Vermont Farm, Sunday Dinner 1909

Vermont Farm, Sunday Dinner 1909, originally uploaded by confections.

This amazing early photo was sent to me by a long-lost cousin along with some genealogical research done by her son. What a gift! My mother's family comes from Vermont, and this photo was taken in Caledonia County.

I know quite a lot about my Great-Aunt Jean Elizabeth, who is pictured on the far right at the table (click the photo for the full image). She had been a school teacher for many years, then married a distant cousin and returned to the family homestead from Pennsylvania, where she was born.

In May of 1910 she gave birth to a daughter, but tragically my great-aunt died in September of 1910 of an ectopic (tubal) pregnancy. She was just 36 years of age. Her daughter was raised on the homestead in Vermont, married and moved to Ohio, and lived a long life (she died at 88 years of age).

I love working with the puzzle pieces of genealogy and am overjoyed when bits like this fall into my lap. I will leave you with an image of Jean's infant daughter, being bathed by her mother, and one of her being held naked in the summer garden in a rare candid for the time. Women hold up half the sky!

Time Traveling through Family Photos

Jean Elizabeth Galbraith and her cousin Lucy Stockwell Galbraith, originally uploaded by confections.

As you probably know from my earlier posts, I am participating in National Novel Writing Month this November. Part of my inspiration is family stories from various parts of world.

A little corner of Vermont is where my Scottish ancestors chose to settle in 1774. Last year after I began researching my roots on Ancestry.com, I made the acquaintance of a long-lost cousin whose husband is descended from the little girl on the left in this photo, the daughter of one of my great-aunts. She shared a number of vintage family photos which we had never seen.

I love the innocence of this toy wagon ride from about 1914, the rare candid shot of the baby being bathed below, and the sheer joy on the face of our dear Jean as she is given a wheelbarrow ride by her older cousin.

Images like these make it easy for me to conjure up parts of my novel that honor the intrepid spirit of this line of early Vermont pioneers.