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This is my Great-Grandmother, Rita Alessandri, in the early 1900s in Italy. She was born into a noble Tuscan family. Even though I never met her, I’ve inherited a vivid image of her, through dozens of old photos. Although she appeared conventional, she had a secret passion for spiritic sessions. My Granddad was sent to […]

My grandmother, uncle and father pose for a portrait, circa 1925, in Butte, Montana. Photo studios were very popular, since most families didn’t own cameras. My grandmother had this photo taken in a studio in Butte. All of these snaps were kept in a scrap book by my grandmother, who was an immigrant from Montenegro. […]

My father, Karl Staddon, and his sister Caroline in the mid 1960s. Dad would often tell me and my sister stories about his childhood. Our favorite stories involved the pet raccoons he had. Growing up on a farm in Ontario, he often came across abandoned raccoon litters; their mothers were likely killed by farmers or […]

I am lucky to have hundreds of family photos, dating back to the turn of the century. I even have some of the cameras that took the photos, including my great-grandparents’ Kodak Brownie Box camera. Out of all of those photos, this is one of my favorites. Here’s my grandfather, Richard Machin, who was born […]

Old photos make memories real, even if we weren’t able to experience them personally. Meet my family, Latu (left) and Kolo (right). This photo was taken in the Island Kingdom of Tonga, in the village of Mau’fanga, during the early 1950s. In Latu and Kolo’s arms are two of their children. The oldest child, sitting […]

My grandmother Sylvia Hubbard was born on November 20, 1919 in Ohio. She married after graduating from high school and became the proud mother of my mom and uncle. Her husband passed away early in life and she persevered to successfully solo-parent and raise two wonderful human beings. Professionally, she spent more than twenty years […]

This photo of me and my sister Masha was taken by my father, Eugene Kolomatsky, on Pidgeon Meadow Road, in Flushing, Queens, back during the Madmen years. It was our childhood kitchen, in the house where I lived for over 20 years. It was tiny. These are probably the home’s original cabinets; they seem so […]

My grandfather Sol (top right, in the snazzy pinstripes) left Lithuania in the 1920s, but couldn’t emigrate to the US because of the Jewish quota. So he went to the next best place: Cuba. He lived in Havana for five years, working in restaurants and learning Ladino. According to family lore he had a chance […]

My Great Grandfather Bill Clark was an avid gardener, as was his wife Myrtle who took this photo in July, 1969. My great grandparents’ garden was different every year. That’s the thing I remember most and recognize in the images of the garden that great grandad shot on Kodachrome (1960-1976). Always tidy, always weeded. Some […]