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artofrecollection

🌱 Planting seeds of family history - one photo, one story at a time. #artofrecollection 📃 "In the end, we'll all become stories.". ~M.Atwood

Everything about this photo speaks to the delight

Everything about this photo speaks to the delight a Mama feels when she looks at her baby. It is1934 and there is cause for much joy. After suffering the loss of two daughters, Ray and Goldie have a healthy baby boy.

On the same album page as this photo, a card congratulating them on the birth of their baby seemed to be simply a sweet piece of memorabilia. Upon closer inspection it is more.

It was sent by A.A. Timlin. Alfred was Ray's former brother in law, the younger brother of Maude, uncle to Lorraine. (See yesterday's post)

Alfred writes, "I heard about your new son from the folks. Congratulations.

"I haven't been out to Minnesota in a couple of years, but I hope to get out next summer. I am working with the Dept of Agriculture on tree diseases. Very interesting work. I'm very enthusiastic about it..."

Without knowing the family history preceding the moment of joy captured in this snapshot, this card would just be a cute piece of ephemera added to an album page. However, knowing the backstory makes it more meaningful. It represents lives and relationships. It represents reaching beyond personal loss and celebrating life.

Alfred closes with, "I hope all your family are well, and that health and prosperity are coming your way."

Despite the losses Alfred and Ray shared, Alfred reaches out. He sends good wishes to Ray, Goldie, and their new baby boy. The card was meaningful enough that Ray saved it - one of many keepsakes passed to his son.

Family history is the net that holds individual story elements together. Without the history, this would simply be a sweet snapshot and a kind note. Knowing the backstory adds a layer of feeling, of sentiment, that otherwise would have been overlooked.

Today, we join Alfred in wishing Ray, Goldie, and their new baby health and prosperity. Today, we turn the corner from the personal losses the family suffered and celebrate the arrival of this healthy baby boy.
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#telltheirstories #howard #hill #savefamilyphotos #memorykeeper #familyhistorian #familyhistory #familystories #genealogy #artofrecollection #memorykeeping #familyalbum #photomemories #genealogyphotoaday #research #genealogyresearch #familytree

In these snapshots, the landscape conveys a lonlin

In these snapshots, the landscape conveys a lonliness. The earth and sky are large, the humans small, together creating a perspective of fragility.

Growing up, we knew the version of the humans who became our parents and grandparents, but without family history, our understanding is limited. There so many things they didn't talk about, and even if they had, we might not have listened well.

As I continue to turn the pages of these albums, digitizing and researching, I am learning. I am listening. The facts provide definitive touch points within the lives lived before we came along, but between the facts is room for imagining and hopefully an understanding.

This is a young Grandma Goldie. Based on context in the album, I'd guess this was about 1927.

Here's a snapshot of Ray's life:
1921 Married Maude Timlin.
1923 Daughter, Lorraine, was born.
1923 Maude died.
1926 He married Goldie.
1927 Daughter, Velma May was born.
1927 Velma died.
1931 8-yr-old Lorraine died.

Velma's obit reads:
"Two-Weeks-Old Babe Passed Away ... 1 o'clock Saturday morning and was laid to rest in the cemetery at Granada Sunday ... after a short funeral service held at the home ...

"The child was born in the local hospital ... Surviving with the parents is one sister four years of age.

"[They] have been living at the Otto Larson farm for the past year and only recently moved to Winnebago, the father being employed by George Williams."

"Card of Thanks
"We wish to express our sincere thanks and appreciation to the friends and neighbors who assisted us kindly at the death of our beloved little one. Only those who have experienced similar sorrows can realize what this sympathy has meant to us."

At the moment in time captured by these snapshots, their loss would have been painfully fresh. Although a baby boy will be born in a few years, at this moment the loneliness of loss would have loomed large - much like this landscape.
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#telltheirstories #howard #hill #familyhistorian #familyhistory #familystories #familyhistoryresearch #oldphoto #familysearch #ancestors #vintagephoto #artofrecollection #familyalbum #photomemories #genealogyphotoaday #heritage #research

One of the challenges I encountered when reassembl

One of the challenges I encountered when reassembling this album was portraits mounted in their original photographer frames. I love the frames and wanted to keep them but they are too thick for the photo corners I'm using elsewhere

I decided to make my own.

I used strips of archival safe paper lightly folded in half to mark the center, each side folded to almost meet in the middle. "Almost meet in the middle" accommodates the thickness of the frame. I used archival safe double-sided tape on the back, slipped the corners over the photo and frame, and tada! The photo is safely secured to the page, protected by the album sleeves, and yet remains removable. (Contd in comments)

In third or maybe fourth grade, I was the reporter for our 4-H club. One benefit of growing up in a small town is that, occasionally, an article written by a kid about a 4-H club meeting was published in the town's newspaper. Learning to use "5W's and an H" when writing those articles and sometimes seeing those articles in print was a wonderful life lesson.

5 W's and an H continue to be my guide. If I can shed light on What, When, Where, Why, and How in addition to the photographic Who, it adds a depth to an album that was already rich with photos and names. Adding genealogical info to these pages is my contribution to the albums my father-in-law painstakingly assembled so many years ago.

I hope I am making him proud. 🥰
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I added Ray and Goldie's 1926 marriage license to this page. One very direct answer surprised me a bit. "Number of grooms marriages: Second - First wife dead."

Ray's first wife, Maude Timlin, died in 1923, a few days after giving birth to their daughter, Lorraine.

The fact - "dead".
The heart - "loss".
2nd marriage - "forever family". ❤️
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#telltheirstories #howard #hill #familyhistorian #savefamilyphotos #memorykeeper #familiesareforever #familyhistory #familystories #familyhistoryresearch #oldphoto #familysearch #ancestors #photopreservation #vintagephoto #artofrecollection #genealogyphotoaday #research #genealogyresearch #genealogyphoto #heritage #familytree #ancestry #memorykeeping #familyalbum #photomemories

I knew my father-in-law had a step-sister, Lorrain

I knew my father-in-law had a step-sister, Lorraine Claire. I knew she died when she was a young girl. I knew there were some photos of Lorraine in these albums. I didn't know that tucked away in these boxes of memorabilia, I would find such poignant reminders.⁠
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Lorraine was born, April 13, 1923, in Worthington, MN, to Grandpa Ray and his first wife, Maude Timlin. Maude died when Lorraine was "but a few days old." After her mother's death, Lorraine "came to live on the Hill homestead near Granada, where, except for two years at Winnebago she resided until her death Feb 14, 1931."⁠
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Feb 14. Valentine's Day. That explains the large collection of Valentine's Day cards to Lorraine from her classmates that are in this box of memories. There are also 4 newspaper clippings, held together with a rusty straight pin, that tell the story.
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"Lorraine, accompanied by her parents ...and Dr. Gaugh, was taken to a Mankato hospital Monday...[she] has been very ill with pneumonia and it was necessary to drain fluid from the lungs. The latest reports from the hospital are that the little patient shows some improvement."⁠
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"Lorraine ...died Saturday evening at a Mankato hospital after a three weeks illness with pneumonia. She was eight years old. Her illness was not thought severe until it became necessary to remove her to the hospital last Monday.⁠
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"Lorraine was bright and happy and termed an excellent pupil in the Granada schools, where she was in the third grade. Her death is a crushing blow to the parents."⁠
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I always feel responsible for the people I find during family history research. But when you find facts online, the responsibility feels a little different than the responsibility felt holding the schoolwork, notes, cards, newspaper clippings, and guest book from the funeral home - tangible reminders of a young life lost.⁠ 😥❤️
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#telltheirstories #familyhistorian #savefamilyphotos #memorykeeper #familiesareforever #familyhistory #familystories #familyphotos #memories#familyhistoryresearch #oldphoto #familysearch #ancestors vintagephoto #artofrecollection⁠
#memorykeeping #familyalbum #photomemories#memorykeeping #familyalbum #photomemories

Some pages in the Howard album are filled with pho

Some pages in the Howard album are filled with photos of a family member. Some only have 1-2. Regardless of the number, these pages document and illustrate the family's connectedness.

This is Goldie's younger sister, Gladys, with her husband, Edward "Ellis" Stevens, and their children, Raymond and Shirley. Great Aunt Gladys is one of the 5 Howard children who stayed in northern Iowa. Uncle Glen, the second child, moved to Springfield MO. (518 miles away). Uncle Earl, the third child, moved to Olmsted MN. (197 miles away).

When you look at collections of family photos, you can almost tell when a gathering was an travel-in-for-it-event vs when it was a casual get together. The 5 Howard kids who remained in northern Iowa had opportunities to spend time with one another, visit new babies, have Sunday dinners together, babysit nieces and nephews, attend graduations, weddings, funerals.

It would have been more difficult for the 2 who moved away.

I think about our family. Those who stayed. Those who relocated. When out of town family visited, there was always a lot of prep. Sometimes the prep was so exhausting it was hard to enjoy the visit. Sometimes the prep overshadowed that which was most important - the people. And sadly, sometimes the connections felt as remote as the places various family members called home.

I continue to be amazed at Grandma Goldie's collection of family photos. Apparently, she not only felt the connectedness with her siblings throughout her life, but she was determined to document the times they were together. Goldie collected photos and memorabilia which were passed to her son and have now passed to us.

Isn't it wonderful when someone takes time to document family life in a way that can be handed down? Never stop documenting - your future family will thank you. ❤️
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#telltheirstories #howard #savefamilyphotos #memorykeeper #familiesareforever #familyhistory #familystories #familyhistoryresearch #oldphoto #familysearch #ancestors #vintage #vintagephoto #artofrecollection #genealogyphotoaday #myheritage #research #genealogyresearch #genealogyphoto #heritage #familytree #ancestry #memorykeeping #familyalbum #photomemories

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