Friday, December 20, 2013

Sepia Saturday: Merry Christmas!

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.




In keeping with this week’s Sepia Saturday prompt, I send holiday greetings to my fellow Sepians and to all readers and followers.  My Christmas card to you is a photo of this year’s fireplace mantle.


Davis heirlooms for decorating http://jollettetc.blogspot.com


In some ways the mantle is fairly typical with its artificial wreath and garland.  However, the family heirlooms make it special – to me, at least.  



The two silver platters had belonged to my grandaunt Violetta Davis Ryan (the one on the left) and to my maternal grandmother Lucille Rucker Davis (the one on the right).  












 

The two red vases were also Violetta’s.  They are 1930’s Depression glass, Royal Ruby Red ivy bowls by Anchor Hocking.  











Christmas is about family.  Decorating with family heirlooms is a good way to keep family history alive. 

Please visit my friends at Sepia Saturday for more holiday greetings.

Merry Christmas, y’all!  And Happy Blogging in 2014!




© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Wordless Wednesday: Christmas 1964


Wordless Wednesday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that asks family historians to create a post in which the main focus is a photograph or image.




My sister Christmas 1964, just a couple weeks shy of her 6th birthday.




© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Friday, December 6, 2013

Sepia Saturday: The Whole Fam Damily

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.




This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt is the apron.  If the numbers of photos are any indication, my grandaunt Helen Killeen Parker must have had wonderful memories of summers spent at Ocean View between 1918 and 1920.  An apron is not the typical garb for the beach, but the age-old symbol of domestic life is present in three pictures that always evoke the same response from me.

This one makes me laugh because of the caption written on autographic film:


From album of Helen Killeen Parker about 1920
"The whole darn family"


This one makes me wonder:


From album of Helen Killeen Parker about 1920Mrs. ?  For a long time I tried to make it say “Mrs. Walsh” in the hopes of seeing my great-grandmother or her mother-in-law, my great-great grandmother.  However, based on the next photo, I gave up on that idea.  Now I simply wonder who she was and what baby she was holding.


















From album of Helen Killeen Parker about 1920
"Momma Ollice & the gang"
This one makes me want to drop everything and spend time on Ancestry.com


Momma Ollice.  Who?  My best GUESS, based on the apparent age of this aproned woman, is that she was the GRANDMOTHER of the WOMAN who married the oldest SON of Helen’s COUSIN Matthew Glynn, son of the SISTER of Helen's FATHER.  That would mean also that Momma Ollice was the GREAT-GRANDMOTHER of the girl who sang at my wedding. 











How’s that for connecting the “whole darn family”?


I’m cutting the apron strings and sending you off to Sepia Saturday for more stories and photos about aprons.



© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Wordless Wednesday: The Marrying Kind

Wordless Wednesday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that asks family historians to create a post in which the main focus is a photograph or image.

From album of Helen Killeen Parker 1918-1921
Ideal Husbands yet to be
Numbered left to right 4, 3, 2, 1
Numbers indicate who will be married first


This circa 1920 photo from the album of my grandaunt Helen Killeen Parker makes some predictions about which man will marry first.  She numbered the “Ideal Husbands yet to be” in the order in which they would likely marry.  She predicted Ideal Husband #1 would marry "very soon."

I wonder if her predictions were born out.

Most of all, I wonder who these ideal husbands were.  




© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.