"Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom" Albert Einstein

"A dame who knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up." Mae West

Friday, September 24, 2010

Photo Friday - from the family album

I have always loved these pictures of my paternal grandparents.  I may be very biased, but I think that they were a rather striking couple in their youth.

This is a picture of my grandmother taken in 1900 at the age of 14. Her eyes are mysteriously haunting and almost sad, don't you think?



This is my grandfather who was a bit older, but I think this picture was taken not many years after my grandmother's photo from above.  As a young adult, he worked for a while as a trolley conductor in Chicago and someone must have convinced him to be photographed in his uniform.

Both grandmother and grandfather had the same last name, but were not related.  The immigrant Swedes, like others at the time, didn't like their children to marry outside the nationality.  Things changed by the next generation; their younger son married my mother who was of Norwegian and German descent.

My grandfather's family members were tall; my grandmother's family members were short. Today's generation of the family have both, and I have the distinction of being the shortest of them all.

8 comments:

the sandwich life said...

what wonderful pictures....she is truly beautiful....

white rabbit said...

Fantastic photos - I think the world is still full of people who want their children to marry people who are just like them in the face of common experience that this will regularly not happen and it not happening does no harm.

wv: flanth

Catch Her in the Wry said...

sandwich: Treasured photos for sure!

white: Diversity always makes things more interesting.

Holly said...

I agree with you about these photos- very striking! your grandfather in particular looks handsome. I found out this summer that my great-grandparents had the same last name as well. They were 3rd cousins.

Catch Her in the Wry said...

holly: Well, at least they weren't first cousins or brother & sister, so I think you're safe.

It was on my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary that it finally dawned on me that my mother's 50th birthday was only 4 months later and she hadn't been a premature baby. We're always learning something new about our heritage.

Red Shoes said...

Wonderful photos!!!

I am discovering such photos in my family...

In the photos... in our memories... they are always alive and with us.

~shoes~

Catch Her in the Wry said...

red:You should share them with us.

Red Shoes said...

Catch Her... I will. I will get them scanned and post them.

~shoes~