Lifebooks

I have been concentrating on my paternal grandmother for over 10 weeks now.  Each week we (Lifebook 2 on the Heritage Scrap site) concentrate on a different part of our subject's life.  SOme are doing their OWN lifebook, and others doing one particular ancestor with the goal of preserving the details of that person's life.  Along the way we have discovered facts missing we need to find, things we need to verify and astounding discoveries.

For some reason I looked up at the bookshelves in my living room and remembered my father's baby book up there.  Curious, I pulled it down and began REALLY looking at what was in there.  On a page in the back cover was a collection of news articles, most about raising a baby, etc.  BUT...there was a newspaper clipping announcing Grandma and Grandpa's wedding(1895).  Facts I either didn't know or had misinformation.  The clipping must have been glues into the book with mucilage and taped over with an early cellophane tape.   A few words are lost to me.  I am on another search, now, for the original clipping. 

It seems that my grandmother grew up in a different city than I thought.  I still can't locate the family on the 1890 census.  She was born AFTER the 1880 one and married before the 1900 one.  I knew she went to and taught at the Alvordton school but she always referred to Hicksville as her home.  I can assume that after Grandmother, their youngest, was married her parents moved to Hicksville to be near the other daughter, who, being older, was well established.  Grandpa, also, was a Railroad Inspector so they were set to move frequently.  Between the lines...why was there no family attending the wedding?  Grandmother was 17.  Did they object to the match?  I wonder if Grandma wrote the article herself, since it goes on and on about how well established Grandpa was and how well he would be able to care for her...and that they left immediately for Montpelier where he had a house all furnished and waiting for her.  Grandma was a strong-willed person.  It would be very like her to marry in this fashion but I would love to have a few of those questions answered.

Here are the pages to date.  They will be in reverse order since that is the way Blogger wants it.

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This is not a real magazine cover but a fun way I chose to display two photos of my mother's parents' home in Detroit at the turn of the century. Mother remembered much of the furniture, but the only thing I recognize is the Tabourette (little table under the Norfolk Island Pine plant between the couch and the left rocker) because it was mine for a few years until it fell apart. Yes, I am very sorry I didn't repair it and keep it.

I just love this portrait of my grandmother's sister, Minnie Scarlett Garver. The photographer's last name is the same as the man Great-Aunt Minnie married at about this same time. It makes me really wonder what the relationship was.

These two pages are also timelines but these are of my Great-great-great-great Grandfather (first-born son of the previous ancestor) personal and historical events during his life.

These two pages show how history and my Great-great-great-great-great grandfather's personal milestones work together. I think it almost gives me a picture of his life.

The object behind this layout was to get the story written. I am the only person alive who knows this story and it had to be preserved. Mom told me about these photos many times. When I discovered that Dad still carried one of the pictures in his wallet in the nursing home, it made an impression I want to pass on.

Journaling reads: "All the while my mother was growing up, her family had at least one professional portrait taken of each family member each year. Her high school graduation coincided with the Great Depression, and that photograph was the last taken until Mom and Dad were engaged, years later. For Dad’s birthday in May, the month before their wedding, Mom went to a well-known portrait photographer. He was taken with her look and asked her to pose for him, and he would give her a set of portraits free. This was one of the “head shots”. A large copy hung on a bedroom wall back as far as I can remember. A tattered smaller one was in Dad’s wallet until he died at age 89. This and several other poses came to me and I will preserve it for future generations."