March Issue - Shades The Magazine

contents

Features

Columns

Saving Face

Finding Relative Nobodies

pg. 6

The Future of Memories

pg.. 13

The Healing Brush

pg. 30

In2Genealogy

pg. 40

A Plain Brown Wrapper

My Ancestral Daughters Of The Dust

Where The Belong

Penelope Dreadful

Dreadful Darjeeling

pg. 52 pg. 58

The Year Was . . .

pg. 68

The Year Was 1925

Appealing Subjects

On Hiatus - Returns April Issue

The Humor Of It

On Hiatus - Returns April Issue

pg. 16

a woman Behind The Camera

pg. 36

Janine Smith On The Path To Restoration Part I Mrs, E. N. Lockwood, Ripon Wisconsin

In Every Issue

From My Keyboard

pg. 4

The Exchange

pg. 5

Letter from the editor Your comments

Captured Moments

Who Will Speak Their Names

All Photographs Are History

Smile For The Camera

pg. 57

The Last Picture Show

Back Cover

Tina Lyons - WWII Valentine

The graphic image on the back of a carte-de-visite or cabinet card

Download The Magazine On The Cover Card mounted photograph. See Penny Dreadful’s column for the story.

contributors PENELOPE DREADFUL

VICKIE EVERHART

GEORGE GEDER

Penelope Dreadful is the alter ego of Denise Levenick. Denise authors the blog, The Family Curator and gives us this month’s “Dreadful Darjeeling.”

Vicki is the author of Creative Moments. She also authors the blog BeNotForgot. Her column this month is “Who Will Speak Their Names”

George is the author of The Healing Brush Column. He also authors the George Geder blog. His column this month is “My Ancestral Daughters Of The Dust.”

DENISE OLSON

SHERI FENLEY

CAROLINE POINTER

Denise is the author of The Future of Memories Column. She also writes the blog Family Matters and gives us this month’s column, “A Plain Brown Wrapper.”

Sheri writes The Year Was . . .

Column. She also authors the blog The Educated Genealogist. Her column this month highlights the year 1925.

Caroline is the new In2Genealogy Columnist. She is also the author of the Family Stories blog. Her column this month “Where They Belong.”

REBECCA FENNING

CRAIG MANSON

DONNA POINTKOUSKI

Rebecca authors the Saving Face column. She also writes the blog A Sense of Face. Read her column this month, “Finding Relative Nobodies."

Craig authors the Appealing Subjects column. He also writes the blog Geneablogie. Craig’s column is on hiatus and will return with the April issue.

Donna authors The Humor Of It column. She also write the blog What’s Past Is Prologue. Donna’s column is on hiatus and will return with the April issue.

from my keyboard fOOTNOTEMAVEN

Women’s History Month It’s March and Shades has a lot to celebrate this month.

First, Shades Of The Departed was voted one of Family Tree Magazine’s 40 Best Genealogy Blogs.

Thank you, to all those who voted and to Family Tree Magazine. Shades is honored to be in such esteemed company. And thank you to those who write for Shades, the regular columnists and those who contribute feature articles. They are Shades. Shades is all about the fascination with old photographs and our connection to them. We love what we do.

The next cause for celebration is Shades’ Blogiversary. March 15, Shades will have been presenting, Twice Told Tuesday, Web Wandering Wednesday and Many Things Thursday for two years. And this year Shades dream of becoming a Digital Magazine came true with the November 2009 Inaugural Issue. Thank you to all who read and comment. Those of us who work to create Shades thank you for your support.

March is Women’s History Month and we are asked to write women back into history in 2010. But Shades is all about the old photographs and so we’re celebrating Women’s History Month by Giving Their Face A Place. We celebrate woman by showing their lovely faces and directing you to all the places where you can research their pasts.

Join Us as we celebrate in the month of March.

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THE EXCHANGE

LEAVE A MESSAGE WITH THE EXCHANGE For this issue of Shades the Exchange is being used to send messages.

GET WELL SOON CRAIG! CONGRATULATIONS! To our very own Saving Face Columnist Rebecca Fenning.

Rebecca has just gotten engaged!

We know you’re enjoying all that attention, but we miss you.

The Shades Gang

SAVING FACE

in the library or archive ILLUMINATING YOUR RELATIVE NOBODIES REBECCA FENNING

Most of us are related to non‐famous people, folks who may have made it into the newspaper when they were born, married, sued, graduated high school or died, but who otherwise did not make much of a dent in the archival record. However, just because you’re not related to the @irst female Presidential candidate Victoria Woodhull [Link] like a friend of mine is doesn’t mean you have to despair of ever @inding anything relevant or illuminating about your relative nobodies in the library or archive. There are plenty of places to @ind tidbits about average people, even if there aren’t @inding aids out there with their names on them.

Because March is Women’s History Month, we can take those sometimes elusive and quite average female relatives as an example. It’s not for nothing that genealogy publications and educators often dedicate whole sections of their pages and presentations to researching female relatives. From the dif@iculties of connecting maiden and married names to the simple fact that women were often excluded from the formal historical record in the past, it can be hard, to say the least. However, new efforts at inclusion, equality and historical practice make it much easier to @ind information about women in the archives than it may have been previously. Larger cultural movements concerned with civil rights and feminism aside, revolutions in the practice of social and material history have made the everyday documents produced by women of the past – such as diaries, cookbooks, letters and needlepoint patterns – valuable resources in the libraries of today.

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Tidbits about average people.

Specialized libraries focused on the history LOC American Memory Collection

of women – the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America [Link] is a notable example – may hold the papers of famous women like Julia Child and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, but they also hold the papers and documents of average, non‐famous women, and those of the groups, organizations, and schools these women made part of their everyday lives.

The diaries and letters of ordinary women can be a treasure trove of information – and not only if you happen to @ind the diary Courtesy of the Author

or correspondence of a woman you’re related to. Papers of women from the same towns, working in the same jobs or from the same religious group may provide helpful background and context, even if your relative’s name doesn’t appear at all.

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The archives of women’s (and co‐ed) colleges, universities and charitable organizations can also be a good place to look. The Schlesinger Library, for instance, is also the home of the Cabinet Card of two young women reading letters.

Radcliffe College Archives, which holds a rich array of documentation on former students, faculty and school history.

A digitized collection of

photographs searchable through Harvard University’s VIA catalog [Link] depicting everyday student life in the 20th century (which I helped work on as a library school intern) is a particularly fertile place to @ind pictures of former students, or to simply get a sense of life at a women’s college during a speci@ic time v oteMa

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period.

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Other woman‐focused libraries and archives

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– like the Jewish Women’s Archive [Link] Iowa Women’s Archive [Link] or the

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Archive on Woman Artists at the National Museum of Women in the Arts [Link] – focus even more closely on speci@ic subgroups of women. Of course, institutions don’t need to focus exclusively on women

to have signi@icant and helpful collections of material about women’s groups, schools and individual women – both famous and ordinary. Some of my library’s largest collections [Link] are dedicated to famous men, yet we have important material about women writers like Hannah More and Dollie Radford as well as notable items by ordinary women, who have actually become somewhat famous in our present day because of the signi@icance of the papers they’ve left behind.

Though women and collections dedicated to them are the focus here, this holds true for any group of people, whether they are medical professionals, social workers, Asian‐Americans, African‐Americans, Catholics, Muslims, lesbians or socialists. There are specialized archives

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and collections out there for nearly any group under the sun, and it doesn’t take an archives or library degree to @ind them. Even just a simple search engine query for “women archives library” will bring you a list of relevant institutions, collections and

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resources. Even if a library doesn’t have digital collections or even a webpage,

Left - A diary entry.

Above - Cabinet Card of women reading letters.

The diaries and letters of ordinary women can be a treasure trove of information – and not only if you happen to find the diary or correspondence of a woman you’re related to.

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chances are that someone somewhere has perhaps written something describing that library’s holdings and that can be a helpful starting point.

To be sure, it might be a lot easier to be, like my friend Jennie, related to Victoria Woodhull – a woman about whom many books have been written, @ilms and stage shows have been produced and a respectably detailed Wikipedia entry has been compiled – but there is something to be said for the thrill of the hunt, and the satisfaction knowing you discovered something new.

All three images Duke University - Emergence of Advertising

Cookbooks and a 1917 Almanac that includes hints for the Home Doctor. All great sources of information.

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LOC: American Memory - Records of the National Woman's Party

Suffragists picketing in front of the White House. Harris & Ewing. 1917

An amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing women the right to vote in the United States was first introduced in Congress in 1878.

That amendment was defeated, and for the next 40 years it was reintroduced — unsuccessfully — in every session of Congress.

Women finally won the right to vote in August 1920.

Women Winning The Vote 1869 - Wyoming (territory) 1870 - Utah (territory) 1893 - Colorado 1896 - Idaho 1910 - Washington 1911 - California 1912 - Kansas 1912 - Oregon 1912 - Arizona 1914 - Montana 1914 - Nevada 1917 - New York 1918 - South Dakota 1918 - Michigan 1918 - Oklahoma 1920 - 19th Amendment Ratified

THE FUTURE OF MEMORIES

a plain brown wrapper CUSTOMIZED PACKAGING

BY DENISE BARRETT OLSON

Although I love all kinds of wrapping paper, ribbons and all the paraphernalia associated with presents, I just don’t have the room or the budget for it. Instead of spending a couple bucks on a roll of patterned paper that’s only good for one type of occasion, I spend my money on digital graphics and scrapbooking elements which can be used over and over. I do keep a stock of gift bags made of brown craft paper and there’s always a roll of postal craft paper stashed in the bottom drawer of the buffet along with some tissue paper in a few basic colors. By combining these with the graphics and an old family photo or two, I can quickly create a pretty package customized for the person and occasion.

Have you seen those expensive cards that use old photos with catchy captions inside? How often have you said to yourself, "I have photos like that in my collection"? Why not put your photos to use and make your own cards and package decorations.

For the price of one roll of wrapping paper, I can buy a downloadable package of digital art for just about any occasion. Using those graphics and some custom text, I’ll create a custom @lyer to glue to the front of my brown gift bag. I can use some of those same graphics ‐ with or without photos ‐ to create a coordinated card to go along with the gift.

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HOW DO YOU PULL THESE GOODIES TOGETHER? You’ll need some basic supplies. I use card stock for both the cards and the @lyers glued to the gift bags. I keep a supply of card stock in neutral colors ‐ gray, tan and white. My recent discovery of 5” by 8” card stock (Remember the funeral fans?) has been handy for a growing number of projects. The photos on the cards are printed on photo paper. I use double‐sided tape to glue everything together We all have old family photos that offer any number or possibilities. The toughest part is @inding catchy captions to match the photos. Since it’s dif@icult for me to walk past a greeting cards display, I can justify my visits as research. I’ve even been known to buy a card or two on occasion. When I see a card I like, I mentally inventory my photo collection

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to see what similar image I might have. I also keep cards I’ve received as inspiration and I have a page in my notebook just for captions and quotes.

Not all occasions can be managed with old photos. That’s why my graphics collection is event‐oriented. I have graphics suitable for birthdays, baby showers, anniversaries and holidays. Some, like the @ishing graphics used for a birthday package, are purchased from online sources. Others, like the sailboat, are found in old books and magazines now in the public domain.

For cards, I just size and print the photo to @it, then tape it to the card. I usually just write the caption myself. The package decorations take a bit more effort. I use Photoshop Elements to size the graphics and add text. The amount of effort is usually minimal, but the results speak for themselves.

My not‐so‐plain brown wrappers have become a signature style and fun topics for conversation. It’s just a fun and simple way to show you care.

RESOURCES The fishing graphics on gift bag are from Hugware by pcCrafter.

The sailboat graphic came from an old Scribners magazine.

The photographs are from the author’s collection.

Dover Image

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All Photographs Are History Janine Smith leads us down the path to restoration.

PART I

Yes, all photographs are history. Your family photos tell the story of life, a literal snapshot in time of what the world was like, at that very moment.

That moment may not depict a major global historical event, but it is nonetheless, a historical event. It depicts a moment in the history of you, your family, their world, their lives. It's precious, it's irreplaceable and it matters! Unfortunately, however, just as our photos depict a moment in time, time will eventually catch up and reclaim them. In 100 years, that shoebox of old photos that sits on top of your closet will, in all likelihood, be a box of dust. Preserving them today, by digitizing and restoring them is the only way your photo collection has a chance of surviving into the 22nd century.

Photos give us a glimpse into the life and times of those who come before us. But what does a badly damaged photo tell us? About all they can tell us is that the photograph hasn't held up well or hasn't been cared for properly. A damaged photo puts the emphasis on the state of the photo, not the content of the photo. Therefore, it's distracting to the viewer who is focused on the damage contained in the photo, not the actual content.

Do you have boxes and boxes of old family photos, most of which just need a tweak here and a tune up there? Far too many to think about a really good, professional digital photo restoration?

Aside from using the “$5, no matter the damage!” or “send your photo's to us and we'll send them to India, cheap!” restoration sites, (which I heartily discourage you from doing), what's a body to do? Restore them yourself, of course! “Pishaw”, you say! “I couldn't do that! I wouldn't even know where to begin!” Well, I'm here to tell you that you can, and how to go about it!

The first and most important thing you'll need is the desire to learn. If you really don't have a smidgeon of interest about doing your own minor restorations, then you might as well stop here.

I'll be writing, at a later date, about what you need to know when you're looking for professional

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restoration, so perhaps we can meet back here, then? For those of you that do have at least an inkling of desire to do the work yourself, read on!

THE RESTORATION TOOLKIT You have the inclination to learn some restoration basics. Where do you start? Start with what I call your Restoration Toolkit. Like any good toolkit, you add tools as you go along, but you need to start with the fundamentals.

SCANNER You have the computer (we're just going to assume that one), you have the photographs. You need to get the photos into the computer, and for that, you need a scanner. There are scanners available in a very large price range, from the under $75 cheapies to the multiple thousand dollar professional quality variety. The difference, of course, will be in image quality and features. You probably don't want to go with the cheapest scanner you can find, but you don't need to most expensive, either. If you can afford it, a nice, low to mid-level model is more than sufficient. You can read all the specs for the scanners all day long, but when it comes down to it, the only way you're ever going to know how good that scanner is is by looking at the same image scanned on all the scanners side by side. Since that's probably not going to happen, here's a couple things to look for: RESOLUTION – This is very important, but even the cheapest scanners will be be capable of resolutions higher than you'll need. I've never scanned an image higher than 1200 dpi, and that very rarely. I usually work in the 300 to 600 dpi range. At the same time, you want a higher resolution to scan your original for an archive copy. The copy of the original, in it's current state of decay, to archive onto digital media (CD, DVD, internal or external hard drive, etc), so try to opt for the scanner that allows for up to 9600 dpi, but at least 4800 dpi.

DIGITAL ICE – This is a technology, made by Kodak but available on a wide range of scanners, that will make your life a lot easier. By shining an infrared beam through the print and

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determining the thickness of it. Thinner spots are determined to be scratches and thicker spots are determined to be dirt. The scanner then mathematically removes the defects – I don't know how, so it must be magic! ICE gets rid of damage that's minor, but very time consuming. ICE is very nice!

BIT DEPTH – Most scanners are equipped with 48-bit color which is what you should be scanning at, especially if you want to enlarge the photo. Some scanners have 96-bit color, but that's a better depth for, say, original paintings, rather than photos.

IMAGE EDITING SOFTWARE – I don't include this as a must have, but most scanners have it, so I'll speak to it. This falls in the “magic bullet” category; the software that supposedly can restore your photo in the scanner. While some of it does an adequate job of fixing some minor things, it just can't do what a person with skills can do. Personally, I'd leave this to those who aren't serious about learning to restore, and stick to ICE and skills!

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So, what if you have an older scanner, or a cheaper model that doesn't have some of the things you'll need to get a good base scan to work on, and you don't have the money or the inclination to purchase a newer / more expensive model? It's possible to buy or download scanning software that replaces your scanners drivers and, in some cases, makes a more high end scanner out of a lower end model, especially in terms of features. One such software is VueScan [LINK] that really does make a great scanner out of a good one! As with all things that have many settings and features, play with them all to get the best scan you can. The scan is your base, what you will work from. A bad scan can make the restoration work harder, while a great scan will make everything much easier and undoubtedly more pleasant!

SOFTWARE The essential piece in your toolkit, the thing all else will be based upon, will be your photo editing software. It's the “digital� in digital photo restoration.

Without it all you could do is view your photo.

Whether you use a highend application, such as Adobe Photoshop, a free offering, such as paint.net or Gimp, or something in between, your PES is the key to editing, or restoring, your photos. Your ability to do certain things could be limited depending on the software you choose, but the very basic's of restoration should be possible from most, if not all, applications. I'm not personally familiar with all the photo editing software available in the universe, and am, in fact, prejudiced

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towards Adobe Photoshop. This is not an opinion, as, again,

A Group of Librarians in Glacier Point, Yosemite National Park, California, 1911

I'm not knowledgeable enough about other applications to have formed an educated opinion, but a prejudice, it being the only application I know well, having worked in it for over ten years.

PHOTOSHOP – [LINK] The premiere photo editing software is Adobe Photoshop. It's the Bugatti Veyron of photo editing software, the big dog, the Grand Poobah – both in terms of features and price. The current

panel that puts all your adjustments on their own layer where you can edit, and re-edit, to your hearts content. One feature of Photoshop that you won't get with most (any?) other photo editing software is Channels. Channels is a breakdown of the individual color channels of your photo (if scanned in color, even your black and white photos!)

UI Urbana Library Digital Collections

version,CS4, has wonderful restoration-friendly adjustment

that can show you which channels (Red, Green or Blue if working in the RGB color space, which I daresay most of you will be, whether you know it or not) hold the most damage. Without getting too deeply into Channels, a great deal of the time damage will be worse in one (or two) and better in another. This gives you a wide range of options when analyzing your photo for repair. Channels is a rather sophisticated area for the novice, however, and is mostly utilized by the professional, be they photographer or photo restoration expert. If you just plan on doing a small repair here and a little correction there, Photoshop is probably overkill. At around $600, you'll mostly be keeping the Bugatti in the garage. Since Photoshop is the software most professionals use, and it's interface closely resembles that of Photoshop Elements, this is the application I'll most refer to in this article.

PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS – [LINK] Elements could arguably be called “Photoshop Lite”. It has the fundamental tools, but lacks a real Photoshop powerhouse – Channels. It's probably just

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GIMP – [LINK] The premiere open source (as in free) editing software. A bit more powerful than Elements, but still not quite Photoshop, it would be a wonderful way to begin in restoration, at least until one decides just how deep they'd like to get into learning restoration skills!

SPLASHUP – [LINK] A free online application that has a very Photoshop Elements-like interface.

All the essential tools, excepting channels, this is a good application to try because you not only don't have to pay for it, you don't have to download (or load, period) anything on to your hard drive! All you have to do is upload your photo from your hard drive and you're on your way!

OF MICE AND PEN There are two ways to go about doing your work: using a mouse or using a pen tablet. Now, before I go any further, just let me say that I've seen some incredible graphic work that was done using a mouse, in fact, I daresay there are some people who can just do anything with a mouse! I'm not one of them. Before I got a pen tablet, I tried using the mouse. Let's just say it wasn't pretty. It's my belief that digital photo restoration is a very detailed process and that a mouse is just to bulky, in general, to handle that precision. Plus, aside from the imprecise, in my opinion, nature of the mouse, the strain on your wrist would be horrific! Since I don't, can't, use a mouse to the detail work needed, I can't speak to the benefits of using one. Frankly, I can't see any. You see, I'm a faithful convert to the

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graphics tablet, a true believer, and like any good fanatic, I'll try to foist my opinion on the matter upon you now:

CONTROL - Never underestimate the control! Trying to draw a portrait with a hamster: that's sort of what it felt like, to me, when I first worked in Photoshop – pre-tablet. We draw using pencils, brushes, perhaps charcoal, but almost always the implement we use is held between the thumb and the first finger, not in the palm of our hand. So the pen tablet stylus feels natural and affords the control we need.

LESS STRAIN - With the pen you'll use your wrist less. Period. Sure, if you sit for hours doing extremely detailed restoration work, you will feel the strain. In fact, your whole hand, sometimes your arm will go numb. This usually happens when you lose yourself in your work and have no idea that six hours of your life has gone by without your knowing – I don't recommend anyone trying this at home. I'd be willing to bet my Wacom tablet, though, that you wouldn't be able to even work a fraction of that time, doing that level of detailed work, with a mouse without experiencing the mother of all Carpal Tunnel events!

CONVENIENCE – Graphics tablets can be customized so the things you usually do by going manually to menus, or using keyboard shortcuts, can be done in the press of a button, either on the pen itself, on the tablet or both. You can also erase by simply turning the pen upside down and using the bottom, exactly like (gasp!) and eraser! I kid you not! Taking a few minutes to customize your graphics tablet can save you more time than you realize, over time!

Is there a downside to graphics tablets? In various discussions I've had (or observed), the two main reasons given against taking the plunge into working with a graphics tablet are price and the learning curve. Most people see a tablet as being too expensive and, yes, they can be! It all depends on just how much tablet you buy! The premiere graphic tablet maker, Wacom [Link], has a full line of tablets which are excellent and the tablet of choice for most artists. The choices can be roughly broken down like this: The super fancy models that show the screen directly on the tablet, the Cintiq line, can set you back a couple of thousand dollars. The median range

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tablets, the Intuos line, are in the $250 - $500 range, depending on the size. But there's another option, the Bamboo, that start at just $70, the perfect thing for the beginner! There are other tablets out there besides Wacom, of course, such as Monoprice [Link], DigiPro and Aiptek [Link]. I have never used these products, however and haven't even heard much about them, so I can't speak to how good they are or aren't. In fact, I couldn't even find a website for the DigiPro tablet. If you want to further investigate alternatives to Wacom, my advice would be to go online and read reviews from actual users!

When you first pick up your pen and try to draw while looking at the computer screen instead of the 'paper', in this case the tablet, it's the graphics equivalent of patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time. However, the approximate time it takes to get used to it is roughly the amount of time it takes for you to quit thinking about it. You'll literally realized, all of the sudden, that you're no longer thinking about, you're doing it! Just like that. My 78 year old mother began using a tablet and within a couple of hours was using the pen like she'd been born to it. So, basically, the two main obstacles to using a graphics tablet are mostly perception, not reality based objections.

The image program toolbar.

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TOOL TIME There are a number of tools with in your photo editing software that you'll use again and again while restoring photos. They are the clone stamp tool, healing tool, patch tool, curves adjustment, levels adjustment and, arguably the most powerful tool of all, layers. Most, if not all of these tools are available in all photo editing LOC - LC-USZC4-3598 [P&P]

software, with varying degrees of ease of use. In the end, it'll all come down to how comfortable you are with your particular choice, which you use the most. A word of caution, however.

Take care not to fall into the one tool

trap! Learn all the tools and what they can can do for you and your work. Using only one, even two of the tools – like trying to do all your home improvement work with only a hammer, will severely limit the scope of your work.

The Clone Tool is very good for fixing small areas, or fixing large areas broken up into smaller areas, the patch tool comes in handy when fixing areas with texture, like trees and grass, the healing brushes are good for fixing small blemishes...these are not, of course, hard and fast rules or the only ways these tools can be used, but only mentioned by way of example, and to show you need to use a number of different tools, sometimes more than one in the same areas!

The Photoshop toolbox is divided into four sections by separating lines. These sections can be roughly labeled the selection, retouch / paint, type / shape and the view / move categories. The main focus of digital photo restoration will be, due to it's nature, the retouch / paint tools. These include the Clone Stamp, the Healing Brush, the Spot Healing Brush and the Patch tools, the

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A bad clone job!

HEALING BRUSH TOOL – The Healing Brush, while somewhat similar to the Clone Stamp in that you sample one area to heal another, it's main differences are that you can only use it on a layer that holds actual pixel information, the photo layer itself or a duplicate thereof, this tool will not work on a blank layer, and that the Healing Brush takes note of things like color and texture of the sampled area and merges it seamlessly into the destination area. One way it creates this seamless merge it by spreading the area out by about ten pixels, which is why it's a good idea to use a hard edged brush while using this tool.

SPOT HEALING BRUSH TOOL – This tool began it's life in Photoshop Elements and was added to Photoshop CS2 because it was just that cool! Unlike it's cousin the Healing Brush, it heals without sampling an area, using the surrounding area as it's reference. This is wonderful on wide open, same color / texture areas, but also presents a lack of control. In future versions of Photoshop, we have reason to hope that there will be smart healing, that actually 'looks' at the areas your are wanting to heal and 'sees' what ares it needs to sample from. The benefits of this could potentially be astonishing for digital photo restoration, among other workflows.

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PATCH TOOL – Like the Healing Brush, this tool has been a part of the Photoshop toolkit since Photoshop 7.0 and is now a tried and true staple. With this tool you don't only sample an area to heal a destination, you actually define the selection you use by 'drawing' around the area and dragging it over the destination area, by selecting the Source option. You can also select the destination area itself and move it to an undamaged area by choosing the Destination option.

As with anything, the only way you will ever learn to use these tools is by using them. Play and experiment with these and all the tools in your photo editing software. That's the wonderful part of digital photo restoration; playing with all the various tools, no matter how at odds they may seem to what your doing, can result in new ways to do that very thing! Masks, curves, levels, text, gradients, paths, all these and more can and probably will be used in your restorations as you become more comfortable with your software.

SKILL SET

Undoubtedly the most important thing you can do when learning the basics of digital photo restoration is just that: learn! Read everything, find and follow tutorials, study others work; like anything worth doing, you can't expect to sit down in front of the computer and just like that be able to do competent photo restoration! Nor should you expect to. There's much to learn, more than you can imagine. While it may seem incredibly easy to fix a few blemishes here and a small rip there, it's not – if it's done the right way. There's a plethora of bad photo restoration all over

the Internet that stand as proof that many people think they can scan a photo onto their hard drive and become an instant photo restoration artist. Some disregard the basic training of the tools of the trade, using the clone tool in a haphazard manner, leaving little trails of redundant pixels in their wake, some “fix� the photo by painting in the missing areas in a sort of Andy Warhol meets Salvador Dali mashup that defies explanation, some even ignoring the basic laws of physics when replacing body parts, bend arms in unnatural ways or flipping eyes giving their ancestors an oddly cross-eyed countenance. Like the arm-chair quarterback who can't throw a football to save his life, or the closet fashion designer who can't sew a stitch, some things are best left to those who know what they're doing. Yes, you may save a few bucks, you may even really believe you're doing a wonderful job, but you're doing a huge disservice, not only to your ancestors, but to history itself. What if that photo you're attempting to restore, with the intent of putting on the web for all to see, is the only photo in existence of that person? Future generations may well believe their 8th great-grandfather Herbert really was cross-eyed with a backwards arm and painted in hair!

In the April Issue of Shades, Janine Smith continues her Path To Restoration with Part II - More Important Things.

Janine Smith, is a professional genealogist and award winning photo restoration artist, with over 15 years experience in analysis and family history research and over 30 years experience as a portrait artist. She's coowner, with her mother, Caroline, also a genealogist, of Landailyn Research and Restoration in Fort Worth, Texas.

Janine is the 2008 winner of the Photoshop User Award for Photo Restoration, an International competition with over 700 entrants, and is proud to be numbered among the premiere photo restoration artists.

Giving Their Face A Place In History Women’s History Month

THE HEALING BRUSH MY ANCESTRAL DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST

BY GEORGE GEDER

"Daughters of the Dust,” directed by Julie Dash, is one of my absolute favorite @ilms of all time. It continues to be a lyrical and cinematic movie of a family of complex, independent African American women. To honor and celebrate 2010's W o m e n ' s H i s t o r y month, join me in taking a look at some of the women in my f a m i l y . T h e s e pictures you may have seen already, but here I want to put them in a matriarchal timeline.

Mrs. Emeline Jeter (1807‐1881), spouse of my 2nd great grandfather John R. Jeter, gave birth to 13 children; 10 of which were sold from her during slavery times. So far, I only know about two. James, my great grandfather had three sons and one daughter.

Jeremiah, my great granduncle, had three daughters.

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Iantha Melvin (1804‐1893) is also my 2nd great grandmother. Her daughter, Harriet (1845‐1891), married James Jeter and their daughter was named Isabelle (1872‐1933). Emeline and Iantha were noted as domestic servants and Harriet became a laundress. Isabelle was able to break that cycle, go to Freedman's Hospital, graduate and become a nurse in 1898.

Iantha Melvin (1804‐1893)

Harriet (1845‐1891)

Harriet's sister, Emma Jane Melvin (1848‐1925), would also become a laundress before owning and operating a boarding house. She would also change her surname to Melville.

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Isabelle (1872‐1933)

Jeremiah Jeter's daughters were as pretty as their mother, Annie Ghant­Jeter (1856‐1924).

Annie, Emma (1878‐?) and Anna (1888‐1977) would become wives and domestic servants, while Elizabeth (Bessie, 1879‐?) would become a teacher and marry late in life.

Annie Ghant‐Jeter (1856‐1924)

Annie, Emma (1878‐?)

Anna (1888‐1977)

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Elizabeth (Bessie, 1879‐?)

Emmett Moore Jeter, my grandfather, would marry Beulah Stevenson (1886‐1910). Their children would include my father, William Emmett Geder, and my Aunt Julia Stevenson Geder (1908‐1970). I didn't see her that often when I was growing up. She passed away before I could really get to know her.

Beulah Stevenson (1886‐1910)

Right: Julia Stevenson Geder (1908‐1970)

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My grandmother, Willa Lenard­Hancock (1881‐1975), married Jack, became a schoolteacher and had four boys and two girls. Pearle Hancock­Geder and Aunt Sayde Hancock­Carter­Fortenbach (1907‐2002). My mother, Pearle, was responsible for getting the racist children's story 'Little Black Sambo' out of my elementary school curriculum besides raising four children.

Aunt Sayde, as a child in Williston, South Carolina, was thrown in a holding cell for staring too long at a dress in a 'For Whites Only' storefront window. When she was grown, she had her own seamstress shop in Queens, New York. She never had children.

Willa Lenard‐Hancock (1881‐1975)

Pearle Hancock‐Geder

Sayde Hancock‐Carter‐Fortenbach

(1911 - 1975)

(1907‐2002)

The Women ~ My Ancestors.

I'm blessed to have these pictures and many more. They continue to 'speak' and inform me through their images and the stories I continue to gather.

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a woman

PHOTOGRAPHY is especially adapted to a woman's artistic taste and delicate touch.

Behind the Camera

~ Frances E. Willard ~

During the Victorian era, American women from divergent social backgrounds and circumstances took up photography. They ran commercial studios independently or in partnerships with family members. In the early years, women gained their photographic experience serving as photographic assistants and colorists in their husband’s or father’s studios.

Often when the husband or father died, our woman photographer would take over the work in the photographic studio to support herself.

Photographic equipment of the time was cumbersome relegating most women photographers to work in the studio. Their specialties revolved around those subjects considered appropriate for women of the times; women and children. By the 1880s, with easier to use processes and equipment, women entered the field as amateur art photographers participating in photographic societies and exhibitions.

Not a great deal is known of many of the pioneering woman who made a living as studio photographers. Those who were not famous, recording ordinary people and ordinary life.

Many worked under their husband’s names and were listed as artists rather than photographers. Some identi@ied themselves in their imprints using only initials with nothing to indicate they were a woman. Often the only way we know of their work is from names printed on early CDVs and cabinet cards.

Emergence of Advertising in America - K0129 Duke University Libraries

One such woman photographer was Eunice N. Lockwood. Eunice had been working with her husband, a well‐known photographer, named Prof. William M. Lockwood of Ripon, Wisconsin.

Eunice had worked for her husband in his studio for many years when in 1883, Mr. and Mrs. Lockwood did the unthinkable. They got a divorce.

Mrs. Lockwood established her own studio and specialized in portraits of children, an appropriate undertaking for a woman alone.

The photographic community was at a loss as to how to handle the divorce of two prominent photographers, as demonstrated in the following notice in The Photographic Times of 1883:

A Dissolution of partnership of a nature previously unknown in the photographic world has been brought under our notice. The well‐known photographic author and artist, Mrs. E. N. Lockwood, announces to us and her patrons of the past twenty‐@ive years that having been, by mutual consent, divorced from her husband, Wm. M. Lockwood, she will remain in the photographic business in Ripon, Wis., and will erect a gallery in the early spring. Her studio is at present at her mother's residence. There being no precedent to establish a code of etiquette, we are at a loss whether we ought to offer our condolence or congratulations to our brother and sister, but will venture upon the latter. ~ The Photographic Times ~ 1883

After the divorce, Eunice expanded her photographic horizons and began to author articles for the commercial photography trade.

Several of her articles were published in the Photographic Mosaics Magazine By Edward Livingston Wilson.

Below is one of her articles discussing her specialty, Egyptian Photos; no they are not photographs of people on vacation in Egypt or

inneso

ta Histo

rical S

ociety

riding on a camel.

Purcha

sed - M

Right: An example of Mrs. Lockwood’s work. Children of Joseph A. Gilfillan posed with toys Photograph Collection, Cabinet photograph 1885.

HOW TO MAKE " EGYPTIAN PHOTOGRAPHS."

BY MRS. E. N. LOCKWOOD, Ripon, Wis. FEW years ago we recommended the making of what we styled " Egyptian photos.," as a good way to keep up prices when others were making the usual styles for very low rates. We received $6.00 per dozen while others were only getting $4.00 per dozen for cabinets; and we have found it helps us now to maintain $4.00 and $5.00 when others in the same place and adjoining towns are getting only $5.00 per dozen.

People come from far and near for these photos., and are better pleased, as a general rule, with dark-background pictures than any other. First, because less common. Second, more flattering (especially for light-complexioned and light-eyed people). Third, more durable and effective.

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We are glad to note the fact that a vignetter has lately been placed in the market for making these pictures, and we have found it very simple and convenient, and also that everywhere we go, where fine photos, are on exhibition, there is a large increase of the dark grounds each year.

We must urge upon you all not to lower them in the estimation of the people, or lower yourself and your finances by lowering prices on this style of photos, even if you do on the full-length or the light grounds.

They look so different from the others that the question is often asked, "You charge more for this kind, don't you?" and I know, from five years' practical experience along this line, that people are willing to pay good prices for good work, and also for that which can be seen to be different from cheaper grades of work.

Let us, then, do all we can to maintain the respect of people, by respecting our own art and selves enough to keep up good, fair prices; if not by doing as we have, then use some other method, but don't go down, down to destruction in any sense. Let "onward and upward " be our motto in business as well as in our home life.

This is an Egyptian Photograph A photograph with a dark background that accentuates the face and eyes of the sitter.

Colle

ction

Of Th

e Auth

or

Also referred to as a Rembrandt photograph.

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A Woman Photographer and Publisher

"The St. Louis Practical Photographer" was

established in January, 1876, by J. H. Fitzgibbon, a well known photographer.

It was an illustrated monthly magazine, devoted to photography, and thought to be the second oldest photographic periodical published in the United States at the time.

The magazine became "The St. Louis Canadian Photographer," under the direction of Mrs. Fitzgibbon‐Clark, when Mr. Fitzgibbon died on a trip back east.

Mrs. Fitzgibbon returned to St. Louis and became the publisher of the magazine and the proprietor of the photographic studio. She remarried and maintained both businesses as M r s . F i t z g i b b o n ‐ C l a r k . T h e magazine employed the famous Abraham Bogardus as a columnist.

And just when I’m sure Mrs. Fitzgibbon‐Clark was thinking she has made inroads for the women of her profession, The Chicago Banker, a leading @inancial magazine of the time, said:

The St. Louis and Canadian Photographer, a monthly j o u r n a l fo r b o t h p ro fe s s i o n a l a n d a m a te u r photographers, will begin its 24th year of successful publication with the January number. Mrs. Fitzgibbon‐ Clark, the publisher and proprietor, is a talented woman, and has made a trade paper acceptable to the library—a rare thing. Any boy with a camera would appreciate a subscription for Christmas. ‐ 1901

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CAPTURED MOMENTS

who will speak their names REMEMBERING AUNT LAURA

BY VICKIE EVERHART

Because we care, because we can, because we live, we speak their names. . . .

As we acknowledge and celebrate our female ancestors during Women's History Month, let us not forget those women who left this world with no living descendants of their own to remember their names . . .

We are gathered here to speak your names We are here because we are your daughters as surely as if you had conceived us, nurtured us, carried us in your wombs, and then sent us out into the world to make our mark . . . ~ Pearle Cleage ~ There are going to be a number of females in each of our personal family trees who never had children of their own, or whose child or children predeceased them. One of ours is a lovely lady we always knew as Aunt Laura, but who was actually a 1st cousin to our grandpa.

One hundred years ago this month ‐‐ in the year 1910 ‐‐ this Laura, a young granddaughter of a mid‐19th century Irish immigrant, was excitedly thinking of what surprises she might be receiving for her 12th birthday on the 22nd of March.

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A CHRISTMAS WEDDING IN BETHLEHEM

Laura's parents ‐‐ James David Hamilton and Ella May Henry ‐‐ had married in December of 1894 in a small Texas community once known as Bethlehem. This Ella was a younger sister to our great‐grandpa, Edgar Henry.

A lengthy write‐up [LINK] in the local newspaper gave a list of the wedding guests as well as the gifts presented to these newlyweds.

Ca. 1902 little Laura (left) shyly posed for a studio portrait with her older sister, Minnie, and younger brother, James. This little James would die shortly following Laura's seventh birthday.

James David Hamilton and Ella May Henry

LAURA'S CHILDHOOD

Laura Hamilton was born to this couple in March of 1898, the second of seven children.

Laura and her siblings grew up in a house built before the turn of the 20th century. Family tradition states that the house was constructed with square nails and lumber hauled by wagon to central Texas from Houston.

Laura graduated from high school, fell in love, became engaged, and dreamed of becoming a wife and a mother.

She had just celebrated her 24th birthday when her name was mentioned in an article in the local newspaper. It was April of 1922, and a 13‐year‐old neighbor had been accidentally electrocuted while playing in a chinaberry tree in the Hamilton yard. Laura was mentioned as one of the adults assisting in retrieving the lifeless body of the little girl from the tree.

DEATH OF LAURA'S FATHER

Less than two weeks later, death would visit her childhood home once again. During a late night Texas storm, Laura's 49‐year‐old father was killed while trying to get home from the SAAP RR Depot.

The local newspaper reported rather gruesome details of the weather‐related accident that was described as electrocution by a downed power line.

The baby of the family was not yet nine when J.D. died, and Laura's widowed mother needed her. So Laura unsel@ishly put her own life on hold, and took care of family @irst . . . and the

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seasons of her life, they came and they went . . . and by the time of her death at the age of 89, Laura had never been married. Her obituary stated that she had spent more than 40 years of her life working at local department stores in her small Texas hometown.

LAURA REMEMBERS HER GRANDPA

Laura was not quite fourteen when her Grandpa Henry died in 1912, but she remembered him well, and the stories he would tell. In her later years, on an undated piece of notebook paper, Laura wrote out her memories of her Grandpa.

Those brief notes ‐‐ visible in the background of the collage image ‐‐ provided just enough detail to enable us to follow Grandpa's family roots back to Kentucky and beyond, and to @inally result in the identi@ication of his long‐elusive parents.

Benson, Buford, Calloway, Cleggett, Early, Henry, Kirtley, Lewis, Roberts, Thomison ‐‐ those are just a few of the ancestral names we were able to make a connection with ‐‐ thanks to Laura's notes.

And these are among the family names called to mind on a daily basis, as a list of family events ‐‐ dates of birth, marriage, death, et al ‐‐ is regularly compiled and posted to our family timeline blog [LINK] .

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WE WILL REMEMBER YOUR NAMES

Many years ago, I read somewhere that a good way to really get to know my deceased kith 'n kin might be to spend quality time with each of them on the anniversary date of their birth or death. That quality time might include writing up a short biographical sketch on each such individual, or scanning their photos or documents on that date, or cleaning up the sources in their @iles. Being a lover of timelines, I really liked this idea.

Over the years, I have experimented with various methods of easily remembering those dates, but the one I am using now seems to be the best suited (so far) to my way of doing things. For the past year, near the end of each month, I have exported an updated GEDCOM @ile from my Family Tree Maker [LINK] program. This is easily done at the same time I am creating my monthly backups as per the Data Backup Day reminders courtesy of the Geneabloggers calendar [LINK].

Using that GEDCOM @ile, I create an up‐to‐date database in a free genealogy program called GeneWeb [LINK]. Within GeneWeb I am able to easily generate a monthly list of births and deaths and marriages from the information I have entered in my personal family history @iles. I am then able to just copy and paste those lists into a blog‐post on a daily basis. Note ­­ I do not post the names and birth­dates of any living individuals in this on­line listing.

This method provides a means of getting almost every single name in my database (except the living) online and searchable, as well as serving as a remembrancer of all those who came before . . .

We are here to speak your names because of the way you made for us.

Because of the prayers you prayed for us.

We are the ones you conjured up, hoping we would have strength enough, and discipline enough, and talent enough, and nerve enough to step into the light when it turned in our direction, and just smile awhile.

~ Pearl Cleage ~

HOW DID YOU DO THAT IN PICASA?

The photo of Aunt Laura on the left is the original as delivered by email from her niece, Peggy. To produce the image on the right, the photo on the left was @irst cleaned up using the Picasa "retouch" tool under the "Basic Fixes" tab. Once that was done, then several options under the "Effects" tab were applied, including sepia, warmify, and glow. The border around the sepia portrait of Laura was added by creating a grid collage as described in the November 2009 issue of Shades.

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The two postcard images on the left are an original postcard from my private collection.

Using the "retouch" tool in Picasa, the words, "A Happy New Year" were removed from the postcard, and a little cleaning up was done. Then Laura's name was added in Picasa, yielding the postcard image you see in the lower right corner, as well as in Laura's Collage.

Adding text to images in Picasa is described in the November 2009 issue of Shades.

The plain white photocopy of Laura's handwritten notes about her Grandpa Henry was "antiqued" by creating a multiple‐exposure collage using the white copy along with with a vintage‐looking textured image of choice. This method is described in detail in the November 2009 issue of Shades.

GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE ::

Picasa [LINK]

Picasa for the Mac [LINK]

From the private collection of Laura's niece, Peggy Skeeters ‐‐ Original photos of Laura, and her siblings, and their parents Original photo of William Paschal Henry Photo of handmade quilt created by Laura and several of her female relatives From the private collection of the author ‐‐ 1930 envelope addressed to Laura, the birth announcement of Robert E. Henry, Jr. (1930‐1997) Copy of Laura's handwritten notes regarding William Paschal Henry Laura postcard

Free Erin postcard is from [LINKS]

Free Fonts ‐ copper‐altcaps.ttf and FramesandBorders.ttf

Free textures from Flickr [LINK] & Graphics Fairy [LINK]

Background texture from Alphabets & Ornaments by Anna Corba

Excerpts from the poem, We Speak Your Names by Pearl Cleage. In her introduction, the poet shares: "My sisters, here, there, and everywhere, this poem is for you. Use it, adapt it, pass it on. . . . "

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Shades, January 2010 [LINK] “The Year was 1910” by Sheri Fenley

Shades, December 2009 [LINK] Captured Moments tells how to create a grid collage in Picasa

Shades, November 2009 [LINK] Captured Moments tells how to use Picasa to create a grid collage, add a border, resize an image, add text and dingbats

PENELOPE DREADFUL

dreadful darjeeling FATE IN A TEACUP

BY PENELOPE DREADFUL

Two young men walked briskly along the sidewalk enjoying the warm spring day and their view of a group of young women clustered in front of a shop window.

"Looking at hats, I'd say," remarked the taller of the two. "Just listen to the din."

"I'd agree, Tom," his companion replied, "except that’s no hat shop. That's the shutterman's studio window they are studying. And look, that new girl Mabel is with them. She's a stunner."

"Don't get your hopes up, old boy, I hear she's a very well‐travelled girl, much too sophisticated for the likes of us. But now that pretty girl with the dark hair. . ."

With that, the men bumped elbows and their course veered in the direction of the young women.

"Mornin' ladies," Tom and Samuel offered, lifting their hats in greeting. "Nice day, isn't it?"

A handsome girl wearing glasses turned from the window to greet the young men, "Why, hello Tom, Samuel."

"Hello Cousin Ann." Tom replied, "It IS a lovely day." Greeting the other girls, he paused as his cousin nodded to the girl Sam had indicated earlier.

"Have you met our newcomer? "Ann said. "Mabel Jensen, may I introduce Thomas Akins, my cousin, and his friend Samuel Nelson."

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Mabel smiled brightly, her clear blue eyes looking directly at Sam, who returned her gaze with a smile.

The other girls greeted the men in turn and Tom mentioned something more about the weather. Mabel and Sam remained shyly quiet.

"What's this you are all examining," Tom said at last. "A photograph of the latest fashion?"

Ann sighed. "Really, Tom, you are impossible. Women can think of much more than hats and gowns." She turned to the studio window and indicated a large photograph propped on an easel. "What does this look like to you two?"

Sam moved to stand next to Tom and tipped back his back for a better view. The photograph showed in sepia tone the same young women who stood before them in living color. Their dresses were different, to be sure, but their hairstyles were much the same, and truly Sam thought, they are much more attractive standing here warm and lovely beside them. He looked again at the photograph. Tom's Cousin Ann was seated at a small tea table and held out a cup of tea to one of the girls. Each woman held a cup and saucer. Sam recognized Mabel and the pretty brunette examining the inside of a teacup as they stood at the back of the group.

The men exchanged a glance but neither smiled nor winked. We had better tread softly here, their expressions seemed to say.

Tom, who could never remain serious for long, stroked his chin and suggested, "Hmmmm.

Well, Ann, it looks to me like some sort of an antique appraisal. Perhaps you are all examining the china for maker's marks." He looked up at her with a mock‐serious expression.

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"Not a bad answer," Ann replied, much to his surprise.

Now completely baf@led by a photo that to him looked remarkably like a ladies' tea party, Tom nudged his friend and shrugged his shoulders.

Ever the diplomat, and with his eyes locked on Mabel's blue orbs, Sam seized his opportunity, "Ladies, you challenge our wits. This is most certainly no ordinary tea party?"

His comment was accepted with nods and murmurs. I'm on the right track, he thought. But what the devil could it mean?

"And while I do not doubt you are each a @ine judge of china. . ." his voice drifted off, and the girls nodded.

"I will give you a clue," offered Ann. "We have been learning from Mabel how to read our future in the tea leaves. . ." "and not only our future beaus," interrupted a tall haughty young woman, adding a smug smile.

"Yes," added small girl with rich dark hair piled high under her tidy hat. "Mabel has been in England, and she knows all about reading tea leaves."

"And exactly how does this work," Tom inquired innocently, looking at the brunette with interest.

Ann took a deep breath and explained, "The tea must be loose in the pot. After it is poured into the cup, one swirls it a bit, drinks the tea, and then examines the bottom of the cup for various symbols." "such as?"

"Whatever one sees. A globe, for instance, indicates world travel is in your future. A gate or door, new opportunities."

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"It's ever so exciting," added the petite young woman, "To think of all the possibilities. . ."

"I don't suppose," Tom said with a sly glance at his friend, "the tea leaves could reveal which fella might ask a girl to the town dance next Saturday?"

The tall haughty girl sniffed, but Mabel moved forward and smiled, as did the enthusiastic petite brunette.

"It's true," Mabel said softly, with a smile. "Most often the leaves reveal events and situations, but one can also look for initials near symbols of friendship or new acquaintance." As she uttered the last, her eyes again rested on young Sam, who returned her gaze thoughtfully.

"For that reading, of course," she continued, smiling, "I would only use Darjeeling."

Images Google Books

Book

Cove

r Am

azon.

com

"Twist the empty cup three times around.

Make a wish. If a leaf remains near where you place your lips, the wish will come true."

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SMILE FOR THE CAMERA TINA LYONS Fort Wayne, Indiana Tina Lyons is a substitute teacher in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Two years ago she went hunting for a hobby to keep her busy over the summer months. Even before the summer began, she was addicted to genealogy.

She loves being apart of the online genealogy community through Twitter (@genwishlist), Facebook, and her blog "Gen Wish List" [LINK].

20TH EDITION - VALENTINE

Do you think Tina’s Grandfather sent a Valentine to his truck? - fM

Gen Wish List ‐‐ WWII Valen0ne Where Genealogy Goals Meet Reality My entry comes from my grandfather's WWII collection.

Marie Beckman Grucz Hanceville, Alabama United States

I don't know who my grandfather, Roy Suckling, asked to be his valentine that year, but I know it wasn't my grandma.

Roy Francis Suckling (21 Sep 1922 - 31 Dec 1993) was in the Army Signal Corp during World War II. He spent 3 1/2 years in the army and was stationed for much of that time in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.

(This is Tina’s submission to the 20th Edition of Smile for the Camera.)

Do you Smile For The Camera?

Read More:

Writing For Blog Carnivals Submission Form

If a picture is worth a thousand words, why can't words be worth a thousand pictures?

That's the premise behind Smile For The Camera ~ A Carnival of Images. Smile is a monthly showcase of articles that feature the very best of family photographs or those orphan photographs contained in your collection. The goal of this carnival is to provide a regular showcase of the best of those cherished photographs and articles based on word prompts. Smile is a feature of ShadesOfTheDeparted.com.

The word prompt for March is Give Their Face A Place! Visit Shades to submit your post. Deadline is the 10th of each month, midnight Pacific Time.

IN2GENEALOGY

where they belong DON’T LEAVE THEM LONELY IN YOUR FAMILY TREE

BY CAROLINE POINTER

As she sat there in her garden with her favorite rosary wrapped around her right hand and intertwined through her Ningers, she prayed to God for strength. Strength to make it through another day. Strength to love and care for her eight children. Strength to go to work. Strength to put up with her mother who had lovingly volunteered to live with her and help take care of her children. Strength to put a smile on her face to welcome war­weary soldiers home.

Strength to listen to another soldier's harrowing account of what he'd been through on the battleNield. Strength to tell yet another family that their soldier was coming home, but not alive. Strength to place her younger sister's life in God's hands and ask Him to take care of her as she performed her duties in the United States Navy. And most of all, she prayed for peace.

Mary Alice (Truitt) Blacketer was a mother, a daughter, a sister, a provider, and a USO volunteer during World War II. She was also my grandmother. However, if you were to look her up in the census, her volunteerism would not be listed. In fact, if my mother had not told me about her service, I would have never known. Such a huge contribution to her country during World War II simply forgotten, or the knowledge of it allowed to die. No one knows how many lives she touched while volunteering at the USO at Ft. Sam in San Antonio, Texas, and really the number is not important. It's the fact that she did touch lives that's important. That was her contribution to the war effort.

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And what of her younger sister and her duties in the United States Navy? Well, looking at Anne Josephine (Truitt) Etie's tombstone, which is located in Houston National Cemetery in Houston, Texas, one might guess that she was the wife of Joseph Ronie Etie, a United States Army veteran of World War II, and t h e y ' d b e r i g h t . J u s t n o t completely right, for Anne was a 2nd Class Seaman in the United States Navy according to U.S. Veteran's Affairs. She was one of 86,000 women who joined the Navy and were a part of World War II's groundbreaking, or perhaps “oceanbreaking” would be a better term, W.A.V.E.S. ‐‐ Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. According to Aunt Anne, she drove an ambulance in France. One can certainly imagine her prayers for strength and peace were said in between picking up and delivering wounded soldiers from the @ield hospitals to the hospital ship. Though more hurried, they were no less fervent and heartfelt than her older sister's prayers at home.

These two women wore many “hats,” and if they were like modern‐day women, they probably didn't think about all they had to do in a day. They just did it. However, this attitude, while admirable, is one of the reasons it is so hard for a researcher to @ind out what impact a female ancestor had in history. Whether big or small, they had an impact that usually goes unnoticed. As the founder of the Red Cross, Clara Barton, once wrote,

“From the storm lashed decks of the MayNlower...to the present hour; woman has stood like a rock for the welfare and the glory of the history of the country, and one might well add...unwritten, unrewarded, and almost unrecognized.”

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For the family history researcher, the word “almost” that Clara Barton used is a word of hope. Hope that female ancestors can be placed back into history where they belong. Hope that their great works will be recognized and is the thought behind National Women's History Month [LINK] whose March 2010 theme is “Writing Women Back Into History.” A theme that the family history researcher is intimately familiar with.

As touched upon before, this is usually easier said than done. For many reasons, female ancestors are dif@icult to track down, much less the things they did that impacted history. However, it's not completely impossible. There are some steps you can take to help uncover your female ancestors' impact on history. Likewise, there are resources the researcher can consult to help in this task.

•

•

TAKE AN INVENTORY Find out who they were. What did they do? Where were they living and at what age?

INTERVIEW Talk to some of your oldest living female ancestors, if possible. Videotape it, voice record it, and/or write it down, even if it's a vague memory, an impression, and/or an opinion. You never know what will be important when researching.

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•

•

•

ANALYZE Look at any family stories passed down in your family. Really “break” them apart.

Put them in a time and place. Look for sources to back them up.

ON THE RECORD If you've not already done so, @ind your female ancestors in census records, probate records, and/or land records. Make a timeline of what you do know.

LOOK AT THEIR LIVES AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF HISTORY Compare their timeline with a timeline of history keeping in mind that this includes world history, American history, state history, regional history, and local history.

They may not have contributed to a big event, but may have contributed in a big way to their local history. Also remember that being a mother and wife was contributing to history, and taking a look at their local history may give you an idea of what their lives were like at the time.

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DID THEY CONTRIBUTE TO THE WAR EFFORT When looking at their timeline, don't forget to look at a timeline of wars. If a war occurred during their lifespan, they more than likely contributed something to the war effort. It may not have been in a formal manner, but taking a look at the war's effect on their local history may give you an idea of what they went through at the time. Remember they contributed their fathers, their mothers, their brothers, their sisters, their husbands, their wives, their sons and their daughters. What kind of impact did that have on them?

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NOW WRITE IT I knew my grandmother very well, and she was a devout Catholic lady who said her

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prayers several times a day in her garden with her rosary in her right hand. I even remember her garden. It had this path that led to the small chapel of the convent that was located next door to her house. Rain or shine, my Gran prayed. I don't know exactly what her prayers were during World War II, but I do know what I would've prayed. In addition, until I looked it up, I thought the USO in World War II was only about troop entertainment and dances with soldiers. I don't know exactly what she did, but after reading about everything the USO volunteers did in World War II, I realized what she must have gone through in addition to the stresses of her job and her family. All of them immense burdens she had at the time, and I know she would've prayed about them. So, I wrote her back into history where she belongs.

Likewise, I knew my grandmother's sister, Anne had driven an ambulance in France.

Her tombstone is misleading, but once I looked her up in the military database on Ancestry.com, I found that she had a more overt historical role in World War II giving me more resources to @ind out what she went through during World War II and also giving me the tools to write her back in history where she belongs.

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SPECIAL NOTE De@initely spend some time looking at women's roles in military history, speci@ically in the history of war. You will be surprised at the participation of women in war.

Take the Civil War for example, you've probably heard about the women spies during the Civil War, but did you know that it is estimated that at least 750 women were in combat during the Civil War? This amazing account is documented in an article in Prologue Magazine [LINK], a publication of the National Archives. I highly recommend it for your reading pleasure. Not only read it, but take a look at your Civil War era female ancestors. How did they contribute to the war effort?

In conclusion, this type of research should not be any different than what a family history researcher already does. The difference is making March the month you write your female ancestors back into history where they belong. Don't leave them hiding in census records,

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probate records, and/or land records as a wife, sister, daughter, and/or mother. Don't leave them lonely in your family tree with just their vitals. Find out what their lives were like.

I'll never know why my grandmother never told me about her volunteer work at the USO during World War II, even though I had interviewed her. I can only guess as to why she did volunteer. I suppose with her eight children, that's what she felt she could do for her country. Her contribution going “unwritten” until now. Her contribution going “unrewarded” until now. Her contribution “almost” going “unrecognized” until now.

PLACES TO LOOK •

Tombstones ‐ While sometimes tombstones can be misleading, like in my Great Aunt Anne's case, they can also tell a story. For example, quite by accident, I once found a tombstone of a World War I veteran of the Army Nurse Corps named Mary Ellen (Coleman) Riley. I found that her story chronicles the beginning of women's history in the military. The of@icial beginning, that is. So make an effort to @ind and see your female ancestors' tombstones.

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Local genealogical and historical societies – Consult one near where your female ancestor lived, and @ind out what resources they have for local history.

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Local libraries and archives for books pertaining to women in history and/or the military.

LINKS TO ONLINE RESOURCES: National Women History Month Website [LINK] Library of Congress, Women's History Month [LINK]

History Channel's Site on Women's History Month [LINK] ‐ includes videos, too.

Women In Military Service For American Memorial Foundation, Inc. [LINK] National Archives [LINK] Timeline of United States Military Operations [LINK] located on Wikipedia with links to more resources.

Colonial Era History Timeline [LINK] Timeline of Legal History of Women in the United States [LINK] One Hundred Years Towards Suffrage: An Overview [LINK] ‐ a timeline of Suffrage provided by the Library of Congress Timeline of United States History [LINK] ‐ provided by Wikipedia with links to more resources.

Colonial America [LINK ] ‐ overview of colonial history with links to more resources.

USO (United Services Organizations) [LINK] Military Womens “Firsts” [LINK] Army Nurse Corps (ANC) [LINK] Navy Nurse Corps (NNC) [LINK] The Women's Army Corp (WAC) [LINK] Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) [LINK] Women Accepted For Voluntary Emergency Service (WAVES) [LINK] WAVES Online Exhibit [LINK] Women's Reserve of the Coast Guard (SPARS) [LINK] United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve (USMCWR) [LINK] Women in the Military During World War II [LINK] USGenWeb [LINK]

BOOKS: Our Mother's War: American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II by Emily Yellin [Has a great overview of the beginnings of women in the military as well as excerpts of letters from them to home.]

American Women During World War II: an Encyclopedia by Doris Weatherford Women Pilots of World War II by Jean Hascall Cole Four Jills in a Jeep by Carole Landis [book is out of print but available used; also made into a movie]

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Making WAVES: Navy Women of World War II by Evan Bachner Mother Was a Gunner's Mate: World War II in the WAVES by Josette Dermody Wingo In Defense of a Nation: Servicewomen in World War II by Jeanne M. Holm and Judith Bellafaire To Serve My Country, To Serve My Race: the Story of the only ANican­American WACS Stationed Overseas During World War II by Brenda L. Moore First Generations: Women In Colonial America by Carol Berkin They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the Civil War by De Anne Blanton and Laura M. Cook America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines by Gail Collins The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy Edited by Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking [especially Chapter 11, “Military Records”] With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Women's Right to Vote by Ann Bausum

SOURCES: Clara Burton to Mary S. Logan, June 16, 1911, container 73, Clara Barton Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awmss5/index.html).

Anne Josephine (Truitt) Etie tombstone photograph; digital image 2009, privately held by Caroline Martin Marshall Pointer, Texas, 2009.

Mary Ellen Riley tombstone photograph; digital image 2010, privately held by Caroline Martin Marshall Pointer. Texas, 2010.

The “Women In History” montage created by Caroline Pointer from the following photographs: Library of Congress, “Selected Images from the Collections of the Library of Congress: Slavery,” digital image, Library of Congress (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi‐bin/query/i?pp/PPALL:@@ield(NUMBER+@band(cph +3a10453 : accessed 19 Feb 2010), Harriet Tubman, digital ID cph 3a10453; citing b&w @ilm copy neg.

Library of Congress, “Votes For Women: The Struggle For Women's Suffrage,” digital image, Library of Congress (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi‐bin/query/i?pp/ils:@@ilreq(@@ield(NUMBER+@band(cph+3g05585)) +@@ield(COLLID+cph)):displayType=1:m856sd=cph:m856sf : accessed 19 Feb 2010), Suffrage Parade New York City May 6, 1912, digital ID cph 3g05585; citing color @ilm copy transparency.

Library of Congress, “Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection,” digital image, Library of Congress (http:// lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi‐bin/query/I? fsaall,brum,detr,swann,look,gottscho,pan,horyd,genthe,var,cai,cd,hh,yan,lomax,ils,prok,brhc,nclc,matpc,iucpub ,tgmi,lamb,hec,krb,:1:./temp/ ~pp_ulOW::displayType=1:m856sd=cph:m856sf=3b29775:@@@mdb=fsaall,brum,detr,swann,look,gottscho,

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pan,horyd,genthe,var,cai,cd,hh,yan,lomax,ils,prok,brhc,nclc,matpc,iucpub,tgmi,lamb,hec,krb : accessed 19 Feb 2010), Susan B. Anthony, 1820‐1906, digital ID cph 3b29775; citing Frances Benjamin Johnston.

Clara Barton National Historic Site, “Clara Barton Photo Gallery,” digital image, National Park Service (http:// www.nps.gov/archive/clba/photos/wcbfranc.htm : accessed 19 Feb 2010), Clara Barton, ca. 1871.

Library of Congress, “Farm Security Administration – Of@ice of War Information Collection,” digital image, Library of Congress (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi‐bin/query/I?fsac:1:./temp/ ~pp_GUbQ::displayType=1:m856sd=fsac:m856sf=1a35371:@@@fsa : accessed 19 Feb 2010), Operating a hand drill at Vultee‐Nashville, woman is working on a “Vengeance” Dive Bomber, Tennessee, digital ID fsac 1a35371; citing Alfred T. Palmer, photographer.

Naval Historic Center, “U.S. Naval Historical Center Photographs”, digital image, Department of Navy (http:// www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h52000/h52960l.htm : accessed 19 Feb 2010), The Sacred Twenty, digital ID NH 52960; citing.

Army Nurse Corps Emblem in the public domain found in Wikimedia Commons at http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/File:NursesCorpsBC.gif WAVES Recruitment Poster in the public domain found in Wikimedia Commons at http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/File:WAVES_recruitment_poster.jpg Ancestry.com. U.S. Passport Applications, 1795­1925 [database on‐line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007. Original data: Passport Applications, January 2, 1906‐March 31, 1925; (National Archives Micro@ilm Publication M1490, 2740 rolls); General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59; National Archives, Washington, D.C. (http://search.ancestry.com/Browse/view.aspx? dbid=1174&path=Passport+Applications%2c+January+2%2c+1906+‐+March+31%2c+1925+(M1490).

1920.Roll+1338+‐+Certi@icates%3a+83000‐83375%2c+19+Aug+1920‐20+Aug+1920.689&sid=&gskw=Alice +Blacketer : accessed 19 Feb 2010.

Ancestry.com. U.S. Passport Applications, 1795­1925 [database on‐line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007. Original data: Passport Applications, January 2, 1906‐March 31, 1925; (National Archives Micro@ilm Publication M1490, 2740 rolls); General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59; National Archives, Washington, D.C. (http://search.ancestry.com/Browse/view.aspx? dbid=1174&path=Passport+Applications%2c+January+2%2c+1906+‐+March+31%2c+1925+(M1490).

1917.Roll+0395+‐+Certi@icates%3a+63101‐63400%2c+22+Aug+1917‐24+Aug+1917.309&sid=&gskw=Mary +Ellen+Coleman : accessed 19 Feb 2010.

THE YEAR WAS . . .

the year was 1925 IF YOU KNEW 1925 LIKE I KNEW 1925

BY SHERI FENLEY

On January 5, 1925 Nellie Tayloe Ross became the @irst female governor in the United States. She was the 14th governor of the state of Wyoming from 1925 to 1927 and to date remains the only female to have governed Wyoming. Later, Nellie became the director of the National Mint. A position she held for 20 years. Nellie was nominated for re‐election by the Democrats, however her position on Prohibition and the fact that she refused to

photo from wikimedia commons

campaign for herself were the most likely reasons for her defeat by Frank C. Emerson.

Nellie Tayloe Ross from the Nellie Tayloe Ross Papers, American Heritage Center. University of Wyoming.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's book, "The Great Gatsby" was published on April 10, 1925. The story is set in the summer of 1922 on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City amidst the riches and glamour of the Roaring 20's.



LOC P&P Online LC-USZ62-118643

F. Scott Fitzgerald

s ac om mo n edi im wik fro m to ph o

LOC P&P Online MN0133

F. Scott Fitzgerald House, 599 Summit Avenue, Saint Paul, Ramsey County, MN

There were 32 American @ilms released in 1925. Although they were "silent" @ilms, they played to packed theaters all over the United States. Among them were "Go West" starring Buster Keaton, "The Eagle" starring Rudolph Valentino (sigh!) and "Phantom of the Opera" starring the man of 1000 Faces Lon Chaney.

mons edia com m wikim o fr to o h p

 In 1925, people were singing along to popular music such as "If You Knew Susie", "I'm Sitting On Top Of The World" and "Has Anybody Seen My Gal?"

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phot

o fro m wi kime

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ons

Life Magazine

photo from wikimedia commons

The @irst hockey game to be played at Madison Square Gardens in New York City happened on December 15, 1925. The Montreal Canadiens played the New York Americans and outscored them 3 to 1.

 Calvin Coolidge becomes the @irst President of the United States to have his inauguration broadcast on radio.

Shades The Civil War In The Month Of April ď

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THE LAST PICTURE SHOW

The Imprint Or Logo - Mrs. Vreeland Whitlock of McPherson, Kansas, advertises the highest grade of work. “Our Motto Is To Please” her imprint tells us. She hopes for future work by preserving the negative and will do any style of Picture Enlargement. Below are two more of her imprints.

Mrs. Vreeland Whitlock.

She uses the Mrs. in all of her imprints, front and back.

 No information was found on this woman p h o t o g r a p h e r. I t i s possible Vreeland is her maiden name and she has used it in place of her given name. Perhaps a reader will know.