Question of the Week: Do you have a favorite photo of an ancestor?

Question

Please do share!! :-)

Not sure how to add an image to a post?

If you already have a photo attached to a profile on WikiTree, the simplest way to get it here is to...

• Go to the profile
• Click on the images tab
• Scroll to the photo you want and then click on it
• When you're in the image details page, you can right-click on the image to pop up a menu and choose "Copy Link Address"
• Come back to your message here and click the little Image button on your new post (it's on the bottom row, 3rd from the left)
• Paste the URL you just copied in the URL box and click OK.

While you're in the image window on your post, you can also play around with the size and alignment settings, add a border, etc. You're not going to break anything. So, don't be afraid to play with it! :-)

What if you don't have an image in WikiTree? Add one! 

You can add one directly to the profile it applies to, or you can set up a free space page to act as a photo album for pictures you want to use on several profiles. Here's mine: Julie's Photo Box

If you have more photo questions, take a look at the Photo FAQ help page.

Still need help?? Ask here. We'll make sure you're all squared away. :-)

 

 

---

If you like one that someone posts, vote it up! No need to choose a "Best Answer" here ... we all have differing opinions on stuff like this. :-)

Comments

What i find interesting in this photo aside from being immersed in another period, is that my Great Grandfather Charlie is shown here with my Grandfathers future mother in law: Mrs. John Lejeune as Charlies son John married her daughter Julia.

---

I'm fond of this one, my grandmother posing at the beach. darn, that didn't work. when I right click on the image it just enlarges it, no pop-up menu. Is there an alternative method?

Sherwin-276-3

---

I fixed it for you. :-)

In order to get the right link to post, you have to click all the way through until you have the picture on a page by itself.

She's lovely!!

---

grandmother at the beach

---

woohoo think I found the workaround. Anyway here is one of my half great aunt, she was born in 1912

---

This is my grandfather's family. My mother (Oresta) standing up in the middle, my aunt (Maria Valéria) on the right. Elma Maders Feyh and José Feyh. This photo was taken around 1945 in Rio Grande do Sul - Brazil.

Cheers

---

She is very pretty.

---

I love looking at pictures, too, and reading the stories. Unfortunately, my scanner is not working.

---

Thank you!

---

Beautiful

Answer 1

I have many favorites....this is my 2nd grt grandfather:

Comments

I love it, Doug!

---

Your 2en great grandfather certainly look like he enjoy himself sitting with a cigar in his hand,

This is a wonderful photo he almost look like a Sherrif

Thank you for sharing

---

From looking at other pics of him, it appears that he loved a good beer & a good cigar.

---

Doug, He looks like a character! I bet he was fun!

Answer 2

I love this photo of my grandmother (the baby!) with her mother and sisters. This was during the depression, her mother was a widow raising 4 girls, times were just tough, but here they look like they're so happy just enjoying each other's company. The quality isn't the best, but this one I still treasure!

Comments

I'm so glad you were able to share this!! So very sweet. :-)

---

I love this too, they are having so much fun :) very sweet

---

E Childs, A great pic!

Answer 3

A very old picture of my grandmother Mabel R. Garde, formerly Keys, (profile ID  Keys-580) knitting away back in the late 1940's. She was almost blind then, she completely lost her sight in the mid 1950's. She loved her grandchildren however and knew when they were around. She had about two dozen of them from her different marriages. 

The picture was passed down from our aunts to their daughters (my cousins) and it was lost for awhile in an upstairs attic amongst some old papers and a bible. Anyway you can still see her smile as she did her favorite pastime activity. 

Comments

It must have been so difficult for her to continue knitting as she lost her sight! Thank you for sharing with us1

Answer 4

http://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Jernigan-550

Comments

Wow! Look at those eyes!! Wonderful picture, Alexander!

---

wow I never seen more intense eyes beautiful photo

Answer 5

www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Jernigan-552

Answer 6

This is my great-grandfather.

Always loved the pipe. He had a whole collection of different sizes.

Comments

Wow...I love this pic!  This man reminds me of an actor, but I can't think of his name.

---

Love it, Helmut!! He looks like he has a little mischief in his eyes. :-)

---

Maybe it helped his disposition that he used to work at the brewery in Budweis...

---

Someone is enjoying his pipe marvelous photo

---

He reminds me of the grandfather in the book Heidi!

Answer 7

This is my paternal grandfather, Hardy Campbell Binkley.  He died of pneumonia brought on by multiple sclerosis, just 8 days before my father was born, so obviously my father never got to meet him nor did I. I'm his only grandchild, too!  I cherish this photo because it is one of only three photos we have of him. After his death my grandmother had very little contact with his family, for several reasons I don't really want to share.....but I never got to know ANYONE in his family. Period. Not his parents, not his siblings or their children/grandchildren...nobody.  They are all a mystery.

Comments

I do have to share this as well...I think I look just like him!  Granted I was nearly 10 years older than him in my photo, but I still think it is there!

 

---

There's definitely a family resemblance there, Summer!!

What a sad story, though. :-(

---

Thanks Julie! I still get so emotional whenever I look at his pictures. You know, i had NEVER seen pictures of him until last year??? (Again, there's a story behind that, which I don't really want to share).  I think about him a lot, just wishing I could have had the chance to sit on his lap one time...wondering if he would have been proud of me, or what in our lives might have been different if he'd lived....I was privileged enough to have lots of time (though I can't say "enough time" because it is never enough) with my other 3 grandparents (and my 2 stepgrandparents) so I'm thankful for that, but this part has always been missing. There's a good question for another time/week...If you could get just one day with any ancestor you never met, who would it be and why? He would be mine, for all those reasons..

---

Awww!! No *I'm* emotional!!!

And that's a great questions. I'm going to stick it in my back pocket for next time. :-)

---

I also have to share this one of my 2x ggm Ivy Maude Shotwell....I think she is so beautiful!  Women back in the 1800s were so beautiful!! 

 

---

Wow, she is stunning!!

---

Thank you! She died just a year before I was born. She and I have so much in common as far as our interests and talents. Her son (my great grandfather) used to tell me we were so much alike, that God must have taken her in order to use her best parts to make me. He didn't really believe that of course, but it was fun to hear that as a little girl.

---

I'm sorry you never got to meet her, but it's lovely that she lives on in you! It's funny how genetics work, because oftentimes people are more like their great/great great grandparents than their own parents. I think our ancestors never leave us, because they live on in us. That's why I'm always amazed when people have no interest in their ancestors, because in each of them is a bit of us!

---

Yes! I shared this tidbit on another post but I'll paste it here, too.  She was very musical; her father allowed her to "quit school" to pursue her musical interests full time. Her husband bought her a violin in Italy. Now, I own and play it. When I was younger I used to play for granddaddy (her son). He had gone blind in his late 80s so he couldn't see me play and he would sit in his chair, tears streaming down his face because it reminded him of his mother.  Even at 90 years old, he still missed her. He said she was the most kind and gentle woman on earth. How I wish I'd gotten to meet her. 

---

She certainly was beautiful the dress look wonderful wow great photo thank you for sharing

---

Thank you, Susan.

---

She is entered for photo of the week, so if you want to vote, please vote up on this post: https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/372333/shared-photo-ivy-maud-shotwell-atwood

---

I just voted! And she sounds angelic. I'm not sure why, but she reminds me of the actress Alexis Bledel in the movie "Tuck Everlasting".

---

What a shame you did not know any of his kin.

Answer 8

Problem with FB posting.

Answer 9

This is my great-great-grandfather, Isaac Francis Kennaston. This photo was made in May,1895, in Arlington, Massachusetts.

Comments

Gotta love the beards from that era! :)

Answer 10

Well, I'm going to answer my own question because I have this great picture of my Uncle John that really shows his true character. :-)

Comments

I just ran across this one of my Uncle Harley, too. He had that ornery look on his face often even as an adult! :-)

 

---

He looks fun!

Answer 11

Love this idea, some lovely photos shared, it inspired me to share the picture that started my geneology research, (although I'm still learning wikitree). This photograph was the mystery of a boy soldier, written on the back W. Haworth, Rhyll St - died 1917 France WW1. I would love to post the detail with his picture but I'm a bit worried about the very strange text appearing in the preview box as soon as I open it? I tried google translate, still made no sense? Its a very long and creepy sounding, so I just copied the first line (also a bit worried I've been hacked!) but can you see below

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Maecenas feugiat consequat...

Any ideas for help please??

Lizzie

Comments

Hi, Lizzie!

That's just standard filler text (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorem_ipsum), and it won't show up when you post your picture. It's just there to show you how your picture will be positioned with the text in your post.

---

Thankyou! I will try again!

Answer 12

I love this photo of my great grandfather, Joseph Parker, (in black suit), and grandparents, Jodie Willie Parker and Ann Ella Green Parker, (man with speckled socks, and lady with the parasol, down in front. ). I love the painted cardboard fans, the stack of hats in the open window, and the parasol. Taken about 1910, or 1911, in Ozark, Dale County, AL

Comments

Nice, Kathy!!!

---

Thanks, Julie!

---

Wonderful photo of this family photo

---

Thank you, Susan!

---

Just love family photos - and this is a great one!

---

Thank you very much, E. Childs!

Answer 13

This is my dad Marx Goldmark he was a great and fun dad to be around.

Every time he left his home Klavs the bird fly on his head to get his treat

The photo always make me smile because my dad use the bird to get to m mother, my dad knew my mother love animal  

Comments

I like this photo. It is a little unusual, to see a pet bird in an older photo, and I like how the young man down the
sidewalk, is loving this moment of your dad and his pet bird, too! Great photo!

---

Thank you for your kind word Kathy , how sweet of you to mention my photo

---

You're very welcome, Susan! I enjoy observing the sometimes overlooked happenings in old photos. Yours is a good example!

---

Thank you Kathy i bet the boy looking at my dad just would love to get closer to great Klavs

---

I love this picture, Susan!!  It looks like you have a really great collection of photos for him. :-)

---

Thank you Julie how kind of you

---

He looks like he would be a fun dad! :)

---

I'm sure he would, Susan!

---

He was he was so full of humor he really would make people laugh I certainly miss him very much

---

Thanks for sharing, Susan. I'm sure you do miss him a lot!

Answer 14

I've always liked this photo of my husbands Grandmother, Elizabeth Mary Thomas, when she was about 10.  Photo taken at 9 Queen Street, Abergavenny, Wales, c1918.

Comments

Cute photo! In the shadows you can see some chickens
she is enjoying watching, while stooping down to their level.

---

The funny thing about your comment is that when my husbands rather well to do Gt Grandfather lost all his money in a business venture, he moved his family to Abergavenny, and they moved in next door to the Thomases.  Apparently my husbands Grandfather's first impressions of Elizabeth Thomas were "a scrawny little girl grubbing about in the dirt and playing with the chickens."... but he still married her a few years later!

---

She's adorable, Brenda!! I always admire a girl who's not afraid of a little dirt. :-)

---

Your husband's grandfather probably was tired of sophistcation, and loved the genuine, loving farm girl!

---

Candids like this are my favorite. Not posed, just her going about her life. It really gives you a feel for her a person!

---

I agree!

---

Great picture!

Answer 15

Thank you for helping me with uploading this  and i'm sorry if the photo is completely wrongly sized!! This is rather long but something I've  been wanting to share for a while.

This rather rough little photo was found with my Nanas bits and bobs as we cleared her house, never a one for sentiment (or photographs) she never spoke much of her past, after all she was a teenager in the second world war and her father and his family fought in WW1 in France in the Somme and Passchendale. Understandably the war was not discussed; neither were the sacrifices made, the experiences were too horrific and the memories too painful. 

On the back of this picture is, barely legible;  W.Haworth 191#, Rhyl St. Then in differing writing Died France 1917. My Nana's maiden name was Haworth and that was all we knew!

My genealogy journey had started, this was 2 years ago. 

I now know that this 16 year old new recruit was my Nana's uncle Walter Haworth, b.1898. He signed up early for the war effort in 1915. He was young and fit and was employed as a Runner along the British front at Ypres, in the early hours on the 1st August 1917 he was shot in the head by a German sniper aged 19. He was lost to the muds of France and Flanders.

1st August this year 2017 will be 100 years since my great great uncle died for his country, 1.1 million lives were lost and many are still unknown/unclaimed soldiers. My Walter is commemorated on the Menin Gate, Ypres, and I plan to visit this summer to pay my respects.

 every time I look at this tiny tatty picture it moves me to tears

Thank you for reading and letting me share

Lizzie

 

Comments

Anyone needing any help in finding details about lost soldiers of WW1 then I have some fantastic contacts but you will need to visit france to gain full war profiles from experts. Everything I found out I have hard copy proof of and it was all free of charge (well a freebie from amazing connected experts keeping the memories of our war heroes alive) feel free to message me if you, like I, want to find a lost WW1 photo/family member and I will try to help if I can

---

What a beautiful story to go along with it. I love that you're going to visit the area to pay your respects. I bet it will be a meaningful journey for you!

---

Lizzie --

I'm so glad you were able to share this!! What a moving story, and how wonderful that you're able to make a tribute for him here on WikiTree. <3

---

Thanks so much for your help Julie! As I say my words don't do justice to Walter or any of the lives given in WW1.

It wonderful to see pictures & read so many other moving stories and appreciate what our ancestors have been through to form us!

As you say to ensure 'a tribute' or his story is so important to me. The family were distraught at the loss, the trauma of the other serving brothers in the trenches & generally trying to survive after the war in poverty meant that we didn't even learn of Walters existence until we found this photo. I will never understand their pain but it is so important to me that his memory Never dies. We nearly lost him because of what they all went through.

I don't know if I'm allowed to post this, I think I can, but www.everymanremembered.com is a British legion charity site that contains wonderful detail if you can narrow your search field. They only require a donation if you want to place a poppy on a name and remember them. Their research is free in the name of the project.

My commemoration to Uncle Walter:

http://www.everymanremembered.org/profiles/soldier/1615101/.

---

E,

I'm planning on being there at exactly the hour he died 100 years ago, I don't think I'm going to hold it together too well too be honest! Surrounded by all those graves of unknown men and memorials of men lost in muds never to be found. We found Walter's name only, by luck or chance but many aren't so lucky, I'm just grateful his sacrifice won't go unrecognised!

Answer 16

Sorry for the poor quality (I don't have a scanner). This is my Great Grandfather, John Stockwell (my father's maternal grandfather). He is definitely one of my favourite ancestors, I suppose because he was so very different from me. My grandmother gave me this photo of him, which is very precious, as he died when she was six. The Stockwell's were very distinctive looking, and must have had strong genes as he looks exactly like my grandmother and my father! It's funny to see someone who looks so like my father but with such a different personality. John was extroverted, happy and carefree. He loved making people laugh, singing opera and playing the piano. I love this photo a lot because I feel like it really captures who he was, he loved to laugh and have fun. I'm not sure if this was taken before or after his brother died, I think after because he looks late 30s (he died at fourty) and you can see some sadness in his eyes.

Answer 17

Here's my favorite photo:

https://www.wikitree.com/photo.php/4/45/Prickett-150-10.jpg

Answer 18

I have favorites from each branch of my family, but this one has always been near the top of my all time top ten favorites.  My Great Grandma Rosa and Great Grandpa John G. Schmeeckle with 3 of my grandfather's older siblings.

Answer 19

This is my Great Grandfather William.  He looks so stylish and so sure of himself!  I have seen similar pictures of my father and my grandfather in this same position with one leg on a chair.  This has to be about 1905, but he looks like he is from an earlier era.  I wish I knew the story of this photo.

Comments

So regal.

---

Perhaps it is his inner King MacBeth showing?

---

I love it! I agree it looks like from an earlier era.

---

such a beautiful child!

Answer 20

favourite photo of my dad