Monday, September 8, 2014

GRANDPARENTS - with a nod to the USA National Grandparents Day, yesterday

Grandparents, as well as a few great-grandparents.                                                                                                     
Beginning with the first page in the photograph album my mother made for all three of us kids, for one Christmas present.  It took her the whole year to do it, in about 1972 or thereabouts.  All three of us had similar photos in 'our' albums, but we also had many specific to us.  "In the Beginning" is the first page in my album, lettering done by Mom.  
Top right on this first page is my maternal great-grandmother (my mother's mother's mother) Clara Augusta "Gussie" GRAVES Terwilliger, 1857-1955.  Mom typed her age as 100, but she died at age 98, not long after this photo of her living in Florida.  We knew her in the family as "Madee" pronounced Maud'ee, a corruption of the Spanish word Madre for mother. 

Below her on this first page is a tintype from Barrow-in-Furness, Lancs, UK, celebrating my paternal grandparents' 1898 engagement, William John "Jack" GILLESPIE, 1876-1964, and beside him, Harriette BUNN, 1879-1962.  Look to the bottom for Jack Gillespie's parents.

Bottom left on this first page is my maternal grandfather, Charles Edward KUHN, 1876-1945. My maternal grandmother, his wife, is below this 1960s photo, Marguerite Josephine "Daisy" TERWILLIGER Kuhn, 1880-1973.  We knew her in the family as "GramPete" from a nickname as "Peter" a corruption of the Spanish word for little girl, Pepita.  
Next is GramPete's father, James Grover "Grove" TERWILLIGER, 1856-1929.  His wife is Madee in the top right photo on the "In the Beginning" page, above.
On the bottom is Grove Terwilliger's father, James M. TERWILLIGER, 1825-1909.
And here we have my Irish paternal great-grandfather, my father's father's father, George GILLESPIE, 1851-1941.   And here on the right, his wife, my great-grandmother, Catherine ARMSTRONG Gillespie, 1853-1923.
I am very pleased to have even these few photos of my grandparents and great-grandparents. As you can see, many of them lived to a good long life.  Another greatgrandmother lived to 102, a number of others lived well into the 90s. 

Any questions and comments may be added in the Comments section below.  Thanks for stopping by. 

4 comments:

John said...

It is a great thing to have photos of ancestors like this! Just seeing their pictures helps to help them alive in our memories and can form connections with descendants who never had the opportunity to know them when they were alive.

Celia Lewis said...

I agree John. I wish so much we had more photos, but the few we have are very precious. I had a thought that I wondered which photo my grandkids would pick for this kind of post! Made me smile.

Jana Iverson Last said...

Precious photos Celia! And what a beautiful gift your mother gave to you and your siblings.

Celia Lewis said...

Thanks Jana. It was indeed a beautiful gift - all the fancy lettering, and typing up names, dates, comments for each photo. Lots of work. I certainly treasure it - and my sister & brother and I have made copies of some of the photos we like in the others' albums.

Welcome!

Family, friends, and others - I hope you enjoy these pages about our ancestors and their lives. Genealogy has become somewhat of an obsession, more than a hobby, and definitely a wonderful mystery to dig into and discover. Enjoy my writing, and contact me at celia.winky at gmail dot com if you have anything to add to the stories. ... Celia Lewis