I've been sorting out some of my family stuff over the last few days and hanging a few of the 40 Portraits and Photo's I have going back to the 1860's. Plus the Suitcase with all the letters, wills and other artifacts also going back about the same amount of time, my favourites being the love letters, notes, diaries and greetings during WW1.
However, here's a few of pictures..
Great Grandfather..Charles Fowler
Great Grandmother Sarah Fowler
Great Great Grandfather Charles Fowler (I believe it's 'The Artists Regiment' he was an Architect (as was his father, the great Charles Fowler)
Three family portraits, the Fowlers, the Cannon's and the Leonards (my Mothers side, my Grandmother was one of 12!)
The old Suitcase
Hope it wasn't too boring !
Richard
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Not boring at all, I love the old photo's and memories, sadly I don't have very much in the way of old photo's, so am busy snapping away for my future family!
I bet you have really enjoyed sorting through them
Some of it moves me to tears, especially the letters etc. of my Grandparents. I suppose it's because I knew them - or should I say, I thought I did. Brings it home alright.
I never tell my Grandchildren stories as in books, I tell them about the things I did when I was young, tell them as much as I can. If they can speak about their Grandfather to their Grandchildren in say 2070 about the things he got up to in the early 1950s, I feel I will have achieved something and in a way - left a legacy.
Richard
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Like you I love the letters. My Grandad wrote letters home from all over in WW1. He was in the army. One of them, was a letter after being rescued, after being torpedoed on route to Alexandria. He went into every detail. Another time he was in Belgium and he looked after the horses and mules. One time when the snow and ice was really bad he said that they had spent the entire morning banging nails into their hooves to stop them slipping. Lovely stories.
And so great that you know who they are of and the stories that go with them. My mum has loads of really old photo's but her mum never told her who they were so we can only guess which is such a shame.
I love your idea of telling the grandchildren stories about your childhood - this will have so much meaning for them as they grow and have their own families
Lucy x
Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut - Ernest Hemingway
Mum tells me her side of the family were fairly well to do, as well , wonder what happened ? I also have an assortment of postcards and love letters from Grandad to Grandma always thought of it as a project to do sometime, to try to sort them into some kind of order. It tickles me when I read a postcard that says something like ' Dear Ernest, I hope you are well, I will not be able to visit until 2.30 this afternoon but look forward to seeing you then' and then you look at the date and time and realise what a marvelous postal service it was all those years ago ,as the card would have been posted in the morning and had been delivered by lunchtime. Your family is a handsome family and I love the formal family group , no wonder they are now up on your wall , for al to see .
It will be alright in the end , if its not alright, it isn't the end . Quote from the proprietor of the The best exotic Marigold Hotel for the elderly and beautiful
Annie wrote: ...I read a postcard that says something like ' Dear Ernest, I hope you are well, I will not be able to visit until 2.30 this afternoon ...realise what a marvelous postal service it was all those years ago ,as the card would have been posted in the morning and had been delivered by lunchtime.
They needed it before the phone was common, now we have internet and texts. If I wanted to phone home I went into a phone box (Press button A when they answer, or button B to get your money back), phoned 'next door' who went and got my Mum. We didn't have a phone in first house, but then when we moved out to the wilds of mid-Cheshire were glad that there was one installed.
I spent a lot of time looking after my MIL and she was confined to her chair, so we documented a lot of OH's family photo's. It still needs organising, though.
I like the effect of your reflection on the glass Richard - very artistic and meaningful (might have been good to remove the dusty finger-scribbles though)
What a great post, Richard. How lovely to have the photos and letters as well. You must be so proud of all the memorabilia.
I know I have posted this before, but when my uncle died, we found his war letters to his parents and my mother - his sister. All their letters to him were in the box also. I typed them all up into book form. Reading about an ordinary family during the war was so moving.
With my birth mother's side, I have quite a few old photos, no very old letters, just one written by my grandmother. Nothing on my birth father's side, I have sadly been unable to trace him.
