For several years now I have been addicted to Genealogy and I have spent hours and hours at the computer searching for family details, you know the kind, births deaths and marriages. About a year ago I found that I had gone back as many generations as the Internet would allow and I had loads of names and dates but not one photo of my ancestors. My father’s parents were fairly poor and had no camera and the only photo is one of my father as a baby and the next thing he’s 14 and in the army.
I thought the only way I was going to find photos of my grandparents and their parents was to find some living relatives. One of the saddest things I ever heard was my Dad say was that he didn’t know what his father looked like and so finding a photo of my grandfather became a priority. I had one lead. In an old photo from the 60’s of a family gathering there were two youngish cousins of my father. I knew only one of their names and so I set about looking for that person, not knowing whether they were dead or alive, they may even have immigrated from the UK just as my family had. With a little help from Marie and some darn good luck and a bit of persistence I was able to contact my Dad’s cousin Sandra. She is a lovely lady in her 70’s and we have had some fantastic conversations on the phone.
This past week I received a little parcel from Sandra containing eight photos that Sandra had of our grandparents, great grandparents and even a beautiful great great grandma! But one in particular left every member of our family speechless, it was of a man in uniform sitting on a chair. That one photo was able to finally answer my Dad’s question “What did my father look like?”. Now Sandra is not certain that this man is my Dad’s father, but I’ll let you make up your own mind on that one …
I have thanked Marie in the past with words here and a gift in the mail but honestly there really are no words or gifts that can completely express my gratitude to her. The total joy at seeing my Dad’s face when he first laid eyes on the photo was priceless. It took his breath away and brought tears of joy to our eyes. So just once more I’d like to say THANK YOU MARIE.
I’m off this Friday to another scrapbooking retreat for the weekend so I probably wont blog again until Monday. Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
TTFN
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May 21st, 2008 - 12:20 am
Oh my goodness they look like the same man. No guestion in my mind. You have a wonderful time at your scrapbooking retreat.
May 21st, 2008 - 12:20 am
typo: question
May 21st, 2008 - 12:37 am
Okay Maddy, that brought tears to my eyes. The same thing happened to me - in reverse. I was able to show a photo to a second cousin, once removed, of her mother. The first time she had ever seen a photo of her mum. (Her mum died when she was very young and she was raised by an aunt.) At the time I thought, how cool is that? But now I really understand the significance. Thank you.
May 21st, 2008 - 2:14 am
Wow, now I’ve got tears in my eyes too. What a wonderful image … I mean the image of imagining your Dads face when he first set eyes on the photo. x
May 21st, 2008 - 2:47 am
What a lovely story. Your dad and grandfather look like two peas in a pod!
May 21st, 2008 - 4:13 am
What a blessing this was for you all. Have a great trip.
May 21st, 2008 - 5:36 am
Well done you Maddy. The photos of your dad and grandad are a result of all your hard work. Enjoy your scrapbooking.
May 21st, 2008 - 8:42 am
Just wonderful.
May 21st, 2008 - 5:54 pm
Oh Maddy!! I’m so happy for you that I have tears running down my face now too! There is no doubt that this must be your grandfather, the resemblance is just too too close for it not to be! How wonderful for you and what a lovely gift for Sandra to send you. I’m so pleased that I was such a help to you. I just love being able to help someone out and it really makes my day to know it’s been such a success!!! ((((hugs))))
May 21st, 2008 - 5:57 pm
Oh my goodness. This is amazing, Maddy! I can’t tell you how touched I was to see the photos. Well done you for doing all of this, families are the most amazing things!
Lots of love
Cherry xoxoxo
May 22nd, 2008 - 3:58 am
Oh Maddy, what a brilliant result! Well done you! I bet your poor father was overwhelmed. I look at other peoples old photos with envy as I have virtually none of my own and what I do have has come from other people, 2nd, 3rd or 4th cousins who have given me pictures of Gt Aunts and Uncles, 1st and second cousins and Gt Gt Aunts and Uncles. I haven’t been lucky enough yet to find photos of Gt Grandparents. What I’d love to have the most is a picture of my lovely Dad, sadly he died when I was five. I don’t have a photo of him and my one fear in life is that I’ll wake up one day any I won’t be able to remember his face. Your post has given me renewed hope that one day I might come into contact with someone who can help with photos of my father and his sisters.
Have a great weekend scrappin’!!
May 23rd, 2008 - 3:52 pm
What a sweet story, Maddy!
One of these days (soon I hope) I’ll have time to sit down and truly sift through all the geneological information I’ve collected through the years.