Photo of the Day

This is a photo taken of my paternal aunt taken on a beach, probably in Delaware, in the mid-1950s.

Diane Odgers
(1951 - 2002)

Christmas Toys

I love looking at photographs taken on Christmas morning.  The smiles, the excitement, the mess....and the TOYS!  I find myself studying every detail I can see.  I also like comparing Christmases from year to year.  This black and white photo was taken in the mid-1950s of my paternal uncle and aunt and the color photos were taken in 1963.  I see how much my aunt had grown and how the toys had changed.

James Odgers (1954 - 2007)
Diane Odgers (1951 - 2002)

Diane Odgers
(1951 - 2002)

Photo of the Day

This is a photo of my paternal aunt sitting on a car at a beach, probably in Delaware, in the early 1950s.

Diane Odgers
(1951 - 2002)

Photo of the Day

This is a photo of my paternal aunt taken in her family home in Delaware some time after Christmas 1952.  She was one year old.

Diane Odgers
(1951 - 2002)

School Pictures

Today was school picture day in our house.  It got me thinking about all of the school pictures I have.  Not only my children's, but all of mine, family, friends, and friend's children.  They are always fun to look at and compare from year to year.  How many arguments were there about what to wear and how to style hair?  There are so many stories behind those smiles.

One thing I noticed is how few of these pictures have anything written on the back of them.  How old were the children in them?  What grade were they in?  What school did they attend?  Little details that were common knowledge to the people looking at those pictures at that time, but big missing details today.

This has made me be very conscientious about putting details on the back of my children's school pictures.  It also gets me excited about putting the pieces of the school picture puzzle together for all of the others that I have.

Diane Odgers Veasey
(1951 - 2002)

Obituaries and Funeral Cards

Lately, I have been going through a lot of obituaries and funeral cards that my dad has collected over the years and generously gave to me to add to my collection.  So much information!  I find myself going over them with a fine tooth comb just to make sure I have recorded all of the details.  It still amazes me how one little fact can lead to so many questions, which leads to more discoveries and more questions.  Birth dates, death dates, next of kin, employment, cause of death, date and locations of funeral and interment....I could go on forever.  These are the discoveries I live for.  (It sounds kind of funny saying that about someone's obituary, but it's true!)

It's one thing reading over an obituary of someone I knew pretty well, but so fascinating to me going over one of a relative that I saw very infrequently.  I have gotten a better picture of who these people were and have put a lot of faces with names and vice versa.  What a gift!

All of this got me questioning the roots of obituaries and funeral cards...just because that is how my mind works.  I never knew obituary is from the Latin word obit, which means death.  It's such a great bit of information to have.  Published death notices have been using the word obituary since the 18th century.  This is pretty encouraging.  How awesome would it be to find an obituary of an ancestor that died in the 1700s?  I know now this is one of my goals.

I have a wonderful collection of funeral cards.  It's a great source for birth and death dates.  Some of the ones I have been going over lately are bigger and have more information on them, like location of the funeral and interment.  Some even have the officiating clergy.  All of those tidbits of information get me excited!

My advice to everyone is to clip from the newspaper (or print from the Internet) all those obituaries and keep all those funeral cards.  They are filled with invaluable information, as well as being a sentimental memento.

Photo of the Day

I love wedding photos, and this is another I have added to my collection.  This is from the wedding of my paternal aunt on 27 November 1970.

Diane Odgers Veasey (1951 - 2002)
David Veasey (1946 - 2014)