I’ve been
digging through our stacks of photos…vacations, trips, food, attractions,
historical sites, museums, trains, depots, automobiles, airplanes and
more. However far and away the most
numerous photos are the stacks of photos featuring family and friends…
Some of
these photos are really very old. In
this post I’m showing a few of my mother’s oldest photos of her parents and
grandparents…and others who are a complete mystery!
Some of
these pictures include the identification of the subject being photographed. This photo is of my maternal grandmother, Estelle
J. (Sibbald) Weed as a little girl. Even
at this early age, she looked determined!
Credit for the photo goes to R and R Studios (G.W. Thomas and Company)
at either 152 – 154 West 23rd Street in New York City or 298 Fulton
Street in Brooklyn.
My
grandmother was born on March 4, 1894 at 2635 Eighth Street in New York
City. Her parents were John Sheppard
Sibbald and Elise Ferdinando Strauck.
This is a
photo of my maternal grandfather’s mother…aka my great grandmother, Selma C. (Bergstrom)
Weed. She was born ca. 1860 in
Sweden. The photo was taken at the Smith
and Hardy studios located at 685 Sixth Avenue in New York City.
Other than
the fact that this is a relative from my maternal grandfather’s side of the
family, we only know his name…Charles E. Weed.
Given his age and the obvious age of the photo, I’m guessing that he’s
Edward A. Weed’s brother. Edward (born
ca. 1849) was Selma Weed’s husband. There
is an attribution as to the photographer handwritten on the back of the photo
but I can’t read the author’s writing.
Selma and
Edward were married at Sag Harbor New York on October 30, 1883. She was about 23 and he was 34 years of
age.
This
colored photo is of my grandmother’s sister Sadie with her dog Punch. It was
taken at DeYoung’s at 815 Broadway in New York City. The back of the photo includes a Medal of
Merit awarded to this studio in 1885.
…and then
there are the mystery photos. They are
all part of the family photos that my mom passed on to me.
Beginning
with this chubby baby, the theme song entitled “Who Are You?” (Performed by
Peter Townsend with The Who), from
the TV series CSI (Crime Scene Investigation), comes to mind. This photograph was taken at the Bostwick
Gallery which was located at 98 Sixth Avenue in New York City.
This is
another mystery photo. This child is
posed for maximum impact on this little ‘stage’. The photographic studio was Baker and
Vanduzen.
Yet one more mystery baby picture… This little one with the spooky eyes was
photographed by William F. Hunter, Art Photographer who had his studio at 243
Fulton Street in Brooklyn New York.
We do
know who this jaunty lad was… This is my grandfather Nathan G. Weed. Love the suit with knickers and the hat! Since his mother’s photo was taken by the
same studio, it makes sense that this photo was also taken by Smith and Hardy at
685 Sixth Avenue in New York City.
Nathan G.
Weed was born in New York City at 207 East 73rd Street on September
12, 1884. Nathan and Estelle Sibbald
were married on March 30, 1912. She was
only 18 years old while my grandfather was 28.
At the
time they were married my grandmother’s address was at 3472 Broadway and my
grandfather’s was at 522 East 183rd Street.
Hey…family
is family! It was part of my mom's family photo collection... This handsome portrait of a
proud and evidently well-bred relative was extremely well posed… The picture
was taken by the Alcide Pinard Studio at Amsterdam Avenue near 145th
Street in New York City. Unfortunately
we don’t know his name…
I’ve previously
published old family photos on my blog site…but these are a bit older than
most. You can check out some other old
photos as posted at https://bigdaddydavesbitsandpieces.blogspot.com/2015/07/old-time-family-photos.html.
I have 'scored' before, finding ‘lost’ family
via posts on this site…so maybe I’ll get lucky again.
Just
click on any of the photos to enlarge them…
Thanks for
stopping by for a visit!
Take
Care, Big Daddy Dave
You must be in nostalgia heaven by now. It;s fun to look back at our history.
ReplyDeleteWhat lovely old pictures, I love these pictures I have someones of my mmom and my grand mo and are really special for me, hugs
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome awesome post, friend David ... So glad you have them and all that info ... I only have 4 pics of my ancestors ... One shows my great grandmother Juliane as an old woman with exactly the great big nose that I have ... the other one shows my grandmother Maria, Juliane's daughter as a very young woman with a needle nose ... the other one shows my very slim grandpa Paul shortly before he died after a fight with a bull .. then there is a a pic of a whole bunch of family bunched together ready to be transported to somewhere as we were undesirable gypsy scum at that time ... my needle nose mumme was only 14 at that time and was put on an unknown train going West in order to save her life ... Her mother Maria was transported to Siberia and died there ... Maria's sister Uta was shot and and killed before the transport because she resisted rape by the Russians, Maria's other sister Anna was shot and killed on the spot cuz she was suffering from epilepsy ... my mumme witnessed all that age 14. She is 89 now and never speaks about this anymore. And she never ever speaks about how I came about. Wanting to know more I had a genetic tests done, and it concluded that I am 64% Eastern European and 36% Ashkenazim. Case closed. Anyway ... Love, cat. PS: My first name is Uta, and I named my daughter Mary, and I named my son Paul.
ReplyDeletelove these photos!
ReplyDelete