family history
Genuine Smiles
I have the hardest time getting good shots of my daughter these days. When she sees me coming with the camera, she either hides, makes a face, or she pastes on a fake smile that just doesn’t look like her at all. I can relate. I have a hard time looking natural in front of […]
Building personal connections through social media #ShareAwesome
My daughter doesn’t have a baby keepsake book, she has my blog. For the past decade, social media has been the family scrapbook, recording the bumps and bubbles along the way, with a bit of introspection here and there to frame, add context, and derive meaning from the stories.
Christmas Past
I stumbled across a few photos from Christmases past. This is what Christmas looked like in my childhood.
The scanning project
My Dad was a shutterbug; he loved to take photographs, and he took a lot of them. That’s where I get it from. This is a wonderful thing for collecting a treasure trove of family memories. On the other hand, neither he nor my mom were the organizing type who enjoyed putting together photo albums. As a […]
Grandma’s House
This is the house in which I grew up. It was my grandparents house, but it was my Grandmother who made it a home. In 1948, my Grandmother packed up her children, and left her beautiful home in Michigan, to join her husband in Alaska where he had moved his dental practice. She moved […]
Alaska Railroad Adventure, 1947
My grandparents moved to Alaska in the late 1940s. At that time, the state was very much still a rugged frontier, and everyone had an interesting story to tell. Grandma took notes, and shared them with me, asking me to publish them so the rest of the family could have easy access to these stories. […]
The Last Frontier, Alaska 1947
When my Grandparents moved to Alaska in the 1940s, it was still very much a frontier. It was both the wild, wild west, and the frigid north. Grandma took notes. By compiling and transcribing her notes, and sharing them on my blog, I’m fulfilling a promise to her to make these stories available and accessible to […]
Socialite to Pioneer in 3500 Miles
My grandmother was born 1/11/11 – 1911, that is – one hundred years ago today. She didn’t live to meet that milestone, she passed away just a few months ago. But in those just shy of 100 years, she led a remarkable life. I wanted to write a biographical blog post to tell her story […]
Ninety-Eight Year Old Family Photo
This family photo was recently sent to us by a distant relative in Michigan. It is dated May 14, 1911. I don’t know anything about most of the people in this photo, but one I know personally. My grandmother is the infant in the back row to the right. Allow me to introduce you to […]
Goodies: Hand-Me-Down Sweater
My mother dressed me in this sweater when I was an infant. Once I grew out of it, she packed it away and saved it for me. It’s been 38 years and I can hardly wait to dress my daughter in this sweater. 18 more weeks to go.