Blog

30
Jan

A Family Archivist Shares Priceless Photographic Memories from Summers Spent with Grandparents

Posted by | · · · · · | Featured Family Stories | No Comments on A Family Archivist Shares Priceless Photographic Memories from Summers Spent with Grandparents

Our grandparents lived in the small town of Morehouse, Missouri, in the same house our father grew up in. It wouldn’t have been summer without a week or two at Granny and Poppy’s house, with the back yard which seemed huge to us, and the windows of that house without air conditioning thrown up at […]

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27
Jan

Does Your Family Understand The True Value of Photographs?

Posted by | · · · · | Family Photo Resources | 3 Comments on Does Your Family Understand The True Value of Photographs?

Growing up, I would always document and record events that seemed meaningful. I shot hundreds of blurry pictures and recorded hours of news footage onto VHS tapes. Over the years, I have collected drawers full of old newspapers, notes, videotapes, and photos. I documented everything so that long after the event passed, I would have […]

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27
Jan

Tips to help you interview your loved ones to preserve family history for future generations

Posted by | · · · · | Family Photo Resources | 2 Comments on Tips to help you interview your loved ones to preserve family history for future generations

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 […]

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25
Jan

A Vintage Portrait of my Mother and Father as Newlyweds

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My mother has been downsizing for years. The family photographs made the trip from Pennsylvania to Florida in the early 1990s. Then they moved from the big condo to a smaller Independent living apartment. Every time I visited, Mom would say there were lots of photographs I needed to look at and start taking back […]

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25
Jan

RootsTech Profile Series: Family Photos and Records Come Together Beautifully at Legacy Books

Posted by | · · · · | Family Photo Resources | No Comments on RootsTech Profile Series: Family Photos and Records Come Together Beautifully at Legacy Books

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 […]

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22
Jan

A French Family Story about an Honorary Grandmother

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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 […]

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21
Jan

An Early Selfie taken by my Dad

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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 […]

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20
Jan

My Favorite Wedding Photo is a Vintage Family Portrait from 1925

Posted by | · · · · | Featured Family Stories | 2 Comments on My Favorite Wedding Photo is a Vintage Family Portrait from 1925

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 […]

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19
Jan

Why Every Family’s Photo Album Could be in Danger (and what artists are creating from orphaned photos)

Posted by | · · · · · · · | Family Photo Resources | 2 Comments on Why Every Family’s Photo Album Could be in Danger (and what artists are creating from orphaned photos)

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 […]

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18
Jan

We are all connected, and nothing drives that home like old photographs

Posted by | · · · · · · | Featured Family Stories | No Comments on We are all connected, and nothing drives that home like old photographs

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 […]

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