Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Why a 92 year old photograph is keeping me up at night - Part 2

Following up on our idea of contacting the UB church in Lincolnville, mom placed a call to the office and left a message.  Those of you that follow this blog know that I am a strong believer in genealogy serendipity and boy did it come through for us this time!

Her call was returned by a wonderful lady named Ann.  Ann was excited to take on the project of getting people to look at the photo and identify as many people as they could.

I had racked my brain on the best way to obtain the names and decided to use tracing paper to trace the photo.  That way anyone could add the name directly to the tracing paper instead of trying to describe where they were located on the photo.  I mounted the tracing paper to card stock and hoped for the best.

So on a rainy day in October Ann met us at the BP gas station in LaFontaine, Indiana to pick up the photo and tracing and take it back to Lincolnville.  It wasn't long before my mom had a call from Ann letting us know how it was going.  It seems Ann was worried about the expense we put into the picture and instead of dropping it off at the church, contacted people in and around Lincolnville and began taking the photo to them herself!  Ann had become our own little genealogical angel! 

As news of the photo spread around the little town of Lincolnville more Brane family descendents requested to have a look.  In the end the kind people of Lincolnville, Indiana have been able to help us identify 23 of the 62 family members in the photo!  But it's not over yet!  As a result of this blog, another Brane family member in Florida is able to identify more for us!  I'm waiting to hear back from him so that I can add those names. 

So why is this 92 year old photo keeping me up at night?  Because they are my family, my history and I have a burning need to be able to call them by name and research their stories.  Every last one of them.  I want no one to be left behind.

Are you a Brane family descendent?  Can you help identify anyone in the photograph?  Please take a look.

6 comments:

  1. You are so lucky that the church is still there and people are there. I don't think most of my family stayed in the same place for 98 years.

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  2. Don't give up.....I had a picture of my German Great Grandparents and their five daughters and my grandfather (only son) This was taken somewhere around 1917-1918.

    I knew their names from an old handwritten piece of paper with Gerburtstag on the top. It gave all their names and dates of birth for them, their husbands and children (D. 19280

    By luck I came in contact with a German cousin who I did not know. Her mother was still alive (age 85) and she was able to identify everyone and my mystery was solved big time.

    I NEVER thought I would solve that Brickwall.

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  3. That would keep me up at night, too. Awesome find!
    Astrid

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  4. What a great story!!! I hope even more names
    will come to light!

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  5. Such a wonderful story! It was a brilliant idea to contact the church.

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  6. What a great find and wonderful that you are a being able to connect the dots. How thrilling to be able to put names to the faces in the photo.

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