Question of the Week: What's your favorite old family photo? [closed]

+11 votes
1.1k views

I know for me, and I'm sure for most of you, photos are some of our most treasured possessions!  It really helps our ancestors come to life when we can see their faces.  

What is your favorite old family photo?

P.S. Reshare the question image on Facebook so your friends and family will see your answer.

in The Tree House by Eowyn Walker G2G Astronaut (2.5m points)
closed by Chris Whitten

21 Answers

+10 votes
 
Best answer
I have a picture of my great grandmother and her "best friend" sitting in a barn window. Both women are dressed in mens suits (ties, shoes, etc). I've always wondered... if statistically 1 out of every 10 people are gay--where were the gay people in my family tree? Could my great-grandmother have been one of them?
by S Leeland G2G6 Mach 6 (65.6k points)
selected by E. Lauraine Syrnick
+11 votes
A very old photo, of my great-great-great-grandfather (my mother's father's mother's mother's father) Benjamin Epps Moody, born in 1786, veteran of the War of 1812.
by Martyn Mulford G2G6 Mach 3 (30.1k points)
+20 votes

(My first cousin once removed), Madge Allsop, as a beautiful young lady in a pensive mood, circa 1912. Madge was a school teacher. She never married and passed away in 1991 aged 97. I never tire of looking at this lovely image.

https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Allsop-11

by Peter Knowles G2G6 Mach 6 (69.8k points)
What a beautiful portrait.  At first I thought it was a picture of identical twins.
I love this picture, so many old photos the people are looking stiff and not natural. This is a beautiful photo.
+10 votes

Hawkins sisters with puppy Riley-Champagne and Dad's '61-'62 Lincoln Continental visiting grandparents in Yucca Valley, San Bernardino County, California c.1970's.

https://www.wikitree.com/photo.php/8/81/Hawkins-9192-12.jpg

by Paula Reinke G2G6 Pilot (102k points)
+6 votes
My favourite picture is of my Grandpa and Nanny Wilkinson, and my Mom at about age 5 or 6. Its a photographer's portrait, likely done in 1923 or 1924. A close look shows my Mom's malformed hand held by her Mom.
by
+7 votes
Taken about 1888, these are my great-grandparents Rev. Charles Benjamin McDaniel, his wife, Florence Josephine Carr, and children Florence, Lottie, and Winifred. By the year 1917, every one of these ancestors of mine died of either typhoid or tuberculosis. Winifred was my grandmother, who left three daughters of her own, one of whom was my mother. Mom was seven when grandmother died, but she remembered grandmother, as long as she still had strength to sit up, singing her favorite hymns. The hymn mom remembered best is "There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus; no, not one, no not one. None else can heal all our souls' diseases; no, not one, no not one." https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/McDaniel-2395-2
by Loretta Layman G2G6 Mach 4 (44.3k points)
+11 votes

This I think is my favourite. Its my Grandfather Richard Wilkinson, my Nanny, Grace Cameron Wilkinson, and the little girl is my Mother, Helen Cameron Wilkinson. Mom was about 4 or 5 when this was taken, so that would be 1922 or 1923. She had a malformed left hand, and you can see it gently cradled in her Mother's cupped hand.

by Linda Hockley G2G6 Mach 1 (14.5k points)
+7 votes
How can there be just one?  I live the one of my mother sitting on a pumpkin in the middle of a pumpkin patch.  I love the one of my dad standing in front of a fellow Army buddy...my dad fits below the other guy's chin...and his pants are dragging the ground (he was 5'2"...maybe).  I love the one of the grandmother I never got to meet.  I love the one of my great-grandmother sitting in front of what looks to be a old wooden cabin.  And I love the one of my great-great-grandfather, (it's very faded), and he's standing outside in his baggy overalls, and has a dog with him.
by Terri Jerkes G2G6 Mach 2 (22.5k points)
+7 votes
A picture of my mum and her youngest brother. She was still a toddler and my uncle a teen, so mum stood on a chair or table. It is not visible on the picture because her feet were intentionally not pictured to not show openly that she was barefeet at that time during the WW2.
by Jelena Eckstädt G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
+6 votes

Stewart family reunion circa 1900 Stewart family reunion, circa 1900, for descendants and family members of J Wesley Stewart and Eliza A Johnson of Cumberland County, NJ ( my ggg-gp's). My great grandparents Lizzie Stewart and Charles M Mathis are standing behind the seated mothers, he's in the dark suit and she is to his right. I believe my grandfather Morrell Mathis is the young boy on his knees and holding his hands. About 20 adults can be identified with reasonable accuracy. A 1904 news item describes about 80 people going to the reunion. This photo was taken at either the home of John J Stewart, Pleasantville, NJ or his brother George of Millville, NJ. They were my great grandmother's uncles.

by
Sorry the photo didn't post. I don't know why.
+6 votes
My grandparents Gates wedding picture. The frame is oval and made out of cork with flowers etched on the cork. The frame makes the picture look romantic.
by
+8 votes
My favorite photo is of my Auntie Mo, Marion Godley, with my Auntie Nancy, Annie Burnet Godley.  Auntie Mo is sitting in a deckchair  playing with the Yorkshire Terrier, Billie and Nancy is standing behind her.  It was springtime at their home Cawood House, East Hardwick Yorkshire.  It must have been about 1932.

https://www.wikitree.com/photo.php/8/88/Godley-58-2.jpg
by Jo Burnett G2G2 (2.4k points)
+8 votes

I have an old family photo from a "cousins picnic" in 1911 (attached here -- I added the names via PhotoShop).  This picture sits in a family photo album with a hand-written description of two families (Houstons and Rodgers) making their way from Missouri to Oregon on the Oregon trail, and ending up in the Beagle area (outside of Medford, Oregon).  There are also hand-written notes that name each person in the photo.

by Glen Campbell G2G1 (1.4k points)
+7 votes

A photo of my grandmother as a child, with two of her sisters.  Grandma Genevieve Barnett was born 1918 in Elk Basin, Wyoming.  The photo is from about 1920.  Grandma Jenny is in the middle, and her older sisters are Hazel on the left, and Ione on the right.

by Deborah Oliver G2G1 (1.3k points)
+8 votes

Well, It's not old old, but from 1980; and I'm the only one in it still kicking. This photo shows four generations of Wilcoxen men. I'm the little guy, my pop Dave has his hand on my shoulder, his dad Paul is next to us, and his father George is to the far left. Pop, Dave, was a rodeo rider, meat cutter, salesman, and finally, a night club manager. Paul ran a very successful butcher shop, but became paralyzed in a horse riding accident; then decided he could still use his hands, went back to school, and became a computer programmer. He'd give me rides on his electric wheelchair. George was a life long farmer who always told my brother and I that, "We're all gonna' move to Idaho and raise po-ta-tas," while we sat at the kitchen table to eat our take out White Castle sliders and fries. I cherish this photo.

by Jer Wilcoxen G2G6 Mach 2 (23.8k points)
edited by Jer Wilcoxen
+7 votes
For me, it's a tie between two great grandmothers who survived the Civil War, while living on opposite sides of the Mason-Dixon Line.  Hester Ann Stephens Mann married William Benjamin Wilkie in North Carolina in December 1860; she looks the part of a very fragile Southern belle in a photo which was apparently taken immediately after her wedding.  Sarah Jane Mullen married William Henry Gast in Pennsylvania on New Year's Eve in 1861; she was a true beauty but looks scared half to death in the photo of her as a bride.  Stories abound about both families' wartime experiences.  Hester unfortunately died young and left behind no stories of her own, but Sarah never forgave the Johnny Rebs for taking away her much-loved husband during his service in the 14th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.
by George Stradtman G2G4 (4.9k points)
+7 votes

A photo of my grandmother, Effie Lee b. Oct 1891 and her Uncle Harry Schultz b. Feb. 1892  about 2-3  years old and taken circa 1893 or 1894. Effie was the first grandchild of Matilda and August Schultz and was born to their firstborn child Ida Schultz Lee.  Harry was Matilda's and August's twelfth child of total of thirteen.  I love so much about this photograph from Effie's bright eyes, both of their expression's of curiosity, Harry's hair, Effie's shoes and the way she has her hand around Harry's neck. I have this photo framed in my bedroom so that I see it each day and it makes me smile every time I see it. 

by Vicki Elish G2G6 (6.3k points)
Wow!!!
+6 votes
A photograph of my 3 x Great Grandfather from mid 1800's showing his wooden leg. He lost his left leg in Spain during the Napoleonic wars.
by
+6 votes

This is my grandmother and grandfather on their wedding day.  I am told that when my grandfather saw Frances Elizabeth Scott he said he would wait till she was old enough to marry him.  I am not sure how old she was when Sidney Beauregarde first saw her but she is 17 and he was 24 in this picture. They had many children that lived and many that died as infants.  Sadly, I never met them as they were killed in a car accident in the late thirties.  There is a mystery attached to the family name that we recently have found out through DNA.  The surname was "Brantley" but through DNA we have found out that none of the male sons were Brantley's. I am thinking that even going back to my grandfather's grandfather's line, they were not Brantley's so it is a mystery that may never be solved. I am adding the verse on their gravestone. "They were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their death they were not divided. 2 Sam 1-23."   Her hair was never touched by scissors till she had passed away.  I was told she had beautiful Strawberry blonde hair and he was so handsome. 

by Patti Carlen G2G2 (2.6k points)
+6 votes
My great grandparents John and Clarissa (Wooster) Mike wedding picture. It is the only picture I have of him.
by Dena M G2G Crew (640 points)

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