Over the years, we've had old-time photos taken at various fairs and tourist spots. It involved putting on old costumes and becoming stars of sepia prints - you know, those brownish prints that at first glance indicates "old," as in historic?
They are here somewhere in my masses of photographs. I do remember the family looking like Daniel Boone's traveling companions, some with rifles; civil war-era fancy dress, uniforms of various periods, cowboys, pioneers, 1920s gangsters - you name it.
How confused will our descendants be when they discover these instant ancestors? Although my main line didn't arrive here until 1898, how did we get family photos of the Civil War, of frontiersmen and pioneers.
You too can confuse future generations and take family photos in historical costumes.
I guess it is like those painters who produced beautiful portaits of women, dripping with diamonds and other fantastic gems - although that jewelry never existed. How many descendants are still looking for that missing treasure, because it was in that painting of a great-grandmother.
Now, if you really want to confuse your descendants, inscribe the photos on the back using brown ink and a real pen-nib - not a ball-point pen or marker, please!
Is this payback for our own ancestors leaving us buckets of unlabeled photographs? I guess not, but perhaps it will inspire future generations to do some serious homework and realize those prominently displayed photographs are only fake family history.
Shoes are a dead giveaway, so be careful your newest Nikes - or whatever the top gear is today - aren't showing under those period costumes! Take off your glasses, if you wear them; a squint is more realistic. Hide those watches also! It's hard to claim a photograph as historic when the newest Swatch watch is showing under a sleeve.
Enjoy confusing your descendants - our ancestors certainly did the same to us with name changes, missing data, unlabeled photos and conflicting information.
Do leave a note, however, in your papers telling the truth about those "historic" images!
How many readers have these sorts of photographs? What were your favorite costumes?
24 September 2008
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I have one of those photos! It was taken several years ago at a nearby Victorian festival. Gosh, I don't remember the last time I saw that photo. I can't imagine what's happened to it. It must be around here somewhere... when I get a few hours of free time maybe I'll dig around for it. It would be fun to see it again!
ReplyDeleteI have one of those photographs of my grandmother!
ReplyDeleteLove it!
Might I suggest that if you wear glasses, buy an old pair in a thrift store, remove the glass, and wear them.
fM