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Thursday, April 8, 2010

The Unknown Ancestor


Found among my grandmother's things were a number of old photos. Among them were snapshots of the grandchildren, mixed in with school photos from all of us kids. Some of her own children as well. The normal mixed bag that just about anyone's grandma has tucked away in a top dresser drawer.

"The Top Dresser Drawer" File.

The musty smell of the mixed lot of photos tells the story.

They were kept for awhile. For years, they were treasured.

Among the old photos were some that were especially worn and tattered. All were cherished, despite their condition.

There is one that I keep returning to, pulling it back out, for yet another close look.

I have scanned them all into my computer, putting them in a special folder, marked "grandma's pics". My very own version of the "Top Dresser Drawer" file.

The picture is an old tin type. I looked at it in the bright sunlight, several times, scanning every inch of it.

Searching for a name. An initial. Some indication as to the identity of this man in the picture.

He sits in what appears to be a straight backed chair. Beside a table with a curtain and window behind him. This could be a back drop of a photography studio, hard to tell.

He wears a wide brimmed hat. His hands are placed somewhat carefully on his legs, only a hint of a smile, if any at all. He has determined look, as he gazes out from under dark brows. A light colored pocket appears to have been added to his jacket. He wears a vest as well.

This man is important. He figures into my family tree and meant enough to my Grandmother to be placed with the other cherished photographs in the Grandma File.

Just who he is haunts me. He may be an ancestor I have already located. I may already know him pretty well. I may have visited him and just not know it. But the not knowing is unsettling to the 'Graveyard Rabbit' I have become. This just makes my nose twitch a little..giggle.

Grandma did not know for certain this man's identity or she would have marked it somehow.

I feel like he is from her side of the family, why I think that I am not totally sure. Maybe something she told me long ago?

He has been taken out and looked at so often that I feel like I know him.

He is now so familar to me.
He sits above me, on the desk and peers down at me..taunting me somehow.

"You keep looking, girl." " You can find out who I am, if you keep trying".

Maybe one day I will. Sure won't quit trying.


If this picture is familiar to you, please contact me.

Meanwhile he will sit here and maybe tell me something with his piercing gaze..
Well, I can hope can't I? Grin.