Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Someone Did Want That Picture


When I first started writing A Family Tapestry, a seasoned blogger popped up out of nowhere and became not only my inspiration but a wonderful mentor, as well. Among her other online properties, one was a blog dedicated to the worthy mission—at least in genealogists’ eyes—to find and rescue abandoned old photographs and reunite them with family members.

While I was infinitely jealous of the fact that she was located in the far northern reaches of our country—in “Minnesnowda,” as she likes to call it—instead of being out and about, scouring the antique shops in the Southern hometowns of my ancestors, I was impressed with what she is accomplishing. To date, she has posted 1,914 rescued photographs on her blog and returned 118 of them to grateful family members.

Perhaps you already recognize, by this description, the accomplishments witnessed on the blog known as Forgotten Old Photos by the near-anonymous blogger who calls herself Far Side of Fifty. Perhaps you, too, have learned a lot about the photographs of the mid to late 1800s and beyond, just by following her daily posts and watching the scramble as readers attempt to identify living family members of her mystery photograph subjects.

Granted, having a subscriber base well over 1700 helps the reunification process—yet another aspect about which I must confess harboring feelings of envy. Sometimes, in struggling over the photographs left behind by my own family’s ancestors, I wish I could just hand the pictures over to Far Side and let her choreograph the magic that occurs on her site with such regularity.

However, I am me, and she is, well, phenomenal. I can only hope to someday achieve a smidgeon of that reunification success rate.

Last night, though, I received a comment on A Family Tapestry that made me perk up and renew that dream of becoming Far Side’s “Mini Me.” The note was concerning a post from June, 2013—about a photograph from the mostly-unlabeled Bean family collection that I never could just bring myself to throw away.

“Someone might want this picture” would be the thought going through my mind, every time I sternly lectured myself on the foolishness of keeping that hopeless collection of faces from my now-long-deceased first husband’s grandfather’s siblings. But I guess I had a soft spot in my heart for the crotchety Aunt Leona and Uncle Bill. And the photographs stayed on in the old box I received them in after their passing, back in the 1980s.

You can imagine how I perked up when this note came through my email inbox:
Hi. This is my grandfather, Leo Walter Harrington from Tonapol.

The message went on to read,
My grandfather went to Stanford and studied law. He was born on October 15th, 1896.

That year—1896—was the same year Bill Bean was born in Redwood City, California, not far from Palo Alto, where the Bean family later lived and in which Stanford University is located. Though I have yet to find out how Bill met Leo Harrington, perhaps now I will have a chance to learn—and, of course, like my inspiration, Far Side of Forgotten Old Photos, to return the photograph of a young Leo Walter Harrington to a family member who might like to have it.

Leo Harrington from Tonapol while attending Stanford University California as law student


11 comments:

  1. I have grown fond of a lot of my ancestors and their friends because of their photos that have been passed along to me. This post makes me wonder if I could ever really part with them if a descendant were to come along. Then I realized that most of my photos belonged to aunts who never had children, so my shelves could be their last stop.

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    1. Bill and Leona were in the same boat, Wendy: though each of them had lots of friends and work associates, neither of them had any children. Many of them are nameless faces now, staring up at me from their photos, imploring me to make the connections--but somehow, I can't.

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    2. You made one connection and I am thankful for it....was neat to show my daughter a picture of her great grandfather....thank you again Jacqi!

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    3. Kathleen, that is so wonderful to hear. I really had very little hope that the photograph would find its way home, since I didn't know who the person was. I am so glad you were able to show Leo's picture to your daughter. Being able to pass along those family connections to the next generation is so valuable--heritage is priceless!

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    4. Yes heritage is priceless....I hope you find other connections.....still can't believe that my grandfather was on the web....amazing! Thanks again!

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  2. Far Side's efforts have actually returned 221 photos in 118 full circles. I think her success rate is phenomenal - considering she sometimes has "impossible to trace" photos posted.

    So the man in your photo is from Tonapol? I hope you find out where this is. :)

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    1. Yes, Far Side's achievement is nearly double what I first mentioned. Thanks for explaining that, Iggy. Often, it turned out that more than one photo was able to be sent to the same family member.

      I did ask the granddaughter who contacted me where Tonapol was. She not only confirmed your guess that it is in Nevada, but mentioned that Leo Harrington was the first in his high school to receive the honor of attending Stanford University.

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  3. You make me sound too goo. I only have a few regular readers. Forgotten Old Photos was featured as the blog of note several years ago and that is why I have so many followers...do they follow anymore....maybe...maybe not.
    The bottom line is some people get photos they have never seen before...with Iggy's help and your help and Susanna Rosalie and Sue..I could not do it alone.
    Thank you for the wonderful post! I am glad your photo has a chance to go to a relative! :)

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    1. Oh, Far Side, what you do is immensely valuable. And you likely have way more readers than you are owning up to. Not everyone who reads comments! But people like to keep an eye on things like this. One never knows...

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  4. What an inspiration! It makes me think I need to be better about posting some of those unknown photos, whether I have anything to say about them or not....someone else just might. Nice post Jacqi

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    1. Thanks, Michelle. It was certainly encouraging to receive that response!

      If you have any photos with names or any kind of clue, it is certainly worth it to share those photographs on your posts. That, plus some well-thought-out search terms and our friend Google, mixed with patience and lots of time, is a wonderful formula to spread some genealogical joy!

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