Little Girl in a Bracelet
“How am I related to this person?”
“You mean you don’t know who these people are?”
“I love this picture, mom! I want a copy to hang on my wall.”“I should probably write down the connection, although I doubt anyone will ask me.”
“Oh! This is an adorable little girl in a bracelet.”
She was experiencing the first symptoms of genealogy fever. It starts with a few photos or an interesting story about your grandmother. Then you find out something about Great Uncle George. Before long, you find yourself searching through old family bibles. Eventually, after a free trial, you fork out the membership fees to join an internet ancestry search.
If you don’t have a natural immunity to it, you can develop a full blown case of historical hysteria and never recover.
Her excitement nudged me, and I found myself checking out the old networks for new information.
I wasn’t disappointed. Tonight I found an ancestor named John Damon who was born in Kent, England on November 11, 1621. He and his wife Martha had children with the names Experience, Silence, Ebenezer, and Ichabod. (Amanda, you are the 13th generation from John and Martha.)
I was also reminded that one of the reasons I started to blog was to publish some of the family history. The stories will be lost if our generation doesn’t pass them down.
And photographs will be questions for future generations if we don’t take the time to identify them.
I’m sorry that I probably will never find out who is the beautiful “Little Girl in a Bracelet.”
Comments
One of my father's, or maybe grandfather's, distant cousins wrote a book about my Dad's family all the way back to the last full blood Lenni Lenape (Delaware) in our family. It's fascinating and full of old photos, all but one or two of them identified. I am grateful she took the time to write the book.
The thing to remember is the part ‘after you are gone and they are going though your stuff..’ what do you want them to see. So if you have any dirty stuff that would embarrass you, send them to me, quick. You never know. I’ll be discrete. I won’t post them. Honest! You have my word.
I found a birthday card to my Grandpa who died last month at the age of 95. It was for his 16th birthday from his aunt and uncle. Save the important things only and document them.
That could be a bumper sticker lOL
You are so right...precious stories will lost forever if we don't work towards preserving what we do know to pass down!
(And what a beautiful photograph that is!)
I keep saying I'm going back through my pictures and write the names on the back, but somehow I never seem to get around to doing it.
A long lost "cousin" contacted me a couple of years ago. Haven't heard from him since. He was on the hunt for our "Mayflower" ancestor.
Apparently he was an indentured servant at the age of 6 when he arrived here. He grew up to be quite a rounder...hmmmm....sounds like my father!!;-)
P.S. Be sure to go to the Cowboy Poetry Gathering...
I wonder about the girl in the bracelet. It saddens me that she's lost ------- ......
And by the way, I somehow got home without a picture of Elizabeth ..
i have some old photos ..
i know who folks are, but my sons don't. i need to identify them so they will know.
what a love photo ..
She is a doll!
When I find old photo albums in antique shops I always have the urge to buy them and take all those people in the old black and white photos home with me, so they at least have someone that wonders about who they are.....
x
I do wish I had great old photos like that one. Last year for Christmas, I took all of my Mom's old photos and painstakingly used dental floss to remove them from the old albums and made archival quality scrapbooks for her. Then I gave her the pen to write names and connections and notes about the photos. I'll make a photocopy of the book when she is done to save on disk.
There's still hope to know who the girl in the bracelet is.
Good advice to label pictures and share history.