Old photographs are interesting.
My Great Grandmother (Hadwig) is in this photo on the right. I have another photo of her taken the same day. The photo was taken on my Great Grandparents farm.
The fellow on the wood pile is a mystery. My Great Grandfather (Christian) had crippling Rheumatoid Arthritis and spent most of his time in a chair or on the couch. My Great Grandmother took care of him.
Christian is a bit of a mystery himself. He came to the East Coast on a ship...by himself?...probably not. Did his family die on the ship?? Maybe. His name before he was adopted was Christian Higher.
Anyways back to the wood pile guy...he looks tall and he had a dog that apparently would follow him anywhere. My Mother did not know who he was. I will speculate that is was one of my Great Grandmothers children...Louis maybe as he was tall. (My Grandfather Albert was not tall and his two other brothers would have both died by the time this photo was taken.)
I am working on family information this Winter getting bits and pieces of information compiled...Granddaughter Savannah is interested in family history...so it will be shared with her.
We had a quiet day yesterday, I did some laundry and organized a few things....we watched a movie in the afternoon...Frosted on Netflix...we both fell asleep.
I made smoked pork chops, smashed potatoes and sweet corn for supper.
Minnesota weather: High was 10 F or -12C Low was 5F or -15C eh! Headed into the deep freeze on Thursday and beyond.
Far Side
My first thought was how did he get up there without the wood starting to shift and roll to the left. It makes for a fun picture. So much wood but definitely needed for the long winters. How did you smoke your pork chops? Did someone go outside in the cold and use a smoker? Or liquid smoke or a smoke infuser or a few chips underneath the pan. Inquiring minds or just me - - are curious.
ReplyDeleteHormel make a smoked pork chop available at the grocery store:)
DeleteI wonder if there would be records in an archive somewhere that might provide more history for your great-grandfather. He certainly lived an interesting life. Don't you wish you could go back and get your questions answered?
ReplyDeleteThat stack of wood is pretty impressive too!
I love family history!! I do have a lot of the genealogy recorded for both my moms side as well as my dads. I just find it so interesting. Like for example...all this wood in your photo. I'd love to know the history behind the story of the wood. Was it wood that they would use for their own warmth? Was it wood that they sold? Either way, that was a lot of work for sure.
ReplyDeleteI will speculate that it was from clearing land for a field and yes back then all people in this part of Minnesota burned wood to stay warm and to cook with.
DeleteThe wood pile was an important part of the farm and that's a huge extremely neat wood pile. Our would piles were just that . A pile of wood.
ReplyDeletePictures like that make me wish my ancestors took the trouble to label the backs of more of them for future generations. Of course, that wouldn't help with my 2nd great aunt Clara's album since the pictures have adhered to the pages with time. I can get them off but doing so rips the fragile pieces that hold the picture in place so they can't be put back.
ReplyDeleteGood idea to record as much of your family history as possible while there are still some folks who remember ( or some who might have old documents that could prove helpful).
ReplyDeleteI was wondering too how that man got to the top of the woodpile without it giving way.
I wonder if your Gr. Grandmother was telling him to get down lol.
ReplyDeleteI love a mystery. Wonder what the wood was for. Warming! Barrels? It’s a big pile!
ReplyDeleteYou have some amazing photos of your family. This one is fascinating. That's a huge woodpile! Thanks for the birthday card. You are a gem.
ReplyDeleteBlessings and love,
Betsy
I read the comments so I know about clearing the land. That's quite a wood pile and I wonder too why it isn't starting to slip and slide. Our wood piles were made from big fir that was spilt and stacked with crosshatch end caps.
ReplyDeleteMy mom died, and I had all these photos. I didn't know what they were!
ReplyDeleteThe Mister has been very involved with genealogy for years. He loves the puzzles. We also have a lot of old photos, and for many of them, have no clues as to who is in the pictures. My most treasured family record is a DVD that a 'removed cousin' created, having had some very old movies digitized. It seems that the family, probably in the late '20's, had some sort of reunion and somehow arranged for 'moving pictures' to be created of some of the activities. It was truly amazing!
ReplyDeleteTracing down those family roots has been a lifelong passion of mine. Glad you are into that as well. We need to know where we came from.
ReplyDelete