Alright, this photo, from approximately 1905, shows the Wald family. Peter Wald, the first one, came over from Baden, Germany in the 1860s and originally settled in Illinois. Then, he went to Missouri, where the family's been ever since. Peter Wald married a woman named Barbara Hoffman, and they ended up having 13 kids (!!!), 9 of whom lived to adulthood. That's what this photo is! Only Peter is not in it, because he was dead by 1905.
I won't bore you with all the names, but the guy standing up in the back, on the very far left, is my great-grandpa, Thomas George Wald. The old lady sitting down is my great-great-grandma, Barbara Hoffman Wald. There is one extra man, if you're counting, and that's because one is a son-in-law (guy on far right). Check out all the mustaches!!! Whoa.
Doesn't my great-great-grandma look like your stereotypical stern, never-smiles German hausfrau? LOL I love it! Not exactly who you'd want to sit next to on a cross-country flight, huh? Well, I guess we can all see where my mom gets it from....LOL
Anyway, I have told you stories about Great Grandpa Thomas before. He was kind of a jerk, actually. Now that I see what he and his mom looked like, it kind of makes sense....
Thomas, my jerky great-gpa, married Mary Ellen Vater and had 7 kids, one of whom was my grandma Virginia. But that's another story for another day.
If you are groaning about my boring genealogy stuff, you are not alone. CN is ready for me to get a new project, too. LOL
11 comments:
very cool. My uncle has a photo of my grandmother as a little girl with her parents and grandparents. I think my parents have a copy of it for me at their house.
This is so cool! I love old photos like this. But they're even better when they're your relatives!
I forgot to tell you about the picture from the other side of my family. It is my great grandparents and their siblings and cousins (think i remembered everyone). On the left side of the photo is an empty chair and when I first saw the photo when I was around 10 or so, I asked Did this person not show up or had they died? And my grandmother said; "No. He went to fight for the North."
Something I left out, this side of the family was/is from Southern Virginia.
Very, very cool. I LOVE learning about my family. The last thing I learned is that some of my people were Saami. The Saami are the indigenous people of Finland. They are the people that live in Lapland (in Finland) and in the other Scandinavian countries around the Arctic Circle. In most--if not all--of the Scandinavian countries, the Saami--or Sami (Swedish spelling)--are the only people allowed to own reindeer. I just recently purchased a bracelet that a Sami artisan handcrafted in the tradition way--it is made of reindeer hide, hand-coiled pewter thread, and closes with a button made of reindeer antler. It makes me feel a bit more connected to my 'roots.'
Not only is it fun to learn about one's family, you also get a great history lesson at the same time. Enjoy yourself!
that is so super cool!
Wow, he came from Baden? Holy shit. That's near my place!
Great picture.
That's awesome!
My dad once showed me a photo of him as a baby standing with like 5 adult relatives. He calls it the "Refugee picture" because it was taken casually, and everyone is wearing work clothes and barefoot. He loves it because it looks like his family was totally destitute. Which they were anyway, but it's pretty funny.
I love old photos like this-it really makes you wonder about those people-what was their life like, what made them laugh (DID they laugh?), were they messy, did they bite their lip like I do when they are thinking? You know, stuff like that. :)
I have done a lot of research, but I have one line of my family where I consistently hit a dead end. My maternal grandpa-on his mom's side you can go way, way back . . .but on his dad's side (McGill) you can only get about 3 generations back and then it just stops dead. It's sooooo frustrating. And also, I don't know my dad really at all, so I have never been able to really find any info on him other than the name of his dad.
So sorry I haven't answered your email yet! It's been crazy busy at work and at home...
Hopefully this week! The photo looks great!
Post a Comment