Just had to share these neat historical pics from my family...

This is my grandfather's family. He's the baby in the middle; the only boy. Both of these photos were taken in Mexico in 1910, just before the Mexican Revolution really took hold and they were forced to leave.



Behind the carriage is the house where my grandfather was born.



This is my great grandfather as a young man and the beautiful lady is my great grandmother.



This next pic which is sort of compressed wierdly is my great, great grandparents on my dad's side. This picture dates to the 1870's I believe. The little girl standing in the pic is the mother of my grandmother.



More to come over the next few days...

Fine looking ancestry you have there!

I can't tell you how much my grandmother, who is 93, looks like my great, great grandmother and her mother from the last picture. I'll have to post a pic just to show you. Also, as a side note, the maiden name of my great grandmother is Cooper. Her uncle or great uncle, I can't remember, is James Fenimore Cooper, the famous author. Somebody in my family has the birth records to prove it. I'll need to find it. I bet my grandmother knows.

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jfcooper.htm

Your famous relative has a fascinating backstory of his own. Someone should make a film or miniseries about his life--he lived like a sonofagun, travelling far and wide, during a period when the average soul never travelled more than thirty miles from their birthplace!

I need to find that birth certificate. Someone has her birth certificate or certificate of birth or whatever. On that it lists relatives, her father and mother, and attending relatives. On that document it lists James F. Cooper. The legend it is James Fenimore Cooper. I am going to do more background search.

If you know the city and the date. There will be a small fee, and they will send you a copy. You can probably find the fee info on the web, or just call the locality and get the requirements (often they want a stamped return envelope). You can also get the marriage certificate copy in the same fashion.

My great grandparents were married in Missouri before going to Texas and then eventually Mexico. I am almost positive she was born in Maryland, though. I will do some investigating.

I am not sure now that I believe the family legend. I need to find that document that supposedly lists his name as part of the family.

I saw pics like this of my family during my Grandfather's funeral. Some of them dated back into the 1800s as well. Amazing! Isn't it weird to see the family resemblence even that long ago?

journey known as geneology. :) Anyhow, we have found out some interesting tidbits and have tracked down some very nice, vintage photos. I am furiously scanning them. I have some neat things that I will share later. My uncle is sending them to me now. We have legal papers where my grandmother, the one pictured above in the pics from Mexico, sued the Mexican government for back wages because when the Mexican Revolution started the country soon nationalized its industry and did not allow foreigners to work for nationalized industries. My great grandfather was working for the railroads at the time. He received no wages for years. No one at the company made him leave. The Mexican Revolution really was not understood by many except those Villistas, Carranzistas, etc... that were fighting it. Anyhow, in the twenties after the revolution, my grandmother sued the government. We have the State Department papers and answers from the Mexican government. Needless to say, she lost, but how many relatives do you know that have sued foreign governments! :)

actually... none. What a cool story. I love the geneology stuff. my grandfather did ours and we're irish, scottish, and english traced back as far as the 1500s. Then they came to America in the 1700s and became farmers. I think my grandfather was the first one to leave the farm when he joined the navy. Interesting stuff!

I have relatives that look like the spit image of three and four generations back. That genetic code is something!

There is a picture of my grandfather at two years old and if you compare it to a picture of ME at two we look EXACTLY alike. We have the same haircut and everything... lol. You'd think they were both pictures of the same kid.

So much family history get's lost or trashed, people throw stuff away today never thinking that in just a couple of generations it will become a treasure.

That, and all the broken families with the ties lost, I'm trying to keep an archive to pass down after I'm gone.
One thing that is important that many people don't do is all these pictures that they know who, when, and where, they don't take the time to write on the back stuff that the generations coming will want to know.

I also have a small pipe with an ivory carving on it that my grandfather said his father smoked all the time. I need to take a pic of it and post it here.

may be the proper height.

I tried to resize it but it kept coming out squatty. Thanks again. I'm new to all this photo manipulation.

This letter you see was written in 1918 by a suitor of my great Aunt Lillian. She is the one seated at the far left in the OP. The gentleman, Will Thomson, was in the Army, stationed at Ft. Sill Oklahoma. He was in the Aerial Observer Corps. This letter asks for my Aunt's hand in marriage. Look at the wonderful art of letter writing. I love the handwriting. There is humor here too. You can sense he was nervous as he wrote these words. I hope you can read it. I am only including the first and last pages, but there is much more. Here is the sad part: They were married and six months later, Will was killed in action in France in WWI or at least that is the story I have been told.

I love old pictures and letters. You certainly have a handsome family! Thanks for posting!

Next time you are in Dallas, I will show you the pics in person.

PERMANENTLY!!! But I'll be studying for the bar (:scared:) However, my sister has proposed a meetup on June 4th, as she's coming to my graduation and then driving to Dallas with us; hope you can make it if it's scheduled! Check the Texas forum for more info.

When you say permanently, is it in the city that you last visited? I work in that suburb.

Where my husband has been since November. I can't wait!!!

That's where I work.

It's too bad that I had to wait this long to realize this.

used to smoke tobacco. It is wooden with an ivory figurine of a pastoral young lady. The original cotton (?) is still inside of it and that it is the original case as well.

Sorry the pics are not very good.