TUESDAY'S TREASURES ~ What have I turned up during packing and unpacking?

There’s been a LOT of boxes packed and unpacked during our move from California to Montana. 

We had lived in our home in CA for 28 years. There were boxes in the garage that had been moved from our previous home together, my previous home before our marriage and Ron’s previous home.

Items that hadn’t been seen in decades.

One of the very best things for me, is finding photos I either hadn’t seen or don’t remember.

Here’s a blast from the past – circa 1970s to early 1980s

Left - Florence Bowden Milne - my maternal grandmother
Right - from L-R - Patricia Milne-my mother, Florence Milne-my grandmother,  me, Joan Milne-my Aunt

Left - Patricia Milne in the purple blouse and her sister Joan Milne in the sunglasses
Right - Me and My Mom at Disneyland

Left - Me playing my new piano    Right - My grandmother, Florence Milne's desk

To my knowledge those are the only photos in existence with my mother, Patricia Milne Gould Cornelius and her sister Joan Milne Morrison, as adults. Sadly, they were never close and did not stay in touch after 1957.  However, on this occasion I believe that my Aunt Joan traveled to Houston to visit their mother, Florence Milne (also shown in the photos).

I’m particularly pleased to have that shot of all four of us standing together. I had moved to Houston to live with my mother and stepfather in Dec 1972 and stayed until June 1974, when I returned to San Diego, CA.

I had always wanted to play the piano as a young girl.  When I was about 10 years old my parents rented a piano for a short while and I began taking lessons.  This photo of me is about 1980 when I purchased a beautiful Emerson upright grand piano and began taking lessons again.

The desk you see in the photo belonged to my maternal grandmother Florence Milne (shown in these photos) and is seen here in my mother’s home. That same desk sits directly behind me as I type this blog post.  It is a treasured possession.

These are just a small sample of what’s turned up during this moving process.  At this point I’m wondering if I will ever get through it all.  Will I ever get everything scanned?  It’s a big job, but I will try to tackle it a little at a time.

I’d love to hear about your finds if you’ve moved or acquired items from a loved one who’s gone now. 

If you are related to or connected to anyone in this blog post, please get in touch.  Let’s exchange information.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2024   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

 

YEARBOOK PHOTOS ~ How many have you located? Here are some of mine.

Ancestry has recently offered their Yearbook collection for free. I thought it might be a good time to review how many yearbook photos I have collected over the years.  I have an Ancestry subscription so I’ve been collecting yearbooks pictures for a while.

When I add a yearbook photo or information to Legacy I use an Event I created called….yes, you guessed it “Yearbook.”

I’ll use the Search feature in Legacy to determine how many people have Events with the yearbook title.  To do this I went to the tab “Search” then to “Find” and then used this method.

 (Please click on any image to enlarge it)

The list consisted of 32 people.  To be truthful, I was a little surprised that it was that small a list.  But, yearbooks haven’t always been around and I have quite a few ancestors who never went far enough in school to appear in a yearbook.  This does encourage me to go hunting for more photos though.

Once I have the list up on my screen, I then created a hash tag in Legacy and added that hash tag to all those individuals.  Going forward, each time I do locate a yearbook photo or article I can add the hash tag immediately.  I find the hash tag feature in Legacy to be very helpful.

After going through my list here are some of my photos.  About half of the list of 32 did not contain photos of the person, just their names in the yearbook.

Left-Robert Auten, 1944   Center - Raymond J. Nymberg, 1943  Right - Gordon Charles Hall, 1936

Left - Dorothy Louise Hall, 1926 Center - Virginia Carol Gould, 1963 Right - Clara Eaton, 1920

Left - Eleanor F. Poile, 1947  Center - Lawrence C. Diebel, Jr., 1947  Right - Mary Charlotte Horn, 1938

Left - Harriett M. Pickard, 1924   Right - Robert R. Corbett, 1960

Here is a list of the people shown above, their schools and their relationship to me.

• Robert Auten - Mackenzie High, Detroit, MI, husband of my 1st cousin once removed
• Raymond Nymberg - Mackenzie High, Detroit, MI, nephew of a cousin (I just noticed that the two men above went to the same school, I wonder if they knew one another?  They are from opposite sides of my family)
• Gordon Charles Hall - San Diego State College, San Diego, CA, my husband's father
• Dorothy Louise Hall - San Diego Teacher's College, San Diego, CA, my husband's aunt, sister of Gordon Hall
• Virginia Carol Gould - Redford High, Detroit, MI, my paternal half sister
• Clara Eaton - Huntington High, Huntington, WVA, wife of a 2nd cousin 3 times removed
• Eleanor Florence Poile - Eastern High, Detroit, MI, wife of my 2nd cousin once removed (married Lawrence Diebel)
• Lawrence C. Diebel - Eastern High, Detroit, MI, my 2nd cousin once removed
• Mary Charlotte Horn - San Diego High, San Diego, CA - my husband's Uncle's wife
• Harriet Mary Pickard - Northwestern High, Detroit, MI - my 1st cousin once removed
• Robert R. Corbett - Redford High, Detroit, MI - my half sister's husband (he married Virginia Gould)

How many yearbook photos have you looked for?  How many have you found?  I’d love to hear about them.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

MILITARY MONDAY ~ Honoring Pfc Robert Dean Thornton–killed in action in World War II – 1945

HERE’S WHY I THINK MY DAD WAS 20 YEARS OLD WHEN HE GRADUATED FROM HIGH SCHOOL IN 1933?

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2020   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

SEPIA SATURDAY ~ This week’s theme is SWIMWEAR

WHAT IS SEPIA SATURDAY?
“Launched by Alan Burnett and Kat Mortensen in 2009, Sepia Saturday provides bloggers with an opportunity to share their history through the medium of photographs.  Historical photographs of any age or kind (they don’t have to be sepia) become the launchpad for explorations of family history, local history and social history, in fact or fiction, poetry or prose, words or further images.”

I’ve pretty much grown up around the water.  From my earliest years I remember the cottage that my paternal grandparents, Harry & Marie Gould, had at Lake Huron.  Click on this link to read about the cottage My Grandparents Enjoying their Lake Huron cottage in Michigan.

From Michigan we moved to Pompano Beach, Florida and were always a short drive from the beach.  Then in 1965 we moved to San Diego, California – more beaches.

I can locate photos of lake and beach time and swimwear from my paternal side of the family.  However, other than a couple of pictures of my Uncle Bob, none from my maternal side.
 
So, where are all of the pictures of me and my brother in our swimwear?  Good question.  Maybe I better dig through those boxes under the stairs.
 
Today, I’ll share these photos with you.
 
Here’s my Dad, Harry Norman Gould on the beach at an unknown location, with his father Harry Whipple Gould – circa 1930.

Here are my Dad, his first wife Elaine and both of my paternal grandparents, Harry & Marie Gould, with others at Lake Huron circa 1933-1935.

Next is a photo of my Dad with his mother Marie, on the beach in Florida.  My Dad worked as a lifeguard in the early 1960’s.

And, here’s the only swimwear photo I can find from my Mom’s side of the family.

My Uncle, Robert Andrew Milne, who served in World War II as a Medic.  Here is in on the beach (he's on the left) in an unknown location, during his service.  I don’t know who his friend is.

And, finally, there had to be at least one of me.  So here are Ron and I on a vacation cruise in 1993.  We were at Dunn’s River Falls in Jamaica.  Ron’s always a good sport and the photographer asked him to wear the hat.

What photos do you have of your ancestors enjoying the beach or a lake?  What kind of swimwear did they have on?

OTHER SEPIA SATURDAY POSTS THAT YOU MAY ENJOY – Click here

Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2019   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks–Week #8–Family Photo - What can those photos tell you?

It’s difficult to find anything I like more than family photos.  They are a source of joy and reflection for me.

• What was going on when the photo was taken?
• Is everyone in the photo identified?
• Where was the photo taken?
• What year was the photo taken?
• Do others in the family have similar photos from the same event?

1. What do you like about family photos? 
2. Do you have a lot of them or just a few? 
3. Have you connected with cousins who have shared family pictures with you?
4. Who are the ancestors you’d like to have a picture of, but don’t?

Since I’m asking questions, here are my own answers:

1.  Most of all I like being able to look at the faces of my ancestors.  I like being able to see my ancestors at different stages of their life.  I like being able to see them interact with others, whether family or friends.  I enjoy looking at the place where the photo was taken – do I recognize anything in the photo?
2.  I would say that I have a quite a few family photos.  I was pretty curious when I was in my teens and twenties (a long time ago), and I asked to see family photos.  I also asked my Mom and Dad to write on the back of the photos to identify the people. They did do that for a few of them.

Here are screenshots from the "pictures" folder for some of my ancestors. Click on the screenshots to enlarge them.

My husband's Fink line

My maternal Milne line

 

 

 

My paternal Gould line

3.  I have absolutely been able to connect with cousins who have family photos, and it’s been wonderful.  One cousin even had a portrait photo of the same sitting for my great grandmother and her 5 sisters, only in a different seating order than the one I have. Florence Hunter is my great grandmother.

4.  Who would I like to have a picture of?  I suppose our list is endless, but my top choices would be:  John C. Gould, my 2nd great grandfather (1833-1919?); Sarah M. Hart, my 2nd great grandmother (1835-1911); Robert L. Bowden, my great grandfather (1863-1906); Edna Mabel Bowden, my grandaunt (1890-1932).

Where are good places to find photos of your ancestors?

• From family members or even family friends
• Online on other people’s trees (keep copyright in mind if you plan to use them)
• On FindAGrave attached to a memorial (ditto on the copyright issues)
• In books or written histories about your family or the place they lived
• In newspapers

Can you think of other good places to find family photos?

I would love to read your blog about family photos or have you share your thoughts in a comment on this post.
 
OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

ANCESTOR WALL OF PHOTOS - It's finished, here's how I did it

SEPIA SATURDAY - Great grandparents pictures - How many do you have?


Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl
Copyright ©  2010-2019 Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

SEPIA SATURDAY ~ Great grandparent’s pictures–How many do you have?

Mae Thorp Gould

William V. Gould

Susan Gillespie Milne

We each have 8 great grandparents. Depending on how old or young, you are, you may or may not have pictures of them.  Depending on the research you've been able to do, maybe you don't even know all their names.
 
Photography has been around since 1839.  I’m not going to go into the history of photography here, because I’m not an expert.  However, if you would like to learn more, there are experts out there.  One of them, I’ve followed for years is Maureen Taylor.  She is also known as the Photo Detective.  I own several of her books. She featured one of my family photos on her website in December 2008 you can see it here – Photo Clones, Duplicates in the Family.

The question today is, how many photos do you have of your great grandparents?  Here is what I have for me and my husband, Ron.

My great grandparents are:

William Gould & Mae Thorp – paternal greats


William Wallace Lindsay & Bessie Fitzcharles – paternal greats

Andrew Charles Milne & Susan Anne Gillespie – maternal greats


Robert Lee Bowden – no photo & Florence Hunter – maternal greats



So, for my family I have photos of 7 out of 8 great grandparents.
 
Now for Ron’s family.

Ellmer E. Bright & Malissa M. Hunt – paternal greats – no photos

Thomas C. Hall – no photo & Cora E. Brown – paternal greats



George A. Fink & Barbara Ludwig – maternal greats – no photos

John Doller & Bertha A. Keller – maternal greats


Sadly, for Ron’s family I have been able to locate pictures of only 3 out of 8 of his great grandparents.  If you are reading this and have any pictures of the family mentioned here, please contact me.

This has been an interesting study.  I cropped and enhanced photos as I was writing this post.  Always a good chance to review the images we have.

Because of the time frame of the lives of all of mine and Ron’s great grandparents, there were likely photos taken.  Most of the people mentioned here were alive after photography was common.  Most of them well into the 1900’s.
 
How many pictures of your great grandparents do you have?  Or maybe if you are of a younger generation, then how many pictures of your 2nd great grandparents do you have?  I’d love to see the pictures.

OTHER  SEPIA SATURDAY POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

From Here to There - my family in a parade

From Here to There - Visiting Washington DC in 1917
Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2017   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

TUESDAY’S TIP ~ Another way to edit your images in Microsoft Office Picture Manager

My “go to” program for editing pictures and documents that are JPG format, is Microsoft Office 2010 Picture Manager.  It’s easy, quick and efficient.  I even recently found out I can still use this program on my new HP laptop that has Windows 10.  Sadly, Microsoft discontinued the Picture Manager portion of their Office suite in recent versions.

BUT, if you still love and use this program as I do, here’s my newly discovered edit feature.  And, silly me, I thought I knew this program inside and out.  Just goes to show, we always have things to learn.

Today we are talking about those images that are too dark.  Let’s say you download an image that looks like this.  I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want this image attached to my Legacy file or anywhere else.


Once the image is opened in Microsoft Picture Manager (which is set as my default), you would select the “Edit Pictures” option.



Now choose “color” in the right hand column.



Now select “Enhance Color”



You see the grey wording underneath “enhance color?”  Once you click on the icon, those words turn dark, like this.



Just take your mouse and move over the image.  You’ll see a little round target kind of pointer show up.   It looks similar to this.

Once you see that target pointer, just click on any area that should be white.  BINGO!

Here is the result.  Compare it to the image at the top of my post.



Depending on the image, you’ll get different degrees of resolution.  I personally think this looks much better.

For the past 6 years I have used Adobe Photoshop Elements to make this kind of change.  However, it required an extra step because all my images automatically open in Microsoft Office Picture Manager.  I rotate and crop them in that program.  Now I can just stay there and perform this addition fix.

I wrote a previous post about making adjustments to the images we download.  Easy Document Editing

I hope you found this post helpful.  I just had to share this tip with you, in case, like me, you didn’t know this either.
 
Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

FOLLOW UP FRIDAY ~ Photo of Corp. Glenn Clifford Gillen ~ Killed in Action in WW I

My post today is a follow up to my post from May 29th, when I wrote A Mother’s Pilgrimmage – Bessie Cowen Gillen’s visit to the grave of Glenn C. Gillen – killed in action in World War I.

Glenn was the second oldest of 6 sons born to Elijah Cecil Gillen & Bessie Etta Cowen.  This photo of Glenn C. Gillen was shared with me by Susan B., who is Glenn’s grandniece.

There was a Gillen family get together in Kansas, prior to Glenn leaving for his service in World War I.  I suspect the photo above was taken during that time, as he is in, what appears to be, a uniform of some type.  We have not identified the other people in the photo, yet.
 
Here are photos of Elijah and Bessie, shared with me by their great granddaughter, Susan B.

Bessie Cowen Gillen

Bessie & Elijah Gillen

This is another story about how Facebook has enriched my family history.  I know Susan B. because she and I are members of the same Facebook group, The Lawrence Register.  This is a group of people with ancestors that are from Lawrence County, Ohio.  I cannot even tell you how much information is shared back & forth on this site.   And, how many cousins I’ve met.
Susan B. and I are 4th cousins once removed and share 4th great grandparents.

Here’s a wonderful photo of most of Glenn’s 8 siblings.  The only one missing is his sister Bessie.  She would have still been alive, but wasn’t in the photo.



I bet Glenn would be glad to know that his siblings lived long lives and left many descendants.  Here are their ages at their time of death:
Ross – 89, Laura – 88, Hazel – 93, Alva – 89, Alvis – 80, Ralph – 74, Carl – 92 and Bessie - 76

It’s a sad story about Glenn being killed during the war.  However, by remembering him here, we honor his memory.  And, having an actual photo of him is even better.

A huge thank you to my cousin Susan who shared these wonderful photos with me and gave me permission to use them.

If you think you might be related to anyone mentioned in this blog post, please contact me.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

PHOTO FRIDAY ~ Who is this cute little baby? My Mom?

I’ve had this picture for many years.  It’s always been with the group of pictures I got from my maternal grandmother.  There are no identifying names or dates or photo studio names on this photo.  On the reverse side of the picture is a hand written number, 6041.  That same number is on the upper right corner of the frame.
 
I don’t have any pictures of my mother when she was that young.  The earliest photos I have of her are from about age 2.  She had two older sisters and a brother.  The oldest sister, Dorothy Irene Milne, died before my mother was born and I know this is not her, as I have baby pictures of her and this is not that baby.  I don’t think it could be my Mom’s other sister, Joan Esther Milne, because of the facial features.  I know it’s not her brother, Robert Andrew Milne, because he looks totally different in his baby pictures.  So, is it my mother?
 
We can’t just say “this is a picture of whoever” without knowing for sure, or having some kind of evidence.  That’s my conundrum right now.

A little background info:  My mother was born in 1924, so this picture dates to that time if it is her.  Her siblings were born in 1907, 1909 and 1915.
   
I am going to share other pictures of my Mom at various ages, below, and allow you to chime in with your comments and conclusions.
 

1926-my Mom is in the middle, about age 2.  Her sister, Joan on the left and their mother on the right	My Mom - age 3-4
My Mom - age 2	My Mom as a teenager
My Mom about age 15	My Mom - about age 21

My Mom always had that cute little turned up nose. She had brown hair and brown eyes.  Of course, most caucasian babies are born with light eyes that change later on.

As always, thanks for your comments and opinions.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION