On a recent visit to my family in Dundrum, I acquired a box of old family photographs from my sister. I immediately decided that I just couldn’t look at those photographs and return them to the box from whence they came to be forgotten about for another half a century.
I have never known my grandparents - being the youngest member of the family, they had unfortunately departed this life before I came on the scene. It’s unfortunate too that only one picture of a grandparent exists – that of my maternal grandmother. I imagine in those bygone days, picture taking was not a priority and would only be undertaken on special occasions when everyone was dressed up in their best attire. Any pictures of my ancestors that might once have existed have long since disappeared.
With this in mind, I decided I would undertake the task of scanning all the pictures to the computer, cleaning them up and putting them into an album to preserve them for future generations so that at least they will be able to look back in time to come and see most of those that went before them.
I approached this labour of love with zest and enthusiasm. After about two weeks however, I’m afraid most of this enthusiasm began to wear off and there were times when I wondered what moment of weakness compelled me to undertake this onerous task. Well. I’m glad to say I persevered to the end and now the pictures are printed off and enclosed in some nice bound albums that I have distributed amongst different members of the family.
Below is a sample of some of the pictures that I hope you will find interesting.
I have never known my grandparents - being the youngest member of the family, they had unfortunately departed this life before I came on the scene. It’s unfortunate too that only one picture of a grandparent exists – that of my maternal grandmother. I imagine in those bygone days, picture taking was not a priority and would only be undertaken on special occasions when everyone was dressed up in their best attire. Any pictures of my ancestors that might once have existed have long since disappeared.
With this in mind, I decided I would undertake the task of scanning all the pictures to the computer, cleaning them up and putting them into an album to preserve them for future generations so that at least they will be able to look back in time to come and see most of those that went before them.
I approached this labour of love with zest and enthusiasm. After about two weeks however, I’m afraid most of this enthusiasm began to wear off and there were times when I wondered what moment of weakness compelled me to undertake this onerous task. Well. I’m glad to say I persevered to the end and now the pictures are printed off and enclosed in some nice bound albums that I have distributed amongst different members of the family.
Below is a sample of some of the pictures that I hope you will find interesting.
One of my three aunts that emigrated to the USA in the early1920's
Another one of my American aunts. This picture was in very bad shape. Most of the face was damaged but with Judy's help we managed to restore it to this stage.
An early picture of my mother and father. The little girl in the picture is their first born child who is now my eldest sister. The picture appears to have been taken on a St. Patrick's day long long ago. If you look carefully, you will see the sprigs of shamrock on my mother and sister's dress. The two ladies pictured above are my mother's sisters.
Mother and daughter - my mother and my grandmother
I definitely had more hair in this picture than I do now.
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