Bigger Families; Faces From the Past

Here are three family photos from the Cheek family genealogy site (main site here:   http://www.moonzstuff.com/ .  A year ago I used their wonderful chart for deciphering old handwriting, here:    http://www.moonzstuff.com/articles/oldhandwriting.html    and linked over on the sidebar.  I wrote the owner of the site, Rebecca, to let her know her chart had helped and also asked permission to post these photos here.  She was kind enough to give permission. Thank you, Rebecca!  Mack & Laura Ennice Cheek Family Left to Right: Edgar Wood, Laura Ennice (seated holding Mary Lee), John Paul, Bertha, Mack (seated holding Virginia Claire), Ray Richard ("Ted"), Dean (seated), Roy Clyde The photo and more information about this family are here:  http://www.moonzstuff.com/cheek/mack1871.html Family of John & Matilda Edwards Choate Back (L-R): Letcher, Cornelia, Alice, Laura, John, Mathilda, Thomas Front (L-...

Initially, by looking at the eyes, I felt that this family photo includes Mom, Dad, and eight biological siblings,plus one in-law, friend,or more distant relative, eg. cousin.  However, on enlarging I see that despite the woman centre back's seemingly different colouring, she has a lot of facial similarity. Nowadays many might assume that the littlest boy is a grandchild, but I feel he could very easily be the youngest sibling of the bunch, especially considering there is a daughter aged between him and the older ones.  I had a baby at 42 myself.  I realize this is all just guesswork. What do you think? I love noticing details.  Note how the three siblings' glasses are all almost exactly the same.  You'd never find that nowadays.  Also, mom's and dad's glasses are the same as each other's but different from their children's.  Mom's dress has an interesting patterned fabric, looks like it may be the same as daughter back left's belt.   This f...

Here are three more photos from the same source as the previous couple of posts.  As ever, click on any photo to see it full size.  Perhaps someone who knows military uniforms can share what service the son top left is in.  The photos were copied in Wausau, Wisconsin, but the father's mustache looks a little out of place in wartime America, don't you think? Five happy siblings at Christmas!  I'm happy to see the imperfections of real life...parts of a new game, it looks like Candy Land, on the floor.  Maybe that's also a new Christmas doll.    From happy and candid to posed and unapproachable.  At least, I think the father here looks a bit scary as a dad!  Thankfully the two younger girls break up the sternness with little smiles.  Oldest daughter has a beautiful dress.  I wonder whether she made it herself.

Wow, only 6 weeks this time!  ;)  Here are several pictures I bought in a large lot from Ebay about 2 1/2 years ago.  Back in February 2010 I started posting a few and gave the history of the photos thus: "I recently bought a box of photos from an Ebay seller who told me that they were reproduced at the Toburen photo studio at Wausau, Wisconsin mostly during the 1960s to 1980s. "Families in the 60s to 80s took their old family photos to the studio to be reproduced, and then never came back to pick them up!  I can't imagine that the studio didn't call to remind them, so I don't know why so many were never claimed.  There are some great images, I'm thinking particularly of one of an older couple from possibly the 1800s where the wife is smoking a pipe.  This wasn't a snapshot, but a posed photo from a studio, so the pipe must have been an object very near and dear to her!  Anyway, I will start posting some of the large family photos from this lot....

I tend to roll my eyes a bit (figuratively) when bloggers apologize for not posting for a while.  I can't imagine readers sitting on tenterhooks waiting for posts and getting offended if someone takes a week or two off!  Perhaps taking over a year's break is a little more strange.  However, I would bet my hat that no one has really cared all that much or been in the least offended, so I won't apologize, just explain a little. Last summer was a large family reunion that's held every 5 years or so, with 100-150 attendees.  10 years ago I had offered to write a family history book, and had never actually finished it.  Hence my entire spring was taken up with finishing this book.  I actually lost a fair bit of eyesight, apparently permanently, with the many hours, days, weeks on the computer.  I did genealogy research that found ancestors back to the late 1400s!  To be accurate, my research consisted of finding other people's online research an...