fun with genealogy

I figured out today that Prince William is my 17th cousin once removed. Ha!

knickers!

"From William Henry Wright to his Uncle Arley. To wish you many happy returns of Christmas and New years day. We all send our love and best wishes as we could not send you any thing for Xmas. Yours with love, William by his mother Blanche"

The upside down text reads "William is all most to la laugh. Well by by. love to you. from (burt?) (bunt?)"

W.H. Wright is my Great Uncle, and "Uncle Arley" is the cowboy in the post below. I'm guessing William Henry (aka Bill) is about 6 or 7 in the post card, which means this picture was taken in 1915 or 1916.

hey there, cowboy

Is it weird to think that your Second Great Uncle was pretty stinkin' cute?

old school long beach

Circa 1930's, I'm guessing.

check it out!

I have a piece in this show :)

digging

I never specifically said what I was going to do with all the photos in the boxes, now did I? Well, I intend to scan and organize them. After my grandma passed away, several of my cousins expressed interest in having copies of certain photos. If I can get the pictures scanned and organized, I can burn the digital copies on CDs to give out to my family.

Another reason why I want to scan them is to preserve them. And yet another reason is that I'm curious as to what kind of stories I can discover. For example, I discovered these badges tucked between stacks of photographs:
Then I found this photo: This is a picture of the volunteer Air Raid Warden crew in my grandparent's neighborhood during World War 2. My grandpa is the man to the far left, and my grandma is the woman with the dark hair and flower print dress in the middle. See the triangular insignia? It's the same as the badges I found, though I had them pointing the wrong way. I tried to do some research, but there isn't much information out there on the internet about American Air Raid Wardens, and almost none about Air Raid Wardens in Los Angeles. I did find this site, and this site, which has a handy chart of all the different badges. Apparently, the little triangle badge denotes the rank of a Civil Defense volunteer. I'm still not sure what the tan badge is... service stripes maybe? -shrug-

boxes

Practicing doesn't make for interesting blogging. I have been practicing (with variable diligence), but the technique I've been refining involves carefully placing millimeter lengths of hair in a particular pattern. Yeah... slow, tedious work, and terribly unconducive to blogging ("Here's the 1/2 inch long squiggle I made today!"...and the next day ...and the next day). So, I'm going to post about a new project. It isn't an art project (though it quite possibly could become a source of inspiration), but it's an interesting project.

Behold!
What is in the beheld boxes? Hundreds of old photos and negatives from my late grandma's house. I love looking at old photos. They carry a sense of mystery and nostalgia, even if I have no idea who the people are in the pictures. But the photos in these boxes directly relate to me. They are my family's mysteries; they are my mysteries, and I'm excited about exploring them.