Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Wistful Wednesday: 1915

Old photographs of family can sometimes be a puzzle.

This is a photo taken in 1915, in fact I will go as far to guess that it was taken at Christmas time in 1915.

Marvin 1yr 4 months (2)

Grandma wrote on the photo Marvin ( on the right) 1 year and 4 months.  He was born in 1914  on the 13 day of the eighth month..yesterday would have been his 99th birthday.  He died in 1994…at the age of 80…19 years ago later this month.

Grandma Tracie had a favorite sister growing up..her older sister Annie.  Annie was married a year before Tracie.  The other child in the photo on the left is Annie’s first born Lois. The girls (Annie and Tracie) were probably together in town at their parents home over Christmas and took their children to a photographer.

Yes they are dressed alike. Babies were all dressed the same back then, in dresses, it was easier to change their diapers.  Snaps and zippers had not been invented yet.  Little boys were breeched (put into britches or breeches) when they could do up their own buttons before and after using the potty…until then they wore dresses.  Today we think dress and we think girls, back then a dress just meant you had a baby that was not yet potty trained. 

Cousins. At first glace you would think siblings..but not so in this photo.  There were a couple of these photos, only one was marked Lois and Marvin.  The rest are properly marked now.  I am not sure what happened to Lois.  (I talked to a relative, she worked at JC Penney in Bemidji Minnesota and she married a Journalist.) :)

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9 comments:

linda m said...

Very interesting picture.

DJan said...

You always have such interesting information when you post these pictures. I didn't know that about dresses and babies, but it makes sense. :-)

Karen said...

The dresses might have made it easier to change the diaper, but they do nothing for holding a saggy diaper in place:)
Lois was a little cutie!

Nancy said...

Someone in the future will appreciate that you marked the photos and recorded the history behind them.

Anonymous said...

Such sweet faces.

Primitive Stars said...

I love those sweet old pictures you post, Francine.

Anonymous said...

Oh my - cute overload!

Red said...

Now the dress for boys has been explained to me! Our grand parents were smarter than we thought. Keep on digging up more interesting stuff like this.

Jacqi Stevens said...

What sweet expressions on their faces. I'm sure, given the fact that Marvin would have been 99 this year, that you would be able to find something out online about his cousin Lois. If nothing else, perhaps a marriage record to head you in the right direction???