Who Were They?

For Sepia Saturday I am featuring a “doll of a girl.” This sweet little one is posed on a bench at the photographer’s studio, showing off her beautiful dress and giant hair bow, all while clutching her stuffed animal toy. While you might be tempted to date this photo in the 1910s, it is a little earlier, perhaps 1907. This little girl is my grandmother Hennie, and the photo was graciously scanned by my dad’s Cousin L – who scanned all the old photos a few years back. Hennie was the oldest of seven, so there are quite a few family members – plus the family loved photos. Our cousin may not know how much I appreciate her time and efforts at scanning all these photos and then ensuring the originals went on to descendants to keep custody of them. This is my way of letting her know!

For a family such as ours – with many members all over the country and a great love of photos – the boxes of old photos may seem insurmountable. Who are these people? What years were the photos taken? What should be done with the photos? Cousin L took it upon herself to identify, catalog, scan and distribute hundreds of photos. I expect that lots of families do not have someone like Cousin L, because of the great number of old photos found in antique shops, on ebay, and sadly, in trashcans.

Lest we fixate on the number of old photos which beg the question “who were they?” please enjoy this photo and more by clicking through to Sepia Saturday, where the prompt is dolls. You never know what will turn up and the journey is always interesting!