A Special Photograph

This is a photograph I found in Cecile White's scrapbook.  I had never seen it, and was thrilled to have and to share it.  This is my great grandmother Stella Holyfield White holding her daughter Violet White on her lap.  To the left is my grandmother Cecile and to the right is her brother Jasper.  I see the faces of my cousins in this photograph.

One of the special things about this photograph is seeing Jasper.  Thomas "Jasper" White was the oldest child of Stella and James Abe White to live to adulthood. Unfortunately, he died in an automobile accident at the age of 19 in 1935.  This is only the second photograph I have discovered of him and I am happy to share it with my cousins.

Wordless Wednesday - Ride 'em, Cowgirl!

Apparently I watched a lot of B westerns as a child!

Sometimes There Is No Figuring It Out

I have recently been reading my grandmother Cecile White Howard's scrapbook that she started in 1932.  I found this photograph of the electric chair in the Dobson, NC jail pasted in among the postcards and candy wrappers she saved.  The question here is "Why?".  Why would my grandmother put this particular photo in her scrapbook?  To my knowledge, no ancestor ever sat in this chair. (I know you were thinking that!)

White family cousins,  do you know why this photograph is in Cecile's scrapbook?

Scrapbooking is Not a "New" Hobby

Scrapbooking became a very popular hobby a number of years ago.  I admit to making my share of scrapbooks when my children were little. Craft stores began to dedicate whole sections to this new hobby. I collected the craft store coupons to purchase papers, stickers and other embellishments used in the design of my pages.  I got together with friends to socialize and create our scrapbook pages.

Since I began my genealogy journey, I have become the repository of many of our family's photos and mementos.  Among these items are five scrapbooks dating from the 1940's back to the 1920's and various baby books.

My ancestors' scrapbooks have taught me a few things:

Scrapbooking is not a new hobby, and it was not just for women.

This is my Uncle Ernest Carr's scrapbook from the time he was in the navy during WWII. Ernest enlisted in the navy in 1937 and went on to spend his career in the navy. He was primarily in the Pacific arena during the war. It is an absolutely fascinating read.  Ernest included a log of the ships on which he was stationed.  He included photos of the ports he visited and the people he met.  About those people he met....some were females.  (I do not leave this scrapbook out for general viewing.)

Scrapbookers in my family used what they had on hand.

Is this not part of the fun and essence of scrapbooking?  Using what you have to represent the memory?  This is the scrapbook of Elton Carr (Ernest's sister).  She did not have a formal scrapbook, so she used an old book and just pasted over the pages.  I first wrote about Elton's book here.

A Scrapbook is where you learn about what was important to your ancestor.

As genealogists, we rely on the records our ancestors generated as part of life to track them through time and through relationships.  Most of these records such as wills, censuses, and court cases were official and legal documents.  A scrapbook is a personal record of your ancestor where the reader can learn what was important to that person.  Who was important to that person.  Scrapbooks also record your ancestors' feelings. The sense of pride my grandmother had in her basketball skills was evident in the fact she saved newspaper articles of her games.

I encourage you as a researcher to read your ancestors's scrapbooks.  Read the words they wrote.  Read between the lines to the words they did not write.  Pair the scrapbook with oral history and learn who your ancestor was beyond the official records.

Impressions

Do you ever get specific impressions of  what your ancestors were like as people?  What their personalities were like?  Were they generally happy people?  Were they honorable? Were sorrow and pain a constant companion?

I get a lot of my impressions about my ancestors from the photographs they left behind.  I think we all do.  I expect that's the reason for the saying  "a picture speaks a thousand words".

That's a picture of my great grandmother Esther Richardson (left), her mother Hattie Elliott Richardson (center) and Esther's best friend Nannie Lee Farson (right).  As in this photo, Esther is almost always smiling in her photographs.  I believe she was generally a very happy person.

This is a portrait of my great-great grandmother Joanna White, wife of Thomas Jefferson White. This is the only photograph I have seen of Joanna and I know little of her life other than the basics. (Don't worry White family cousins, Joanna is high on my list of upcoming research projects.) She looks so stern and has a worried look in her eyes.  Is this how she saw life in general?  Was worry a constant companion?  Perhaps or perhaps not.  She could have been up with a sick child the night before her portrait was taken.

This is a photograph of Martha Jane (Lett) Maddox obviously taken in her later years.  She was only in her mid-60's when this photograph was taken.  My initial impression of her in this photograph is that she was a stern, no nonsense type of woman who lived a hard life.  That may be true to a degree.  She certainly knew the sorrow of losing a spouse and children during her lifetime.  But this is a case where my impression of her just from the photograph is likely not an accurate portrayal.  From her grandson's journal I learned Martha Jane was a woman who taught a young boy how to fish.  Fishing became a life long hobby for my grandfather. From an interview an elderly cousin, I learned how much Martha Jane loved her grandchildren.  It was only her poor health that prevented her from taking in her daughter Mattie's young children when Mattie died.

Here you have a few of my thoughts for a Thursday morning.  I'm off to try to see how the facts support (or not) my impressions of other ancestors.

Wordless Wednesday - One Grandfather, One Doll, One Bandaid

Here is what happens when you fall asleep with young children (i.e. me) in the house.  Do so at your own risk.

I'm rather late in joining the fun on charting the country of birth for my ancestors (specifically my great-great grandparents).  Oh, well...better late than never.  I was very excited to put the birthplace of my great-great grandparents on a pie chart.  I had seen others in the blogging world posting fun multicolored charts depicting ancestors born in various locations.  So with great anticipation, I started creating mine pie chart.

Mmmmm.....it seems my ancestors have been here a while.  Next I decided to chart my great-great grandparents by the state where they were born.  (I really wanted to add some color to this chart!)

A little more color.  Still, as you can see, my ancestors stayed pretty close to home.  I do admit research is made a little easier when the ancestors did not travel far.

Enjoy!