Photo Booth Pics

Earlier this year I undertook the huge task of scanning most all the photographs that belonged to my grandmother Edna Keener and her sister Pauline Keener Harrington. 

One thing that I quickly noticed was the stack of various of small photographs, many of which were school photos of children in the family, but not all of them were.  I noted that some pictures had strange backgrounds, or that the people were looking "not ready" for their snapshot.   These pictures were from photo booths and what a treasure they are!

I recently saw a post from a fellow blogger entitled In Strips of Four by Nancy at My Ancestors and Me.  While I too had thought of doing a post related to the photo booth pictures I had found in my collection, she beat me to it!

So here's my collection of photo booth pictures.  Taken at what appears to be various stages of my Aunt's and Uncle's late teen / early twenties.  I don't have many from the same strip, only a couple of my uncle that appear to be from the same day.    In an age where we simply hold a camera in front of us and get an instant picture that we can take again and again, it makes me smile to see them change poses in what must have been a few seconds.   Some of them even appear as if they were "made up" for the picture taking. 

Mildred Seek Anderson - my great aunt

The following photos are all of my Aunt Virginia Anderson.   Virginia was born in 1929.   I haven't any clue when any of these were taken, but obviously she loved to visit the booth and share the photos with her sisters.

This one is of my Uncle Charles Anderson.  Charles was born in 1930.

These two are of my Aunt Pauline Anderson Harrington. Pauline was born in 1926 and it's obvious that these two photos were taken sometime apart.

 I've got one of my Grandmother, Edna Reba Keener. Edna was born in 1924.

Finally, there are two of my Uncle Russell Garner Keener. Russell was born in 1927. These are the only two that I've got from the same strip.

Treasure Chest Thursday - A rock?

What's so special about a rock?      Why do we have it?  

This rock is special. It belonged to a 6 year old boy, who left his home country in 1923 with his father.   Of all the things he might have brought with him across the ocean, we have this rock.

This rock belonged to my Grandfather, William Patrick Bellew.   When he left England his mother and two brothers remained behind for a few years.  When I hold it I imagine a young boy, with it in his pocket...  this rather large rock from home. Boarding a huge ship for another country, and holding onto somthing to remember the place he came from.  What surprises me more is that he kept it all his life and my Grandmother has passed it to my mom. 

A young boy's "treasure", and now ours.

A Late "Thank You"

I've been on a bit of a summer break for the last month or so and wanted to just take a minute to say Thank You! to Jasia over at Creative Gene for choosing me as the featured author for the recent edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.   I have received so many kind emails, comments and remarks about my scrapbook pages and to everyone I say "Thanks so much!".

The summer is ending soon and the kids will all be back in school next week - I don't know whether to jump for joy or cry :-)    In the meantime, I've been thinking a lot about different posts that I want to do in the future and getting my photos together for the usual weekly themed posts.   I am so looking forward to getting back into posting on a more regular basis.

Thanks again everyone for your kind words!