12 Months of Photos January 2023: Grandparents

Question

January 2023 12 Months of Photos sharing theme: Grandparents

To participate, simply:

1. Choose a family photo that fits this week's theme.
2. Add it to this month's free-space gallery.
3. Reply with an answer below to let us know which photo you're sharing. If you want to include the photo but don't know how, click here.

The photo you share might be featured on the WikiTree home page and in our social media channels.

It is requested that no "best answer" stars be given to any photo, as they are all great pictures without exception and none should be preferred over the other.

Comments

My grandmother passed when I was three. All my life, I've heard what a sweet person she was. Hers was the house that all the kids came to play at. Hers was the shoulder that many came to cry on. Everything that I imagined about her, Mary Louise Hausser Sheridan, is somehow reflected in this sweet photo of her.

Answer 1

This photo, not very clear or detailed, is precious to me due to the circumstances. My great grandmother Augusta (Streich) Loock and her daughter Mary contracted Typhoid Fever in 1907.  The disease killed Augusta but Mary, then 19, pulled through. Doctors told her father Mary wouldn't last much longer, only a year or two as the disease weakened her heart.  The doctors were too pessimistic.  Yes, Mary died of a heart attack, but 29 years later, lots of time to marry Charles Stielow  and have a daughter Evelyn, my mother.  I never met Mary (Loock) Stielow as she died in 1936, but I can see the joy on her face in this image as she is holding her baby Evelyn.

http://wikitree.com/wiki/Loock-138

Comments

Great pic and story, Pat!

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Thank you for the lovely photo and story, Pat. I'm glad that the doctors were mistaken or we would have no Pat.

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Thanks, John.  I only have one photo of my grandparents together, with mom standing between them and no photos of my father's parents together.

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Pat, thank you for sharing this photo and the sweet story behind it.

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Thanks, Robin.  You are correct. If the doctors were correct, no mom, no me.

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Thanks, Alexis. 

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Gorgeous photo Pat your great gramophone look adorable thank you for sharing

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Thank you, Susan

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Pat, I can understand why this photo is precious to you!

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Thank you, Betsy, for your comment. 

Answer 2

This photo is of my maternal grandparents, Otis and Bertha Witcher. I believe the occasion was for their 50th Wedding Anniversary in November 1952. 

They were married for 63 happy years until my grandfather died in 1966.

Comments

Great pic, Robin!

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Thanks, John. I have very fond memories of them both.

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Not only is the photo great, Robin, but I love the written message.

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Robin, thank you for sharing the photo of your maternal grandparents. I am glad to see you back sharing your wonderful photos. Otis and Bertha are a very attractive couple.

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Thanks, Pat.

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Hi Alexis. It's great to be back and with a month to find and post a photo, I hope to stay back. And thanks for the nice comment on my g-parents.

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Robin what a adorable photo of your maternal grandparents thank you for sharing

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Thank you, dear Susan, for the nice comment!

Answer 3

This is one my favorites of my maternal grandparents.  They were happiest when together and celebrated 9 more years of marriage until the death of my grandfather in 1988

Comments

Awesome pic, Karen! They look happy!

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Thank you, John

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Thank you for sharing this photo of your grandparents' 50th anniversary.

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Karen, thank you for sharing such a lovely photo of your grandparents 50th wedding anniversary.

Answer 4

This picture is of my paternal grandparents Leonard (Len) Ross and Marguerite ( Maggie) Richards on their wedding day 25 November 1925 at Walsall, Staffordshire, England. It has always surprised me how trendy/ fashionable they look, they were always so proper and set in their ways, especially my grandmother, her dress is great and so 1920s.  I love the carpet on the grass which is typical of photos taken at the time in England. I have another picture of my grandfather and family taken about 1902 they were also on a carpet. 

Comments

Love those old wedding pics, M! Great picture!

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Thanks John, it is my favourite, one of my favourite pictures of my grandparents.

The other favourite is this one, which I think is the day they got engaged.

https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Ross-19822

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I really like both of the photos of your grandparents. The wedding photo is so formal and the engagement photo is so casual, but both are great.

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Lovely photo, M.  I never knew about the custom of using carpet on grass.  Perhaps to prevent wet grass from sticking to shoes?

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My guess is the carpet was supposed to make the setting more formal.

This picture was taken in the 'yard' behind the family grocers shop, they must have worked to make it look tidy, as this is where pigs were slaughtered and the meat sold in the shop. I think the ground surface was brick.

https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Ross-20039-1

My grandfather is the little kid on the right, with his ruffled shirt and father's hand on his shoulder, perhaps to keep him from escaping with his younger brother Alfred Thomas part of whom can be seen disappearing out of the picture on the extreme right.

Answer 5

This is my 3rd great grand parents, Michael and Elizabeth Siefert. They both came to the US on their own at young ages from Germany. Elizabeth died in early December 1905. Mike then went to California with his children to live with them. He died shortly after they arrived, and he was brought back to southern Illinois to be buried next to his wife. 

Comments

Nice photo, John.  It's neat to have one from so long ago.

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Great photo, John. Michael and Elizabeth both look like they were peaceful, gentle folks.

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A great photo, Cousin John!

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Question, John, about an amazing photo of your 3rd great grandparents...did you put 2 single photos together?  If not, it's even more amazing, if so, what a great idea.  There's definitely a time difference here.  My 3rd great grandparents lived in the 1700s.

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Thanks Karen!

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Thanks Robin!

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Pat, my cousin gave me this picture. It's a copy of the original that hangs in his den. Thanks for your comments!

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Thanks Cousin Mark!

Answer 6

This a photo taken in Ohio in 1915 of my great grandparents Riza and Seth Marvin II. Riza's father died when she was only 5, and her mother then married Seth Marvin II. When Riza was 20, her mother died at age 42, leaving Seth with five young children to raise. After the death of her mother, Riza married her stepfather, Seth. They had eleven more children together. 

Comments

Great picture, Alexis! Such an interesting story as well!

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John, thank you for your nice comment. My dear first cousin in Wyoming mailed me a copy of this photo. After I put it on the internet, I got a message from a second cousin in Ohio asking—who are you, and how did you get this photo?

 I love the way doing genealogy brings people together. 

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How wonderful, Alexis, that your cousin mailed you this photo, then another cousin noticed when you posted it.  I can relate.  A distant cousin in New York City sent me a photo of a branch of the Miller family which she got from a distant cousin in Toronto and I sent it to other cousins and put it on WikiTree. As you say.....genealogy brings people together.

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Eleven children!! Your g-grandmother must have been a strong woman. Thank you for posting this wonderful photo along with the story.

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Alexis sweet photos of your great grandparents they look so cute

Thank you for sharing

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Pat, thank you for your comment. It was interesting that the second cousin asked me to come for a visit and stay with them only two days after asking who I was.

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Robin, thank you for your comment. Their story had me confused when I first started doing genealogy.

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Susan, thank you for your comment. My grandfather was such a kind man—I think he must have had a happy childhood with them.

Answer 7

My 2nd great grandparents George Bernard Weinheimer and Caroline Bronner.

Comments

Mark, you are so fortunate to be able have a copy of a photo of your second great grandparents and know about their lives. I love these photos where chairs are taken outside to be able to have a photo taken.

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I love the old outdoor pics! This is a great one, Cousin!

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Thank you, Mark, for posting this photo. It looks as if George and Caroline were in their "Sunday Best".

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Mark sweet photos of your great grandparents thank you for sharing

Answer 8

The photo shows my paternal grandparents on the day of their wedding on 18. Novermber 1922 in Leezen, Kreis Segeberg, Provinz Schleswig-Holstein, Freistaat Preußen, Deutsches Reich

Martin was the a shoemaker from Oering, Kreis Segeberg; he was the oldest son of the shoemaker Gustav Lewerenz and his wife Sophia nee Clasen. Emma was the second oldest daughter of the Vollhufner (farmer) August Friedrich Reher and his wife Sophia Emma nee Finnern in Leezen.

Comments

Beautiful photo, Dieter.  So nice to see your grandparents on their wedding day.

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Dieter, thank you for the photo question and sharing another one of your lovely  photos. It is so interesting that he was a shoe maker, and he later made boots—such a wonderful and needed craft.

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Awesome pic, Dieter!

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First, thank you Dieter for continuing the photo challenge. And thank you for posting this photo of your young grandparents along with a bit of their history.

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Dieter your paternal grandparents look so sweet

Thank you for sharing

Answer 9

I added a picture of my maternal grandparents, Dominick Brychel and Margaret DeFrancisco. My family moved to my dad's hometown, Hinesville, Georgia in the early 1980s from where we'd been living in my mom's hometown of Chicago, IL. My grandparents drove down every year or so to visit us, usually in the summer when my younger brother and I were off from school. I love how you can see my grandpa wearing the cheesy "Where the heck is Hinesville?" t-shirt. I can't figure out how to link it here in G2G but I added it to the free space page.

Answer 10

I posted a pic of my maternal grandmother, Ada on her last Thanksgiving trip to my home. She was a sweet, fragile 95-year-old lady who still completed her thankful card and made the homemade roll for our Thanksgiving meal. 

This pic is especially important to me because she is in my home, with an afghan over her lap that she made for me when I graduated from college in 1979. She is also holding my study Bible to write her card.

Comments

Thank you, Margaret, for this lovely photo and story about your grandmother.  She sounds very special.

Answer 11

My paternal grandparents taken at their wedding in 1919 and as I remember them, 1965.

Comments

Thank you, Peter, for posting these photos of your grandparents. It's nice to see their early days together and the happiness in their faces after many years together.

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Such a great idea to do this, Peter. Photos from 1919 and 1965.  It helps remind young and old alike that inside every senior is a young person.

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I love them. :)

Answer 12

A photo of my mother's maternal grandfather, Michael Balfour Umlah-27 (1857-1892) died young, age 35, in Nova Scotia when his daughter, Anna May, was 7.   May met, in Vancouver, B.C., and married John Dickson Moore whose father, Joseph, died young, age 33, in Ontario, when his son, John, was 5.   May and John are my maternal grandparents, however I didn't know anything about their ancestors, or even their first names until i started searching......recently I found this photo of Michael.....he owned Umlah Studios and employed 6 photographers in Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.                                                                                    

Comments

Great photo, John. I hope you dig deeper, see what you can learn.  There must be records.  I don't think we've had a photography studio owner featured before, at least not recently.

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Pat, I recently found Umlah Studios-Beaton Institute Digital Archives with 4 photos featured that can be viewed.......the studio apparently was on Charlotte St. in Sydney, N.S.

Answer 13

I'm throwing up a picture of my maternal grandparents. I knew both of my paternal grandparents, and maternal grandpa. However, my maternal grandma died in 1957, so no chance to meet her.

This is a reprint of a photo of Paul and Mary Ann Lowery, standing on their farm.

Comments

Because there was discussion on the wrap-up whether the kitty was a kitty, or a dog - - -

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Thanks for this, Melanie!!! 

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No worries!  

Answer 14

My great-grandparents from Brislington, England are seated on either side of their children.  The youngest son Frank looks to be around 11 which puts this photo at 1915.  My maternal grandmother is most likely the blonder of the two young women, although she doesn't look like other images I've seen of her.  This photo just came to me two days ago through a distant cousin whose parents found it in their collection.  It was enormously exciting because I had a photo of the men only which was obviously taken the same day.  When I opened the file and saw the women, my jaw dropped.  Now that's a good family history day!

Comments

Great picture, Betsy!

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What a wonderful family photo, Betsy, and such a treasure the way you found it.  I had a similar experience but not as precious as yours because it was the family group of his brother, not my direct ancestor, nevertheless, I was thrilled to receive it so I can imagine your joy and surprise.

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Thanks, John!  I like yours of your 3rd great-grandparents as well.

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Thanks, Pat.  I know what you mean about the thrill of finding photos of direct ancestors, but I'm always excited when I can replace the generic face icon with a real photo on any profile.  Here's to more discoveries in people's attics!

Answer 15

I deeply miss my maternal grandmother Catherine Allison. We had a mutual affection for each other, and it wasn’t until she died that I realized we had sort of a friendship, in addition to her being a lovely grandmother. She was an optimistic person too. She used to talk about her death in terms of “if I die.” Not “when.” She didn’t even do that to make a point. She was just matter-of-fact about it. She was such a special lady who overcame horrible poverty and a dysfunctional home by hard work and good clean living. This is one of our last Thanksgivings together before she passed at age 97.

Comments

What a wonderful story to accompany your photo, Kevin.  She sounds like a lovely lady.

Answer 16

Photo of Jesse Ives Crippen & Susan Elizabeth (Wyrick) Crippen, taken sometime before 1930, likely at their home near Wyandotte, Oklahoma. It's my favorite because they are my 3rd-great-grandparents. The generations on my mother's side are very close together (having children very young). I'm still surprised, and feel extremely lucky, to have photos going back that many generations. Thanks to one of my cousins for saving my mother's photos.

Answer 17

This is a picture of my great grandparents ,  John Henry Iceman/Isleman and Mary E Huff Isleman , my grandfather, Charles Edward Isleman taken in the late 1800's probably somewhere in Ohio 

Answer 18

This is a smaller version of a large oval photo that hung on my grandparents’ wall throughout my childhood. The photo is of my grandfather’s grandparents: John Rounsefell and Margaret deWolf.

John and Margaret were both born in Nova Scotia, he was part of the first generation of his family to be born in the New World. She was great-granddaughter of Elisha deWolf, who emigrated from Connecticut to Nova Scotia during the Revolutionary War.

John’s family was from Cornwall and he earned his living as a merchant. He owned shares in quite a number of vessels out of Halifax. The family kept close ties with the Old World, as a result. In the 1870s and ‘80s, they lived in London. When they returned to Canada, they went West. They spent a few years in Manitoba, but settled in British Columbia. 

The Rounsefells remained in the Vancouver/Chilliwack area for a couple more generations. That was where my grandfather was born, though his family moved to Alaska while he was a boy.

Comments

  Well hello Katrina!   Here I am in Chilliwack, working through the night and into the morning, studying how to connect this lovely couple's daughter-in-law, Lillian's Thompson ancestors, to my 'Clonflin' Thompsons in Ireland......and this photo appears as I stop for a rest.    PS  I've known for some time that Lillian is connected to my Tottenham branch.

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Hi cousin John!

I've put in a lot of time here on Lilian's Thompsons, so I hope you figure out how to connect her to your branch. I know that, even as recently as my grandfather's generation, the family was still tied to Rathnally, if that's any help.

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My first Thompson ahha moment is when I found Skeffington Thompson's Rathnally Arms image and on the previous page, of the source, found the Clonfin Arms image, which matched an unlabeled copy that my father gave me when I was five.                                         I have noted that your 4th ggf, Skeffington, has a brother, Robert, married to Louisa Metge who has a great aunt married to, what I have calculated to be, my 4th ggf William Thompson.

Answer 19

My Great Grandmother with her first baby, my Grandmother when she was just a few months old. 

Comments

Lovely, Teresa.  It looks like a painting.  Yes, I know it's a photo.  Very, very nice.

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It is my favorite

Answer 20

My 3rd great grandparents, Cyrus and Amanda (Chapin) Aldrich.  Cyrus was a veteran of the Civil War.  They were both born in New York state and were buried in Southern California.