Doper Ancestor Picture Thread

[Oslo Ostragoth]

We have a Doper Picture Thread and a Doper Pet Picture Thread. Why not a Doper Ancestor Picture Thread for fun?

We married off one of my nephews last weekend. My dad was showing some old family photos to out-of-town relatives. I grabbed them and scanned them to email to other relatives. Here are some of my ancestors and other relatives. It's kinda scary that I share genes with these people.

So, what did your ancestors look like?

[silenus]

My great-great grandfather Isaiah. I'm told I take after him quite a bit.

[madmonk28]

What a great idea for a thread. Sadly, our photos are all back in DC, but I wanted to give props and a bumpt to this.

[Rico]

Originally Posted by silenus

My great-great grandfather Isaiah. I'm told I take after him quite a bit.

No resemblence at all. He's not wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt.

[Shayna]

Originally Posted by Rico

No resemblence at all. He's not wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt.

And he's definitely got more hair.

This guy looks more like great-great grampy silenus.

[Oslo Ostragoth]

Why do you people want to shit in this thread?

[ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies]

My paternal grandfather. Some of you may remember him from this old thread.

[Oslo Ostragoth]

Why do you people want to shit in this thread? If it sinks beneath the waves like a lead-ore steamship on Lake Superior, that's fine with me. I just thought some Dopers might enjoy posting some old pictures.

[ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies]

Um...I thought that was what I was doing?

[CaerieD]

This here is my great-grandmother and her sisters, taken around 1900. I'd guess the curly hair I have must come from that side of the family.

[Scarlett67]

Here's a link to my two submissions.

#1 is me sitting on my grandfather's lap, circa 1970. I must be about 3; he died when I was 6, so I don't remember a lot about him. I never saw this photo until a few years ago. Even if it weren't me and my grandpa, I'd think it was a beautiful picture: the lighting, his expression . . . a tender moment.

#2 is the same grandpa and grandma, holding my oldest aunt, their 4th child, circa 1939. Auntie is in her 70s now. (Apologies for the grainy quality; it's a scan of a scan, and the original scan was sepia and inkjet, so I converted it back to grayscale to kill the moire. the splotch at bottom is where I took out their names that had been added to the original scan.) I just love Grandma's pose; kind of uncharacteristic for how I remember her, a sweet, frail little old lady. But here she looks like she could kick someone's ass.



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Cookies: People are posting pictures of monkeys. Hardy har har. (I think Oslo double-posted accidentally.)

[phouka]

I've got a bunch of family photos I scanned in over Christmas. I need to get them up on the Internet, then I'll post them here.

[NinetyWt]

The only one I have up online is this photo. My great-grandfather is the one with Ed written on his leg, there.

Oslo: usually if you ignore those one or two silly posts the thread will pick back up in the original direction. At least they bump the thread a bit.

[lexi]

Here is some of mine from my mom's dad's line:

Great Great Grandparents (middle photo, centre couple - GGP is the one with the moustache):
http://www.ourroots.ca/e/page.aspx?id=3729514

Great Grandpa (Top left - Cowboy Deluxe):
http://www.ourroots.ca/e/page.aspx?id=3729491

Great Grandma Hazel (centre photo - third from the right end):
http://www.ourroots.ca/e/page.aspx?id=3729458

Great Grandma Hazel (bottom right photo, lady on the right):
http://www.ourroots.ca/e/page.aspx?id=3729299

Great Great Grandpa & Grandma and all the rest of the family (bottom photo):
http://www.ourroots.ca/e/page.aspx?id=3729172

[nyctea scandiaca]

I love this thread idea! Here is my family photo archive online! I'm really enjoying everyone's photos.

[nyctea scandiaca]

Originally Posted by NinetyWt

The only one I have up online is this photo. My great-grandfather is the one with Ed written on his leg, there.

He's handsome, as are several other of the gentlemen in that photo. What year was that taken and are they part of a military band or what? And do you know where it was taken?

[TroubleAgain]

I'll have to find the rest of mine, but these are the ones I was able to grab last night.

This is my paternal Great-great Grandfather and his family. The young lady in the upper right is my great-grandmother Susie. This is what Grandma Susie looked like when she was old. As you can probably tell from the photo, she was half Native American, but I don't know what nation--just that her mom was from somewhere in the Northwest.

This is my paternal grandfather and grandmother. He is Susie's son. She is pregnant with (I think) my Aunt Jan in this picture. He was in the Army during WWII. They ended up inducing labor with Aunt Jan so he could see her before he went overseas again.

Somewhere I have wonderful pictures of my maternal grandfather and grandmother, but they're in a different folder and I didn't get to look for them last night.

[TroubleAgain]

Originally Posted by nyctea scandiaca

I love this thread idea! Here is my family photo archive online! I'm really enjoying everyone's photos.

Is it wrong that I'm amused by the Nelson/Riley thing?

[gwendee]

Many of our family's photos were lost in a house fire years ago. I really treasure the ones I have and am thrilled to share them. I also love seeing all of yours.

My great-grandmother (l) with her father and a cousin

Same lady as an adult with her 3 daughters My mother's mother is the one on the right.

If this thread stays active for a while I'll add more that I haven't scanned yet. This is fun!

[ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies]

Originally Posted by gwendee

If this thread stays active for a while I'll add more that I haven't scanned yet. This is fun!

Ditto. My maternal uncle has been scanning family pics and gifting framed prints out in recent years. I just need to have him send me softcopies. There are some characters on that side of the family...

[nyctea scandiaca]

Originally Posted by TroubleAgain

Is it wrong that I'm amused by the Nelson/Riley thing?

Not sure if I get this - is it because of Charles Nelson Reilly?

[Miller]

Not really an ancestor, because she never had kids (when she was nineteen, her fiance died in a carriage accident the morning they were supposed to be married) but my great-great-great (possibly a few more greats should be in there) aunt was Donaldina Cameron.

[Oslo Ostragoth]

Originally Posted by CaerieD

This here is my great-grandmother and her sisters, taken around 1900.

Great pic. Much less fussy and formal than the ones I have. Thanks for posting.

[Oslo Ostragoth]

Originally Posted by ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies

Um...I thought that was what I was doing?

Yep. Not directed at you. I'm sure the guys posting pictures of monkeys intended to be humorous, but I didn't appreciate it. Apologies sir or ma'am.

[Oslo Ostragoth]

Originally Posted by Scarlett67

Here's a link to my two submissions.

#1 is me sitting on my grandfather's lap, circa 1970. I must be about 3; he died when I was 6, so I don't remember a lot about him. I never saw this photo until a few years ago. Even if it weren't me and my grandpa, I'd think it was a beautiful picture: the lighting, his expression . . . a tender moment.

#2 is the same grandpa and grandma, holding my oldest aunt, their 4th child, circa 1939. Auntie is in her 70s now. (Apologies for the grainy quality; it's a scan of a scan, and the original scan was sepia and inkjet, so I converted it back to grayscale to kill the moire. the splotch at bottom is where I took out their names that had been added to the original scan.) I just love Grandma's pose; kind of uncharacteristic for how I remember her, a sweet, frail little old lady. But here she looks like she could kick someone's ass.

A regular Bonnie Parker. And I agree that the first is a beautiful picture. That's why we gotta keep these around. Thanks for posting.

[Oslo Ostragoth]

Originally Posted by NinetyWt

The only one I have up online is this photo. My great-grandfather is the one with Ed written on his leg, there.

Oslo: usually if you ignore those one or two silly posts the thread will pick back up in the original direction. At least they bump the thread a bit.

Wow. Any idea of the date? That almost looks Civil War era.

And yeah, I think I overreacted to the silliness. Apologies to them as well. Losing at the poker table can do that to a guy....

[Oslo Ostragoth]

Originally Posted by lexi

Here is some of mine from my mom's dad's line:

Great Great Grandparents (middle photo, centre couple - GGP is the one with the moustache):
http://www.ourroots.ca/e/page.aspx?id=3729514

Great Grandpa (Top left - Cowboy Deluxe):
http://www.ourroots.ca/e/page.aspx?id=3729491

Great Grandma Hazel (centre photo - third from the right end):
http://www.ourroots.ca/e/page.aspx?id=3729458

Great Grandma Hazel (bottom right photo, lady on the right):
http://www.ourroots.ca/e/page.aspx?id=3729299

Great Great Grandpa & Grandma and all the rest of the family (bottom photo):
http://www.ourroots.ca/e/page.aspx?id=3729172

Those are great. Someone collected and published them?

[Johnny L.A.]

This is my dad.

[Oslo Ostragoth]

Originally Posted by nyctea scandiaca

I love this thread idea! Here is my family photo archive online! I'm really enjoying everyone's photos.

Very nice collection. I see that I should add birth dates or whatever where known so that we might have some idea of the date of a photo.

[Oslo Ostragoth]

Originally Posted by Miller

Not really an ancestor, because she never had kids (when she was nineteen, her fiance died in a carriage accident the morning they were supposed to be married) but my great-great-great (possibly a few more greats should be in there) aunt was Donaldina Cameron.

Interesting person. I have always said that I would just as soon be a descendant of a notorious horse thief as a run-of-the-mill king, but you have a real winner in your family tree.

[Oslo Ostragoth]

A few notes on the thread so far:

I'm older than the average Doper, so I doubt that I will ever find much beyond Great Grandparent level. Photography started to come on strong in the 1870's or so? I have seen the Matthew Brady Civil War stuff, but that had some loooooong exposure times.

For those not too experienced at scanning (like me), IrfanView allows rotation in one tenth of a degree increments. Very helpful for cleaning up sloppy scans for cropping/cutting.

Keep 'em coming! Everyone has something interesting to share.

[Oslo Ostragoth]

I meant to add:

As far as I know, most of my ancestors arrived in the USA as immigrants from Northern Europe sometime in the 1800's, with little more than the clothes on their backs. They worked hard and made a decent life for themselves and their progeny. I gotta give them major props for that.

As an example, my great-grandfather who bears my last name, and who arrived in exactly that circumstance, would probably be pretty proud of the fact that all those of my generation have attained at least a Bachelor's degree, with several PhD's, MS's, MA's, and JD's in the mix.

Not bad for a guy who started out in the USA as a pig feeder, in exchange for room and board and English lessons.

[Kythereia]

Here's my great-great-great-great... and so forth grandfather on my mom's side (I'm still working out the specifics). This is my great-great-great-great-etc. grandfather on my dad's side.

[Spoke]

Here's the oldest family photo I own, my great-grandfather in his Confederate uniform.

(Hope that link works.)

[NinetyWt]

Originally Posted by nyctea scandiaca

He's handsome, as are several other of the gentlemen in that photo. What year was that taken and are they part of a military band or what? And do you know where it was taken?

That is in Ohio. And, the nearest we can find out is that they are part of a Sons of War Veterans type thing. That fellow is my grandmother's dad - she was born in 1909. (Previous thread about the photo).

Originally Posted by Oslo Ostragoth

Wow. Any idea of the date? That almost looks Civil War era.

I'm still not sure.

[NinetyWt]

Originally Posted by Oslo Ostragoth

I'm older than the average Doper

Ya know, earlier we did a poll of Doper ages. The average age (sample size = 243) was 40.967.

[Lsura]

Here are the old family photos I've scanned so far - I'll be getting more in eventually, hopefully sometime this summer.

Also, the pilot here is my father's uncle, so my great-uncle. He's the one on the far left in the back row.

[TroubleAgain]

Originally Posted by nyctea scandiaca

Not sure if I get this - is it because of Charles Nelson Reilly?

Yes. I'm a dork that way.

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

Here is my great-grandmother, in this newspaper clipping following the birth of her great-great-great-granddaughter. All six generations of the family in one sitting.

[nyctea scandiaca]

Originally Posted by Earl Snake-Hips Tucker

Here is my great-grandmother, in this newspaper clipping following the birth of her great-great-great-granddaughter. All six generations of the family in one sitting.

WOW that is amazing!!! A very prolific family indeed. Do you have that branch of your family tree all mapped out? Is one of the ladies your mom?

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

No. My closest relative is the woman at the far left, who was my grandmother's oldest (but still younger) sister. That is, of my GGM's 8-or-so children, my GM (who had died the year before this photo) was the oldest, and the woman at the far left is the next oldest. My GGM is 98 in this photo. My GM's line was much less fecund, having produced only five generations at the time of this photo (and the next generation not occurring for about another decade).

[AuntiePam]

Originally Posted by Johnny L.A.

This is my dad.

He looks a bit like James Whitmore.

Here's my dad . This would have been taken in 1942 or thereabouts. I think he would have been a nice-looking woman.

[Kilvert's Pagan]

This is one of my great-great grandfathers (on the right), along with his sons. The fourth from the left was my great-grandfather.

In the lower photo on that same page, the tallest kneeling child was my grandmother.

This was my maternal grandmother as a young woman. By age 13 she had lived on three continents.

This and this were her paternal grandparents. He was a good friend of Rev. Frank Kilvert back in Victorian times; Kilvert's Diary, in which these folks are mentioned often, surfaced in England 70 years later. (Thus the first part of my username.)

[Johnny L.A.]

Originally Posted by AuntiePam

He looks a bit like James Whitmore.

Here's my dad . This would have been taken in 1942 or thereabouts. I think he would have been a nice-looking woman.

Hm. I never thought of that. The photo was taken in 1965. When I show people pictures of my dad, many times they think it's me!

Your dad's a hansom guy.

[Chefguy]

Here are a few of mine. The first four are ancestors, the rest are just photos posted for other reasons. None of the animals are related to me.

[lexi]

Originally Posted by Oslo Ostragoth

Those are great. Someone collected and published them?

During the Canadian Centennial, just about every small town in Canada got a grant to write local histories and just a few years ago, they compiled these histories online at: http://www.ourroots.ca/

There are also some great general histories, histories of schools and hospitals, it is just amazing what you can find on that site!

[NinetyWt]

Originally Posted by Chefguy

None of the animals are related to me.

Goodness, Mr. Saunders had quite a necktie didn't he?

And what a shame about Mrs. Gray!

[Chefguy]

Originally Posted by NinetyWt

Goodness, Mr. Saunders had quite a necktie didn't he?

And what a shame about Mrs. Gray!

What happened afterward is what gives genealogists gray hair. Her husband couldn't cope with a houseful of children without a mother, so he farmed them all out to relatives and friends and decamped for northern Ohio. He eventually remarried and had another passle of children. Connecting the two families was one of the biggest roadblocks I had to overcome.

[NinetyWt]

Originally Posted by Chefguy

Her husband couldn't cope with a houseful of children without a mother, so he farmed them all out to relatives and friends and decamped for northern Ohio.

That's interesting - the guy up there in my photo, his wife died shortly after the birth of his youngest daughter (my grandma's sister). So he packed them all off to an orphanage.

Later when grandma was about 12 or 13 he remarried and got them back from the orphanage. Grandma was pissed off at him, and stayed that way. She went on 3 dates with my Grandpa; decided he was The One; ran off and got married when she was 18. Didn't even bother to tell her Dad.

ETA: Speaking of geneaolgy dead ends - my daughter has one relative who was a Choctaw Indian. He was 'found in the bushes' and raised by a white family. He never told anyone his Indian name. If he had, we could have looked him up in the Tribal Records.

[Oslo Ostragoth]

Chefguy and NinetyWt: both fascinating stories. Thanks for sharing.