Old black & white family photo thread

[SPINMASTER X]

If you got 'em post some old b&w pics of your family/ancestors and tell us about the pictures.

This is my great grandfather on my mother's side. His name was James "Jim" Williams. He was born around 1885-1887 in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi and was among the native French speakers of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

He was probably the toughest man in my family. He got slammed in the face with a plank with a nail in it during a brawl and he made it through that but losing sight in one eye in the process. He got bit by snakes numerous times and survived every bite. I thought my mom made up that story until I looked at old census records and saw that he worked at a snake farm. He also got struck by lightning and survived.

He was also known as somebody who didn't take shit from anybody. Even in his old age he sat on somebody's porch with a giant sharpened knife just because somebody made a negative comment about his grandson's skin tone. He waited all day for them to come out of the house but my grandfather came and got him off of their porch hahaha.

When he was younger, He killed a man in a brawl and changed his name to "John" and moved to the city I live in now.

He was also quite the fisherman/outdoorsman due to where we lived and who our ancestors were. He knew all kinds of secrets and details about the ocean and sea creatures that most people don't know anymore.

 

[SPINMASTER X]

Nobody has black and white pics?

 

[Renmauzo]

I'll have to see if I have any kicking around...I think I can ask my folks for some from my grandmother's reserve.

Very cool history Spin, and great thread idea; I don't know if it's just me, but there seems to be so much more character in old photos like this and they always seem to tell a story.

 

[subcons]

This is a good thread idea, and I do have some old family photos. I need to dig them out though. I'll post some up if I get the time.

 

[LoneSage]

He knew all kinds of secrets and details about the ocean and sea creatures that most people don't know anymore.

lolwut

 

[subcons]

lolwut

Did you edit that in spin? I read this yesterday but completely missed that last part.

 

[SPINMASTER X]

lolwut

Did you edit that in spin? I read this yesterday but completely missed that last part.

I'm guessing for those of you who didn't grow up around this kind of stuff it may have sounded weird. I was referring to natural remedies/medicinal stuff dealing with the ocean and sea flora & fauna. Our whole area's culture/economy/industry used to rely totally on the ocean back in the day. It's still a big part but it's changed from my great grandfather's hey day.

 

[TonK]

Great grandfather.

Take a guess.

 

[SPINMASTER X]

Great grandfather.

Take a guess.

Ummmm Spencer Tracey?

 

[Stefan]

I was referring to natural remedies/medicinal stuff dealing with the ocean and sea flora & fauna.

SHAMANICMASTER X: 1919 A.D.

 

[SNKorSWM]

Back then, they had to offer live sacrifice to appease the sea god living in the Gulf and avert stuff like Katrina, Ike, or the Oil Spill. XD

 

[TonK]

Ummmm Spencer Tracey?

lol, no.

 

[SPINMASTER X]

lol, no.

Well what is his name?

 

[K_K]

my mom has a few back in texas, so i don't have access to them. typical cuban family though: black people and brown people sat with white folks all hanging out together and all cousins.

 

[TonK]

Well what is his name?

Gianfelice DiCioccio

 

[Dr Shroom]

Wish I still had the one with gramps and his fellow sailors setting in the mass with a hilariously big swastika behind them.
He also did a lot of traveling in japan and such, sadly no pics left.

 

[Zenimus]

There was a large old destroyed image of some of my grandma's family. She gave me the broken pieces a few years ago. She wanted me to try to digitally piece it back together for her, but it's a daunting task.

I should really get around to doing that while she's still around. Grandmas don't last forever...

Crap, and mother's day is coming up this weekend! I better get to work.

 

[aria]

*BUMP*

Hey Spin, I've been meaning to contribute to this thread, but it took a while to get photos. I finally got some and here's a sample from a series of photos from when my grandfather would give tours:

Front row, starting from the woman on the left:
Viktoria Brezhneva, Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet Translator, My Grandfather (who has a Wikipedia article that I didn't create). The young woman behind the translator is my mom.

I have some more interesting photos, I just need to get around to scanning/cropping them. These weren't the best of the images, apparently, but the ones my mom got years ago in boarding school when someone said she was making this stuff up. I hope this stuff will be interesting

I hope other people participate, this was a neat thread idea.

 

[SML]

Second row from the front, head roughly under the "S" in "AGGIES" My grandfather, Thomas G. Hunter.

The most well-known Aggie Muster took place during World War II in 1942 on the Philippine island of Corregidor. At this time, Corregidor was the last American stronghold against the Japanese forces in the Philippines, and Japanese artillery and warplanes were constantly attacking. An estimated 1.8 million pounds of shells pounded the island in one five-hour stretch. The American artillery commander on Corregidor was Brigadier General George F. Moore, a 1908 graduate of Texas A&M. With the help of Major Tom Dooley, class of 1935, Moore gathered the names of 25 other Aggies under his command. Despite the fierce fighting as the Japanese laid siege to the island, on April 21, 1942 Moore held a roll call—known as muster in army terms—calling the names of each of the Aggies under his command.[4][5]

Only twelve of the twenty-five survived the battle and the POW camps to which the survivors were sent.[4] Dooley told a United Press correspondent about the gathering, and the reporter sent an article back to the USA about the 25 Aggies who had "Mustered." The story captured the imagination of the country and "helped boost American spirits at a time a lift was badly needed."[5] (T. R. Louder, the last known Corregidor Muster survivor, died on May 21, 2001, and his name was called at Muster 2002 in College Station.)

Association of Former Students Executive Secretary E. E. McQuillen, Class of 1920, is given credit for refocusing San Jacinto Day as a remembrance for fallen Aggies. He changed the April 21, 1943 celebration to be the first known as an Aggie Muster and sent packets to each A&M club, Aggie Moms club, and to military bases around the world with a detailed program of events for April 21. It included greetings from the A&M President and the Muster Poem. The response was overwhelming, with 10,000 Aggies worldwide mustering in 500 locations. The following year McQuillen added a list of recently deceased Aggies to the packets, asking each local group to choose names from the list and call them aloud during their ceremony, and "as each name is called a comrade will answer 'Here.'"[4]

In April 1945, just eight weeks after Corregidor had been recaptured by the Allies, three Aggies conducted a Muster "on the Rock." They wrote letters home to McQuillen to let him know about their impromptu Muster. A year later, on April 21, 1946, an even larger Muster occurred on Corregidor. With the War now over, A&M held a special Victory Homecoming Muster on Easter morning in 1946. Over fifteen thousand Aggies gathered at Kyle Field to listen to a speech by General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Lt. Col. Tom Dooley also presented the "Muster Tradition," and conducted a W.W. II Roll Call. To represent the 900 Aggies who died in World War II, the names of the four deceased WW II Aggie Medal of Honor winners were called.[4]

Muster became a student organization in 1950, and students now coordinate all aspects of the campus Muster in College Station, Texas.

 

[Adderall]

Kind of sucks... I can't trace back my moms side of the family AT ALL.

My grandmother - adopted. The adoption place (along with all their files) burned down 20 years ago. She never had any interest in finding out who her biological parents were.
My grandfather - adopted. Dropped off on the doorstep of the adoption place. No note, no nothing. They tried to find who it was with no luck. They even put an article in the paper about it.

I wish I knew who my great grandparents were... family lineage would be very interesting to me if the above didn't make it so frustrating.

 

[SPINMASTER X]

*BUMP*

Hey Spin, I've been meaning to contribute to this thread, but it took a while to get photos. I finally got some and here's a sample from a series of photos from when my grandfather would give tours:

Front row, starting from the woman on the left:
Viktoria Brezhneva, Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet Translator, My Grandfather (who has a Wikipedia article that I didn't create). The young woman behind the translator is my mom.

I have some more interesting photos, I just need to get around to scanning/cropping them. These weren't the best of the images, apparently, but the ones my mom got years ago in boarding school when someone said she was making this stuff up. I hope this stuff will be interesting

I hope other people participate, this was a neat thread idea.

So I'm guessing this is in Iran?

 

[aria]

Cool photo, SML --can you crop/zoom on him?

So I'm guessing this is in Iran?

Yup, then the Imperial State of Iran

 

[SML]

I just grabbed the best image I could get off a google search, but I'll see about scanning one of my grandmother's prints when I get the chance.

 

[aria]

I just grabbed the best image I could get off a google search, but I'll see about scanning one of my grandmother's prints when I get the chance.

Was it one of these guys?

EDIT: fixed image

 

[SML]

Yeah, he's the main figure in that crop.