02 June 2012

Treasure Trove

Wedding of actor Arthur Lake to Patricia Van Cleeve at Hearst Castle. My grandmother is a bridesmaid, far right :) and I believe my greta aunt is second from left.
In the process of researching our family genealogy recently, my uncle learned that my Great Aunt had passed away on Jan 1. I am not sure why no one on my side of the family was notified earlier but recently my 2nd cousins had a memorial for her ( which I was sadly unable to attend). In addition, my 2nd cousin Trevor, has been scanning in lots of old family photos and sharing them with my uncle for his genealogy work. Since I had expressed such an interest in the genealogy and also he knows that I use lots of old photos in my artwork, he has been forwarding to me all the photos that Trevor has been sending.. 

It has been AMAZING (to say the least) to see glimpses back in the rich history of my family. Something I had only heard stories about and seen the occasional picture of. Sadly my Grandmother suffered from Alzheimers and passed before I was really old enough to ask many questions. 

I have received dozens and dozens of pix over the last few days so I have just pulled out a few of my favs and the more interesting (famous people) to share here... so the rest of the post will just be cool old pictures with simple captions....


these two photos are from Scotland of my Great Grandmother, Marguerite (Moll) Draper. She looks like a doll :)

My great grandmother swimming with Charlie Chaplin off of Heart's yacht on a trip from NY to CA! Amazing!

My great grandmother at a "Baby Doll" party at Hearst Castle. c1920's
Joan Crawford at same "Baby Doll" party.

Ugh, Blogger is being a pain letting me post these pictures. I hope they turn up ok even if they are going wonky...
My great aunt, my Great Grandfather and my grandmother at Heart Ranch for a BBQ.
I have tons more and will share some more favorites another time. Hope you get a little bit of a kick at looking at them as I did....



1 comment:

  1. It's one thing to find old family photos but an even bigger thrill when you discover well known, famous people with them! As for not being able to ask your grandmother here questions...I get that Heather. My family is all gone. My mother's cousin is still alive (at age 92) and while she does remember things, at her age, her memories are starting to fade. I'm doing a family history and relying mostly on ancestry.com which is great for older facts but it's the personal side of things that is missing. Looking forward to seeing more of your treasure trove of photos!

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