Breathing new life into old photos since 2012.
I liked this picture so much that I put it on my first business card back in 2012. This is the Balmer family, circa 1898. The woman standing at right is Bertha, the subject of today’s episode of 52 Ancestors. She was my mother’s mother’s mother’s mother—my great-great-grandmother, that is—and she’s unmistakable. Continue reading
Today is the Fourth of July, and I can not think of a better way to spend the day than to write up a short profile on the first—and so far the only—direct ancestor I’ve found to be a Revolutionary War veteran! There are bound to be more, but let’s start with this one: Mr. John Hougendobler, an ancestor of my paternal grandmother. Continue reading
As a young girl, my mother discovered in a closet a plaque that eerily bore her own name, Celia Anflick, along with birth and death dates. It was a metal plaque that my mother described as the sort of thing one might see hung in a mausoleum. Of course, the plaque was not my mother’s memorial from a past life. Rather, it was a memorial to an aunt whom my mother would never meet. Continue reading
Because this website, and the business it represents, are image-oriented, I try to have some sort of stimulating GIMP work at the top of each post. The cost of this self-imposed policy is that many fascinating family history stories will go overlooked—unless I manufacture some visually stimulating way to represent the story.
Having recently made a bit of a breakthrough on today’s features ancestor, I wanted to write-up here what I had found. I don’t have a photograph of him, though, so I had to get resourceful. Here before you is the grave of Denis Graham, who was the uncle of my great-great-grandfather, John C. Graham. I’m not really one to doctor gravestone images, but since I recently picked up a few new tricks, I thought I’d see how far I could take them.
In this image, I’ve attempted to remove the rain-induced dampness in the original photograph to present the gravestone as if it were dry. The results were middling, in my opinion. Had I attempted this project for a client, I would have given it more time. Since I’m already a week overdue on Ancestor #25, I figured I’d post what I have and move along. The hardest part of this project is putting life back into the engraved flowers. There wasn’t much left in them after removing darkness of color. Continue reading
Mother’s Day is my clue that Father’s day is not too far away, and I have to come up with some offering of roughly equal market and sentimental value. I feel pretty bad when I don’t come through, but my Pop is pretty easy-going, and helps a lot with occasional and unintentional gifting inequalities. For example, this year, I had published my mother’s tribute on time, on Mother’s day. My father get’s his tribute on the Tuesday after Father’s Day.
Why? Well, this weekend my father was helping me puzzle through some tech stuff that might improve my standing for a job I had interviewed for. That kinda needed to get done. That’s one of the great things about my dad: If you come to him with any sort of puzzle that needs a solving, he’s happy to help. He really invests himself, too. His interest is genuine. It’s as if his success relied on mine, or whosoever’s he happens to help. Continue reading
We all have them in our old photo boxes by the score: nameless, ageless people. Who are they? Are they relatives? Are they friends? Are co-workers or business partners? We’ll probably never know. This unidentified man is special to me. He’s the one who got away. Continue reading
Tim E. Bush: a self portrait
I’ll happily feature on my blog, here, the work of others who have mastered their craft, and who have inspired me to persist in my own little business. The goal for you, dear readers, is to visit them at their respective websites to see if they might serve some need of yours. This premier of my Spotlight Series™ features the work and thoughts of Philadelphia artist Tim E. Bush. We went to high school together, where his artistic talents brought him near celebrity status in some circles. I did not see him as much after we graduated high school, but encountering him on occasion has always been a treat. Since the advent of le Web 2.0 and social networking, my virtual encounters with him have become more frequent. This is fantastic because Tim E. Bush a fascinating individual.
Tim authors a website entitled Abstracts and Angels at TimEBush.com. He shares his art, comics, poetry, and memoirs there, as well as his Zazzle shop, where you can purchase a variety of useful items bearing his colorful designs. I’ve found Tim’s Zazzle shop to have been inspirational from a small business and marketing standpoint. Tim has made a great use of this resource to get his brand out there, and so I have on occasion considered doing the same. I haven’t put that together quite yet, but maybe I will some day.
I’ve conducted an e-mail interview with Mr. Tim E. Bush, and he gave so generously of his time to answer my questions that I will divide his interview into no fewer than three installments. He may well become a regular in this series. Without further ado, I present to you the first installment of my interview with artist Tim E. Bush: Continue reading
Today’s subject is my great-great-great-grandfather, Peter Staaf. This is my grandmother’s great-grandfather, that is, my mother’s mother’s mother’s mother’s father. Peter was the immigrant ancestor of this line. I found his passenger list on Ancestry.com, which led me to his hometown of Sterbfritz, which is right in the heart of Germany. He left that place and arrived in Baltimore on the sixth of May, 1854, with his wife and daughter, both named Margaret. He settled in Butler County, Western Pennsylvania.
Mailbag!
The Staaf family line is the only one I’ve been able to trace back to the motherland, several generations prior to the emigration. This was thanks to a great stroke of luck, in the first place, and then the diligent efforts of a professional genealogist who happened to live right in that area. I learned about Mr. Clemens Schreiber in 2009, when I happened upon this web site that provided his contact information. He happened to live in Schlüchtern, which is a drive of mere minutes from Sterbfritz. Mr. Schreiber happened to charge a very reasonable fee: $7.00 for a family group record. At that price, I purchased the whole Staaf line by mail, going back to 1613. Mr. Schreiber told me that the line of Peter’s wife, Margaret Lotz, went back even further, to about 1450, and asked if I was interested in purchasing that as well. I did not have funds to purchase all of that at the time, but I’m glad to know that information is available. Continue reading
Today is Memorial Day, a time to honor the fallen soldiers of the United States military. I must say that I’ve been fortunate not to have too many military veterans who never returned from duty. There have been a few, but they are generally distant in my family tree. My paternal grandfather, I believe, had a cousin who died in combat, as did my maternal grandmother, I believe. These are lines that I have not yet fully investigated, and they will receive their due consideration in time. Today I’m honoring a man even more distant in my family tree, but one for whom I happen to have a photograph to show you. The photograph comes courtesy of Archive.org’s scan of Bloomsburg State Teacher’s College’s 1935 yearbook. The man is Clyde C. Kitch. Continue reading
Sgt. James Paul Michio.
I had occasion this weekend to visit the Philadelphia National Cemetery to fulfill several Find-A-Grave photo requests. In a humbling display of dedication, just about every marker in the cemetery to had been accented with the colors of the Star-Spangled Banner, in celebration of their achievements as members of the U. S. military. I could only imagine the effort. These pictures turned out quite remarkably, I must say, where the light was favorable. I found the scenes too inspirational to keep between myself and the Find-A-Grave users who requested them. I therefore present to you for your consideration, Philadelphia National Cemetery’s Find-A-Grave photo requests, Memorial Day Weekend, 2014. Continue reading
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