Family History More of a Mystery

Posted by Susanna McLeod Feb 23, 2008

I just love the old cars from the turn of the 20th century. The Ford Model Ts, Model As, the Duryeas and many more. It must have been such an exciting time, one day to have horses trotting along pulling buggies and then the next there zoomed in, or should I say, chugged, a new-fangled automobile. The driver may have been man or woman and probably wore goggles to keep the dust out of their eyes, since the roads were, shall we say, less than smoothly paved.

And then I love all of the household improvements of the era, too. Electricity brought the best of minds to come up with lights, refrigerators, stoves, hot water heaters, water pumps, noisy vacuum cleaners and washing machines with big ringers to squeeze the water out. Homemakers must have been in heaven, at least until the hot water heater broke down.

Most of all, I love the improved photography equipment so that we can still see what people, work and life was really like a hundred years ago. Searching for a specific family photo from about 1910, I came across an old, red, padded album with fancy, embellished slots for one photo per thick page. Handsome and beautiful people attired in black suits and delicate dresses posed for photos; they must have been well-off to afford such a luxury. Their eyes seem to display a quiet confidence, but what must they have been like in person? Sadly, I don’t have a clue as to who these people are. There are some faces that seem distantly familiar, perhaps ancestors of my father, others perhaps from my mother’s side.

Perhaps the not knowing makes these nameless faces of family even more fascinating.