Musings of a Genealogy-Nut

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 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."

Time to remember the family we know who have served. I already did layouts about my mother's brother Lyman Oehring in WWI infantry Red Arrow(Big Red One) division, and my dad's cousin, Clair Garver in the Navy Band, but I recently came across a big portrait of Mother's cousin Richard Hodges from Mount Pleasant, Michigan. I don't know much about Richard except my mother's telling me he had died in the war. I started trying to locate information about Richard. What I found was an explanation as to why the records are so incomplete and sketchy. The numbers of allied killed and where they were buried is just so muddy. Records were not kept and estimates of numbers vary by thousands and thousands. Many were buried where they died and no marker or record available.

So...I will keep looking in case something about him is available.

Amber was the youngest daughter of my cousin, Larry. He was partially raised by my parents so we were like twins for many years. His children are like nieces and nephew, but we don't stay in touch nearly enough. How sorry I am that we didn't, but I cherish the last time we visited Larry 2 years ago and visited with Amber, too.