Blog

14
Mar

Picturing my Dad as an Adventurous Little Boy

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Finding more family treasures every day. Here’s my dad in a tree on Euclid Heights Blvd. Cleveland Heights, OH. August 1931. Five months later, he’d lose his father to cancer. My dad is now 90 years old and would love that a photo from his childhood is being shared and enjoyed by people around the […]

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12
Mar

A Fun Vintage Snapshot of My Grandmother and her Friends Posing for Prohibition

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This photograph is of my grandmother, Margaret (Kelly) Birkenbach, second from the right. She was born in southern Ohio in 1904. Judging from her age, this photograph was most likely taken in 1915 or 1916, when she would have been 11 or 12 years old and her sister, Katie Ruth Kelly, on the far left, […]

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11
Mar

My Mother’s High School Portrait is Among My Favorite Family Photographs

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Mom graduated from Lincoln High School in Sioux Falls, SD in 1975. At the time she thought she’d major in interior design. She ended up in child development and worked for a long time as the Director of Child Life at Children’s Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. That’s where my sister and I were born. Mom […]

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10
Mar

A Vintage Snapshot of Classic Childhood Antics in an International Setting

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This photo was taken around 1937 in Beirut. My mum, Celia, is torturing her big brother, Peter, with my grandmother, Elsie, looking on and sister, Alison, on the left. I love the way this captures a spontaneous, silly kids moment. My mother’s British/American family lived in Lebanon for three generations. My Quaker missionary great-grandparents, their […]

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09
Mar

One Antique Photo of my Grandparents Proves they Risked Everything for Lasting Love

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This photograph of my grandparents makes my heart flutter. They were not supposed to fall in love; my grandmama was disowned from her family for abandoning her pre-arranged groom-to be. She lost everything to come to a country where everyone hated her and the way she looked. But instead of being bitter, she taught my […]

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08
Mar

Sometimes the Best Trip is the One Down Memory Lane

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Sometimes the best trip is the one down memory lane. My grandmother Gladys (center, in red trousers) plays shuffleboard on board a ship to Canada to visit cousins. The photo shows her having fun and playing games, which she always enjoyed. She was a great card player too. The photo is from the treasure trove […]

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06
Mar

There’s Nothing Like the Look of Love in a Father’s Eyes.

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There’s nothing like the look of love in a father’s eyes. I almost overlooked this photo because I focused on the fact that my twin brother and I were blurred and is over exposed. Yet there’s something so captivating about the way my father’s eyes sparkle when looking at us. It’s almost like my father […]

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02
Mar

Did You Make This Common Mistake When Scanning Your Family Photos? (Here’s How to Fix It!)

Posted by | · · · · · | Family Photo Resources | 62 Comments on Did You Make This Common Mistake When Scanning Your Family Photos? (Here’s How to Fix It!)

Whether you’re scanning your film, printed photos, and documents at home or using a professional scanning company, you will undoubtedly be faced with this perplexing issue: Scanning doesn’t actually archive information about your photo. That’s right, digitizing your vintage family photos isn’t enough. It’s no different than discovering an old photo album only to realize that no […]

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02
Mar

One Photographer Proves Why You Should Save Your Family Vacation Photos for Future Generations

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My interest in “the travel snapshot” began when I was a child, traveling with my mother simply because we wanted to see new things and we could since it was just the two of us. I always made sure I had at least three disposable cameras with me where ever we would go. As we drove […]

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22
Feb

More than a Photo Album: Sharing the World War II Legacies of Kelvin and Melvin Christopher

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At genealogy conference a few years ago, I heard many participants express dismay that their family members’ eyes glaze over when they talk about their family history research. One highly-respected professional lamented that given her adult childrens’ views of family history and genealogy, decades of her work might go to the recycling bin after she’s […]

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