Grammy Bleam

Studio portraits of Grammy as a girl, and
 with her brothers Harry and "Wils"

You might remember back in August I wrote about the DVD my dad sent, containing hundreds of photographs of our ancestors.  He came from a big family, and in those days people lived their entire lives within a few miles of each other.  When folks don't move around, they hold on to things like photographs.

Our younger Pennsylvania cousins collected old photos from many family members, and then scanned them for a reunion they held over 10 years ago. They also scanned family legal documents and photographed gravestones, trying to sort out the complicated genealogy in several branches of the family.

Anyway, I posted a few of the old farm pictures on the blog. But I finally got the entire collection uploaded to my Aperature photo library. These were not wealthy people, but studio formal portraits were apparently important, and the same Quakertown photographer shows up again and again.  Unfortunately, many of the scans are simply labeled "unknown." Who are those people? Fascinating stuff.

Looking more carefully I found these studio pictures of Grammy (my dad's mom) as a young girl.  I've never seen them before. Everyone in the family adored her, and she had a strong, wonderful, loving presence.  And a great dignity that shines though, even in these girlhood pictures.  Portraits were expensive and serious things back then, which is why you seldom see people smiling. Even happy people.

Here's Grammy with her brothers in old age, this snapshot probably taken in the 1950's.  I still remember Great Uncle Wils (on the left) but not older Harry.  

Remember the mystery man daguerreotype? I've also been going through the portraits trying to find a match. An entertaining way to waste an hour or two...

This young guy is a possibility.  Look at his mouth!  But I have no idea who he is-- the cousins just listed his picture as "unknown man." Oh well. It's all fun stuff.