A few weeks ago, I learned that I can scan more than one picture at a time on my fancy dancy scanner. Yep, that's right folks. I's a smart one. Anyway, as someone who's faced with eleventy billion family photos, this little factoid has pretty much changed my life.
So today, I've been scanning. And sifting through the mystery pile. I try and do it every month or so, and can usually find a home for at least one or two more pictures each time. There are some mystery pics though, that I don't think I'll ever have an answer for. They seem to be of friends rather than family, and have no markings at all. But some of them are really cool.
Last week, I found 3 pictures from a set of these two ladies...
I've no idea who they are, or more importantly, *where* they are, but I absolutely love these photos...
They seem so out of sync with what you'd expect for the time (I'm thinking 20s - 30s, but feel free to correct me!).
These shots came out of my great grandmother's box, so they must've been friends or distant relatives of hers, but that's about all I can come up with. Neither of them seem to appear in any other photos, and my family wasn't exactly "outdoorsy". So I'll just chalk these up to a cool mystery, and dive back into the scanning pile, right after I check out all of the other Sepia Saturday posts...
I think I mentioned last week that, just before Christmas, in a mad frenzy to find my roll of plaid ribbon, I unearthed 2 more boxes of ancient family photos that I had forgotten about and have been safely stowed in the craft room closet since we moved here from California.
Looking through them, it seems as though the bulk of these belonged to my great grandmother, aka Nana. I have no idea who the majority of the folks are in these pictures, but many of them were taken between the turn of the century and the late 1920s. And they are super cool. So I thought I'd share a couple today, just for fun, and link up to the Sepia Saturday group - who you should totally check out if antique photos are your thing. Just saying.
Anyway, I LOVE the tricycles in this one, and the showdown that seems to be going on. I wonder who won?
I don't recognize any of the folks in this other picture, either, but the clothing is all kinds of awesome. I love the "beach" attire...
Seriously fun. If I find out who any of these folks are, I'll speak up. For the moment, I'm going to wade back into the piles and see what other treasures are lurking.
One of my favorite scenes from one of my all time favorite movies, The Princess Bride. Ah, mawwiage. It's an institution my family has a real love for. I mean a REAL love. One of my first posts here was about my utter shock that my mother had been married 5 (!) times. Turns out that this is a time-honored tradition in my family...
Grandma? Twice, as far as I can tell.
Nana (my great grandmother)? Twice for sure, probably 3 times.
Her mother? Four times. Four. Seriously.
There they are, all four of the marrying fools. That's Mom, Grandma, Nana and Gammer. They look awfully innocent, don't they? I've been doing family tree research lately, trying to find out more about these folks since I don't have much to go on. One website in particular has been super helpful. Go check out Family Search if you're into this kind of thing and not familiar with it. It's awesome and totally free. Which makes it even more awesome, but I digress...
Jessie Lair (aka Gammer) was my great-great-grandmother. She was born and raised in Iowa, part of a farming family. Given their spotty census records, I'm guessing they were itinerant farmers. So where did I find everything I know about Jessie? Iowa marriage licenses. Lots of them. She married the first time at the age of 20, when she was about 5 months pregnant with Nana. Oops. I'm not sure how long that lasted, but 5 years later she married again. Okay, I knew that she'd been married twice. It happens. (Heck, it even happened back then.) But she also listed this marriage as her first. That must've been awkward with a 5 year old running around.
Imagine my surprise when I found a 3rd Iowa marriage license for Jessie -- this time about 20 years later. She had the good grace to list this marriage as her 2nd. Not quite true, but closer. I'm not sure how long this husband lasted, but everyone I know who knew Jessie knew her as a single lady, going back to the early 1940s. And, since her last name was Lair when she passed away, and husband #3's last name was Dean, there had to be a 4th gentleman in there somewhere, though I haven't found any evidence of him yet.
What a handful she was. That's her on the left with my great-grandmother and her brother. Apologies for the quality of the photo, but I love that she's cracking up. This must've been taken around 1940. Everyone who remembers her (my mom when she was around and cousins now) talk about how great she was, and how fiercely independent. No surprises there, as the rest of us all followed in her footsteps.
My next project is tracking down husbands for Mom and Grandma. I know they exist, there's just no trace of them on the interwebs that I've been able to find. I'll get to that in a bit, but for now I feel compelled to go watch The Princess Bride.
