Ever since my last visit to The House a few weeks ago, I’ve been trying to sort out some of the family history; concentrating for now on my grandmother’s huge family, with help of old photos and postcards. In one of her photo albums I found this photo from around 1920 showing family members and probably a couple of extra farm hands or neighbours helping with the hay harvest. And of course they’re using a horse for the job as well. With most of the photos I’m having a hard time dating them to an exact year, since there are very few dates and notes in the photo albums or on the back of the photos. However, fashion details may sometimes give a clue. Here, the men except one (the youngest) are all wearing hats, and the women headcloths. I guess they would hardly be exactly “dressing up” for the hay harvest. But on the other hand, they might have made a bit of an extra effort for the photo.
Do you know a lot about your own family history?
Have you tried to collect what you know in some way?
I just recently started a separate blog for my own research project: Greetings from the Past. (There is a button to it at the top of the sidebar in this blog, if you want to check it out some other time.) The photo above will probably turn up again on that blog as well, together with a few more photos showing life on the farm.
Have a nice H-day, and if you want more H’s, go visit
a very nice old photo of your ancestors. and when I looke at these old shots, i am so happy i did not have to rake hay IN A DRESS...no jeans or overalls for the females back then.
ReplyDeleteNow you mention it... I can't recall ever seeing my grandmother in a pair of pants, all her life. She lived 1900-1979.
DeleteI love the old photo. I have some from my family too but unfortunately never found out more about them when my parents and grandparents were alive. Carver, ABC Wednesday Team
ReplyDeleteThis is an amazing picture!!! It could be the poster for a movie. We have quite a few trailers around here, And lots of trailer parks, which are whole areas making a neighborhood of trailers where people live. Do you have anything like this there?
ReplyDeleteHistory is always an interesting especially family history. By the way an old childhood joke I heard in school.. Why were the Early men luck? They didn't have history to learn !!
ReplyDeletePheno, ABCW Team
I started on genealogy, and got back to folks born in 1810
ReplyDeleteMy husband's great-uncle was the local photographer in the early 1900s. On My Moody Blues Blog, before I started to post all my ABC Wednesday posts, I posted over 100 of his pictures of family, the community, and scenic pictures he had taken. There is a museum about him and his photography business in his hometown. Many of the pictures we had, we had no idea who the people in them were. However, we found them very interesting to view. I use to have them listed on my sidebar, but removed them a few weeks ago.
ReplyDeleteHats were worn much more as a matter of course in the UK even when I was young. Old photos have a fascination for me although it's always a bonus when the details are known too.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed seeing this family photo. Blessings, Debbie
ReplyDeletevery nice heirloom picture :) Hope you could visit My ABC Wednesday entry. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThat's a very clear image for one so old! The old family photos in my family are not near as good as this one. But I still find them fascinating.
ReplyDeletePauline: Yes this one was very clear. I had to use my camera to copy it rather than scan it since it's glued into a spiral-bound album; but even so it's still sharp. There's a wide variety in quality among my old family photos, some are good and some very blurry and either too dark or too washed out. What's causing me most headache is that very few of them come with any notes of who or where and when!
DeleteWhat a great piece of social history as well as family history.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing some of your history with us. An interesting take on the prompt.
ReplyDelete