty barn, complete with a rope swing, and filled with old […]
“We are links between the ages, containing past and present expectations, sacred memories and future promise.” ~Edward Sellner I’ve always loved this photograph hanging on my grandma’s wall. The cute couple (very front, right) is my great grandma Mabel and my great grandfather Randolph right after they got engaged. Saltair, SLC, Utah, circa 1918. ~shared […]
We are who we are because of who they were. My grandparents were both born and raised in Hawaii, and they wanted their island home to be their final resting place, as well. My grandfather passed away about 8 years ago, and his ashes were intered in the Veteran’s Memorial Cemetery in Kaneohe, Oahu. My […]
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