With Gratitude...I honor them all: 2013

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Sometimes less is more….

I wanted to share this with you, when it comes to editing vintage photos, it is not always necessary to do a lot of fixes.

This is a photo of my husband’s grandfather who he never met…

Great photo, in great shape, just “muddy” color….

I opened it in my Windows Live Photo Gallery and adjusted the contrast, the shadows and a bit of highlights….I also cropped out the edges…

This is all this needs and it took about 45 seconds! If you have Windows, look at using the Photo Gallery for editing photos that are not trashed. For those you need Vertus or PSE.

Just an FYI….

Thursday, October 31, 2013

This is one of my grandmothers photos I treasure most! She is the one sitting far right with her hand on the floor, the one in the middle in the light colored dress, looking straight ahead is her sister Jessie Reinhard and the one second from the left in the back is their other sister Mamie Reinhard. I assume a bunch of friends from school are the rest of these lovely gals. I love the dark pumpkins, wouldn’t you love to see this photo in color??????

Hope everyone has a wonderful fun Halloween!

My genealogy journey started about 5 years ago now. I had lost my parents in my mid twenties and it had a very traumatic effect on my life. I was just too young to be without them.

I was born in a small town in Wisconsin and I went back to see the rest of my family about 14 years after my Mom and Dad died and that one trip changed me forever. I have one Aunt left, she was my Dad's sister, Rosemary. We spent many hours talking of my Dad and Mom, my grandparents and their parents. I reconnected with two of my first cousins on my maternal side that same time. I felt like I had a family again, I have a brother and his wife who have been wonderful, but I needed more than just them. I needed to find out where my personality traits came from, why I like certain things and don't like others, and I did on that trip. When I got home I wanted to do a scrapbook page, and decided I needed more information. I went online and found a place called Ancestry.com. I looked for Jessie O. Burgess and saw there were records and so I took the plunge and joined the site.

My life has not been the same since!!!!! I can't explain the feeling when I saw with my own eyes a 1870 Census with my great grandfather and his family in it!!!!

I can't even begin to explain the camaraderie I have found in genealogy people....the kindness, the willing to go the extra mile, whent hey weren't even part of my family!

I have done one book on my paternal line and am working on the books for my maternal line. In that little town in Wisconsin where I was born, there are records on both sides of my family starting back in the 1860's, so I have been blessed in the fact that for a lot of my tree I didn't have too far to go.

I love the hunt, as any genealogist will tell you! And I am happy to help people in any way I can, I feel like that is how you pay it forward....

I am so proud of the people I come from, English who became some of the first Americans, Norwegians , Germans, Scotch and Irish. My father loved history, especially his own....I have felt him and my Mom by my side more than once in this wonderful adventure!

So this is where I am going to share the stories of my family, and hope that someone reading it will have that "aha" moment when you decide "I wonder where I came from?"

Thank you for visiting my blog!

So True!

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Sunday, December 8, 2013

Sometimes less is more….

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween !!!!!

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