The Wonderful Legacy of Photos
Her wonderful photographs are her most treasured possessions, they show in one inexplicable second a laugh, cry or something that makes your heart turn in somersaults.
She was delighted to find old treasured photo albums, seeing people she had heard of but never met, looking to see whether there was any resemblance to herself and her family. She had a little laugh when it is obvious they really were her relatives, with maybe funny stick-out ears or long noses.
As her dad’s family immigrated from Ireland, the only photograph she had of his family was one that her grandmother had brought with her. It was a photo of her mother and two sisters, both looking very sad and forlorn. There was not very much joy in Ireland in those days, with many deaths from starvation from the Great Famine.
After her mother had passed away, she found her mother’s photo album, squirrelled away in the bottom of a drawer. What a joy it was to find these photos of her mother’s early life with her parents and brothers and sisters.
The album included wonderful photos of her mum and her classmates, some with white shirts and ties, others with clothes too big or too small for them. There were also a couple of photos of when her mum was working as a cleaner at a girl’s boarding school, scrubbing the steps of the college. She looked happy, laughing and chattering with her workmates while doing such a mundane task.
The wedding photos were a treat to see, her uncles and aunts dressed up in their finery for their special day, the fashions so different from weddings today.
It urged her on to look into her mother’s family history, and Mr Google was keen to help. She was totally amazed at the brilliant photos on the My Heritage websites, and here was her family!!!! It was truly wonderful.
She could date her mother’s family back to the 1100’s, although no photos were available; there were plenty of paintings showing how people lived in those days. It seems she may have been related to a famous Knight, Hugh the Fat, the painting showing a bear-like man, brandishing his sword, carving his way through many a town. She was a little concerned as to where this would take her, but still, a wonderful start to her investigation.
However, she was not to be disheartened, and soon found the paintings of the Magna Carta, and, lo and behold, here was one of her ancestors, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who helped draw up that famous document and was there with King John when the document was sealed and accepted in June 1251. Quite an achievement for a family who “maybe” started out from that ominous character Hugh the Fat!!
A few decades later, she found many of her ancestors were in fact Lords and Ladies. How wonderful this was, at last, good news about her ancestors. This explains why her mother always called her “Lady Margaret”. She must have known she had royal blood in her. However, her sister Elizabeth, whose nickname was “Busy Lizzy”, was always keen to help around the house. Maybe she was related to one of the workers attending to the Lords and Ladies shown in the lovely photos of her ancestors. Wonderful memories are there in her mind of those carefree days of her childhood.
Investigations into ones heritage brings to light many wonderful stories of how people lived in those days. Many of her English ancestors were very well known aristocrats, owning many castles; she could just see herself roaming around the castle, in exquisite dresses, with her hair beautifully coiffed. However, at the same time, there were some scandalous people. One such ancestor, named Robert, was reported in 1590 to be well affected in religion, he had spoiled his estate and used “bad company”. She guesses you have to take the good with the bad, she was hoping this investigation was not going down the road of the “bad company” track.
Her next ancestor of interest is a chap called William, born in 1822, who was profoundly deaf. This is an interesting anecdote [NP1] as deafness runs in her mother’s family, with herself being profoundly deaf too. This did not stop him earning a living, as he was gainfully employed as a grave digger at Kensington Cemetery. By this time, she was really enjoying this wonderful pastime of delving into ones past and dutifully printed out the painting of the grave digger at the cemetery.
Continuing on with the investigation of her family, she found a delightful photo on the My Heritage website of a very brilliant man, who became an English writer and founding member of the Literary Club. You could not mistake the fact that this man is the spitting image of her brother John, same quizzical look on his face, probably thinking about his next novel.
My Heritage website was the place she found most of her family’s ancestors, as it seemed many of her relatives used this website to tell their stories about their heritage. Finding the photos they placed on the website was like finding buried treasure.
There was one great photo, dated around the 1902, which stood out against the rest. This photo is of a man with a very bushy black beard, and gentle looking eyes. It is said it is the photo of the very famous bushranger, Captain Thunderbolt. He was renowned for escaping from Cockatoo Island and had a reputation as the “gentleman bushranger”, with his lengthy survival being the longest roaming bushranger in Australian history. And yes, apparently, she is related to him too, in a very distant sort of way.
In her mother’s family album, she came across photos of her grandparents. She had never met them, so she was thrilled to actually have a photo to put a name to. She continued her investigation to see if she could find out a little more about them, as they had passed away before she was born.
The website “Trove” gave her more insights as to what they were like, and she was a little amazed by this wonderful piece in the local paper at the time, around 1910. Apparently her grandfather had left her grandmother for a short time, which is those days was against the law, so the police were called, a summons issued, and this amusing description of her grandfather was published in the local paper.
“Description:- 42 years of age, 5 feet 10 inches high, dark complexion and hair, clean shaven, brown eyes, rather long nose, round holes inside of left knee (result of fracture), wears a truss, a cab proprietor, wearing a navy blue cloth suit, light grey felt hat with a dark band, dark grey overcoat with waistband, and black lace up boots”.
She looked closely at the photo of her grandfather, and yes, she could see the resemblance, especially the nose, as she has always been told she has the “long family nose”. She could not see where the truss came into it, but guessed descriptions must be accurate if they are to find the person. Still and all, a wonderful photo of her grandparents whom she had never met, but now she had an amusing accurate description of her grandfather. As they say, photos never lie, and here they were, her grandfather complete with truss!!
Her family decided it was time for her to downsize her collection of photos, her wonderful memories she was so keen to keep. Scanning and saving in the “cloud” was the way to go, and she was instructed to go through her dozen or so albums, keeping the best, and discarding the worst.
She opened her first album, that of her wedding. There was nothing she could discard here, too many wonderful photos showing a happy couple, smiling with joy into the camera, capturing the first kiss. She did scan them into the computer, but they were all put in the “keeper” box.
Then came the photos of her first born child, her christening, first smile, lots of photos of her crawling, running, cuddling her grandparents, they definitely were “keepers” and after scanning, went into the box.
Another child born and more “first” photos, definitely cannot discard these, she said to herself. It was becoming an arduous task, time to sit back and see how her “keeper” box was going. It was full of her delightful photos, and she had to start another box. Not to worry, she was sure she would come to some she could actually discard.
And so she went on, with not many going into the “discard” box. Those that did make it there were ones with the children so far from the camera, you could not really see if they were their children or belonging to another family. At last, she had something to show the family in the “discard” box.
As she went through the albums, it showed how they all had aged as life went on. She found the photos of her grandmother when she turned 100 years of age, and a wonderful photo of standing proudly holding the “Letter from the Queen” in her hands. This letter is a memorable keepsake for one reaching their century, she wonders, does the Queen still send letters to centenarians now.
The photos were also showing how her parents were aging too, seeming a little bent over, and their hair grey. These photos are definitely “keepers”. She remembers not long after her mother had passed away, she had some films developed, and while looking through them, came across the photos of her mother, sitting with her dad enjoying their 45th wedding anniversary. She sat and cried, some sad tears, but happy tears too, they were wonderful days spent with their families, and the photos are there to remind her, that those memories will never leave her.
She is happy now that she has finished her investigation into her heritage, and has printed out many of the photos and paintings which she believes are her relatives, needing to be kept for future generations to see. She has collated all the information she found through her investigations and created hardcover printed photo books detailing the lives of her ancestors, with the photos of her ancestors now in glorious colour.
She has scanned and saved all her photos in the “cloud”, but also onto a hard drive, she can hold that item in her hand, and just like her photo albums, her precious wonderful photos are there to keep forever.
That only leaves her to decide what to do with all her collages on her walls. Every one tells a story, a birth of a child, a wedding, a fun day at Easter or Christmas, they all mean something to her. People come into her house, and are mesmerized with them, they say they can see something different every time they look at the collage. She has decided to keep them on the wall, and when she has passed away, the family will have the right to decide what happens to them, as long as they eventually reside with the “keeper” boxes of photos!
As for her “keeper” boxes, she has stored them safely in the cupboard, together with her printed photo books detailing the lives of her ancestors, and has left strict instructions with her family that they are never to be destroyed.
Possibly, in the future, someone in her family will come across the boxes of old photos and books, perhaps wondering what they are and why they were kept. She knows her family will adhere to her instructions, and hopefully instruct their families as well, that “her wonderful legacy”, the boxes of “keeper” photos, collages and books that she lovingly kept are never to be destroyed, allowing them to be enjoyed for generations to come.