family history friday [actually on friday, to boot!]

Genealogy is a lovely hobby for someone that tends to be a little add.  You can research one person, hop on over to another line and then if things every get too tricky, you can go something more along the lines of playing with pictures of your ancestors. (which, quite frankly, is the best part of genealogy!)

I am probably not much of a serious genealogist, but I sure do enjoy the different fun parts that I can jump to and from.  Yes, that is my type of genealogy. :)

Last summer, my mom came on a little family history trip with the girls and me.  We drove to eastern Washington to visit the quaint town that my great grandmother grew up in.  We got to peek around my 2nd great grandmother's house (from the outside, through the windows) and listen to my mother's sweet memories of her visits there.  She remembered the layout of the house, along with where different pieces of furniture were.  I am a sucker for all things nostalgic so this trip was a success from the get go.  We visited the cemetery that my 4th great grandmother  and on down were buried at.  We were able to dig through all sorts of great finds at the Dayton library and copy them like crazy.  Even my grumpy teenager that didn't want to come on the trip at all was excited to find references to our ancestors in the old newspapers.  THIS is my favorite type of genealogy.  I love finding little tidbits and pieces of my ancestors' lives.

Below is a picture of my 3rd great grandmother with her grandkids.  I have always felt that writing on pictures is its own little sort of evil. UNTIL I started going through family pictures.   I am so grateful for the names that my grandmothers felt inclined to write on a good 90% of their pictures.  Below is an example of a picture from my great grandma's book and a picture from my 2nd great grandma's book.  The names are helpful on each picture, but I love that the top picture has  last names that allow me to know which cousins belonged to which families.   The lesson from today's post?  Put some information on your pictures, even if it seems redundant at times.  Your descendants will thank you someday.  And check this out: I have a picture of my girls on this same exact porch.  Isn't that amazing?