“Millions of men have lived to fight, build palaces and boundaries, shape destinies and societies; but the compelling force of all times has been the force of originality and creation profoundly affecting the roots of human spirit.” Ansel Adams
Most of us have a piece of history tucked away somewhere in our past. The latest desire to discover our ancestors and heritage is sweeping the country. We’re even asked to provide a sample of our DNA in order to find more in depth information.
Were your ancestors pillars of the community or were there some shady goings on in their lives? Were they rich or poor? Did they contribute to society or just take advantage of it? Were they famous or infamous?
Any information we gather from our family trees is certainly not enough to tell us what our forerunners were really like. What did they believe? How did the get through the perils of life that faced those past generations? What framed their personalities and character traits?
I came across the above photograph a couple years ago and decided to keep it. I don’t know who the people are in the picture. I can recognize some facial qualities that might lead me to my mother’s family. I will never know for sure. The thing that stands out to me in this image, is one of hard work, perseverance, determination, physical hardship and not a lot of joy.
Today photographs often include selfies – perfectly posed pictures – straight, whitened teeth and coifed hair. There is no dirt under the fingernails – no hefty work animals at our side – no sadness, grief or pain. We try to put the best image of ourselves out there for the world to see.
I wonder what future generations will say about us. As we look back, our vision of what used to be conjures ideas of difficult times – physical labor – oppression – fear of the unknown. In 2099 a whole new generation of geriatrics will walk the face of the earth. Will they recall sitting at a computer to compose a piece of writing or will that be overtaken by Alexa or some other robotic instrument? Will they understand the joy of lifting a paintbrush and creating a piece of art or will they have forgotten to enjoy art all together? Will it matter what they look like – their appearance – their beauty? Most will probably be cocooned within their own environment with very little social contact.
When you get old you think about things like this. The folks in the old sepia-toned photographs certainly didn’t seem to enjoy their plight. They existed. They carried on, but were they happy?
Every generation probably thinks there’s is the best. The experiences, the challenges, the desires are all part of the big picture. Life doesn’t change much over time. We invent things that make it a lot easier, but we are all still the same in God’s eyes. We can choose to complain about our lot in life or we can decide to live with it and make the most of it.
“The righteous who walks in his integrity—
blessed are his children after him!” Proverbs 20:7
atimetoshare.me 
I have a whole box of old photos left by my mother when she passed on to be with the Lord. Except for a few, none of them identify who the people are, but I just can’t bear to throw them away and will pass them on to our youngest daughter (she is the archivist for the family) to deal with.
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I have several of them as well. I do t know who they are either it they seem too priceless it to keep ❤️
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When I took pictures, I took pictures of where we had visited. I might include family and friends in the pictures. There is hardly any pictures of me. I was almost always the one behind the camera. The self-centeredness of the present generation to show precious me is mind-boggling to me. And, yes, those old photos show people with dirt under their fingernails.
An while my mother found that my father’s mother’s ancestor was a first cousin of Thomas Jefferson, she learned nothing of her father’s ancestry, being told not to look – you might find a horse thief.
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Some things are best left alone. I’m usually the one to take pictures too.
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I am fortunate to have had grandparents who wrote the names on the back of photos. Yes it was not archivally correct but it is nice to know who those people are and how they are related. I do have one 11×14 photo of a lady from the Netherlands. My in-laws think she is a great grandparent but no one really knows who she is….and she doesn’t look real happy either!
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I wonder if they were unhappy or maybe they had really bad teeth and no dentists in town 😜
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I also wonder if the camera took so long to click that they were sick of smiling? I do have a photo of a great great grandma. She is not smiling with her mouth but her eyes have a wicked twinkle in them.
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Thank you, Kathy, for continuing to express many of the same thoughts we have. Agreeing with you in every part, the pictures are probably true expressions. Life was very hard and pictures were few compared to this generation.. We are blessed to learn from our ancestors, hopefully, teaching the future generations the ways of our Lord. Blessings for you and yours. 🙂
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Thank you Frances. God’s word is our great heritage. We must keep it alive for future generations.
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