Keeping memories alive

I don't generally follow trends or more frequently, I'm often one of the last to get on board.  For example, we didn't get a home internet connection until about 2001 or 2002 or thereabout.  I didn't understand the whole internet thing, and was a little afraid of it, and the impact it might have on my kids.  Now I can't imagine my life without it.

The same thing could be said about Facebook.  I joined just a few years ago mostly as a way to stay connected to my older brother.  Neither of us are particularly good at phoning one another (unless something is wrong) and I can't remember the last time I wrote an actual letter.  

Over the years my circle of friends has gotten large as I've connected with more cousins and friends who have moved away.  Because of our Facebook contact, when I went to B.C eighteen months ago, we took up where we'd left off, and it was as though the 40 years that had passed since we'd seen each other were mere months.

While I was in B.C. in January this year, my older brother M and his wife D were vacationing for the month in Palm Springs.  D posted a picture of M one day and cousin B commented how much he looked like our Grandpa Jack. (my mother's father)  That comment spurred many more comments as the cousins, M and I tired to recall when Grandpa had passed away and whether or not M really looked like him.

When I got home, I went looking through the old photo albums that were in Mom's home when she passed away. One of them was my grandma's or as we called her Nan.

  Unfortunately someone had been through the photo album and taken a number of photos out of it at some point, but there were a couple that I thought might be Grandpa. Very few of the photos were labeled so I had to guess.

In this photo I was I was certain this was Grandpa because as I remember him, he always wore a hat.

This one I wasn't as certain of, because there was no hat.  But in this photo I could clearly the resemblance between M and Grandpa.

I posted them to Facebook which of course generated a lot of conversation.  One of the cousins this was Grandpa Jack's brother, but M set us straight and said it was absolutely Grandpa.  The two worked together on a road when M was a teenager...he said he'd know that nose anywhere!
Today I posted this photo of Nan. It was obviously at the same time as the ones of Grandpa Jack.  She would have been in her early 60's at the time as it was taken in 1969.  There are no notes, but I believe they were visiting family in the Maritimes.

Sadly, she passed away just a few years later. Grandpa suffered a stroke in 1972 shortly before she passed away and after several more he was gone in 1976.

I was just a teenager when they both passed away so my memories of them aren't many and very hazy.  Sharing these photos have provided an opportunity to learn more from my older cousins and brother about them.

It's wonderful to have these few photos - I only wish that they had been labeled so as to make it easier to for us to be certain who is in the picture.  I know it has made me realize I'll have to take some time and label the photos in my albums.

Do you have old photos of family but you're not certain who exactly it might be?  Or did your parents and grandparents label them carefully?

Have a great weekend everyone!