Friday, April 27, 2007

The Clan

This is a picture of my Grandfather's family reunion in June of 1925. Thankfully someone in the family listed every name, married and maiden, on an extra sheet of paper. There are several people I've never heard of but I do recognize my Grandpa's 3 brothers and their wives. My Grandpa is the third from the right in the back row. He is holding my Mom and my Grandma is on the left. Mom's older brother is the forth from the left in the front row. He's wearing a sailor type shirt. Her younger brother wasn't born for a few more years.
The tiny woman sitting in the middle in the second row is Grandpa's Grandmother Julania. She is the person that made the quilt in this post. The older man behind her is her son Herbert, my Grandpa's father.
Family history is the Great Grandpa S. was still working in the woods in his 80's. He was told by the Dr that he had the body of a 50 year old. They say he would eat anything that "would go down his shirt collar" He ate the rind from cheese and ham and salted everything. He loved peppermint patties and would eat a whole bag if they didn't watch him. He broke his hip at 96 and just gave up. He never got over my Father dying at such a young age. He said it should have been him. I remember him a little. He loved to hold my baby cousins. He would sit for hours holding them out in front of him and rocking them up and down.
I know that I am very fortunate to have such strong family roots.

4 comments:

Carole Burant said...

Oh Jean, what a fabulous photo...that's why they say it's so important to write who is who at the back of pictures:-) One of these days I must go through all of mine and start writing at the back of them. xox

Tammy said...

What a great picture...we could all learn a lesson about listing the names!

Lilli in Vancouver said...

How precious is this! All my family is gone, so I have no one to ask about our history. Thankfully I have all the family's photos, and have remembered a lot of the stories.

I love those old names :)

Anonymous said...

Jean, We certainly are extremely lucky to have such strong roots and so many fabulous family memories and stories. Here's one about Herb Stanton, our Great Grandfather. He was in his late 80's and a reporter from the Jamestown Post-Journal went down to Russel, PA. to talk to one of his neighbors who was in his 80's as the reporter had heard he was the oldest resident in the area. The guy told the reporter that Herb Stanton up the road was a few years older. When the reporter got tom the Stanton farm they told him Herb was up the road cutting brush. They went up to talk to him and trake a picture but he still swung the axe so fast they couldn't get a decent picture of him swinging it. Great stories! John