Family Friday returns to Secondary Roads. I have told you about my siblings, Sylvia and her siblings and our parents.
Today, I want to tell you the little bit I know about my my paternal grandfather, Frank LeRoy Hutchinson. Grandpa Frank was born May 19, 1887 in Vassar Township of Tuscola County, Michigan. Between 1900 and 1910 his parents moved to Pioneer Township in Missaukee County. It was there he met my paternal grandmother. They were married on November 3, 1913 in Lake City, Michigan.
The two met because her folks were bee keepers and his folks wanted to get into that business. Grandma told us of how he would come courting on his big white horse. “That was such a beautiful animal, I really loved that impressive creature” she would recall. She also added, “Sometimes he had trouble catching the horse, so he’d walk two hours to visit me. He always did have his ‘queers’.”
From the photo album
My dad, center rear, shown with some siblings and Grandpa Frank who encourages an uncooperative dog to pose
Great grandpa Elmer, me, Grandpa Frank and Dad – 1940
Grandpa Frank, the hunter, prepares to get some meat for the table in 1942
I didn’t know my paternal grandfather very well. I started kindergarten as WWII was ending. Shortly after that, these grandparents moved a couple of hundred miles away. Nevertheless, we would visit them a few times each year.
Grandpa Frank passed away in July of 1975 at age 88. Sylvia and I were living in Ecuador, South America at the time.
What about your family? I invite you to share family stories be they humorous anecdotes, fables, foibles or history. I’ll be doing that regularly on Fridays again and invite you to leave a link to your Family Friday post. Use the linky that follows
Except that there are more people in the photos (siblings) this looks very much like my dad’s family. Similar barn, similar facial expressions, accoutrements. It’s always struck me as odd how photos from the same era look so much alike- the properties of the film and development, the similarities of toys and tools, etc.
It’s neat that you have that pic with Elmer, Frank, dad (I don’t remember his name) and you. Make sure you get all of these photos labeled. I have family pix from several generations back with no labels. It’s really frustrating to have them and not know.
I’ve noticed that phenomenon too. And it does seem strange.
Dad’s name was LeRoy. I want to tag and organize photos and organize genealogical and family history records. It should all come together to tell a story. I have big notebooks and page protectors to file that stuff, the challenge comes in making it happen.
Wow, that’s incredible that you have a photo history of you family as well! We have some photos—well, my mom does, but I won’t know what they are after her generation is gone. I’m not sure if she even knows who they are now!
Anywho…
I love Grandpa Frank. I love his snappy chapeau, his “hunting dogs” (which sorta just look like puppies to me) and him making the dog pose for the photo. He sort of reminds me of my grandpa–he was a silly guy and always up for fun.
It is nice to have those photos. (My mom saved everything.) I only wish that more of them were identifiable.
His hats and his pipes were his trademarks. He was neither silly nor fun.
To have the pictures and the stories is a gift from your ancestors!
There is one catch. I have more photos than I have names and stories. 🙁
That creates puzzling situations. My mother was the keeper of the pix, and except for two photos, she had them all labelled.
You speak true my friend. I wish that someone had explained that to my mom and her parents too.
How awesome that you have these pictures and the back stories to go with them. My maternal grandmother was the key to our family history (she meticulously organized and kept the photos and had the stories to go with them…family was very important to her). When she passed those photos went to my mother who doesn’t have an inclination for family history and the like (pity that). Though I hope it is a long, long time from now, I suspect, being her only child, that she will pass those items down to me. I wish she would do it now, since I have a fondness for it that she does not, but out of respect (I figure if she wanted me to have those items, she would have given them to me) I don’t ask, and that’s that.
Would you feel comfortable asking to see those items? Does your mother know you are interested? I have photos and data on family history, but there is no other family member that is interested.
My mother now lives in another state. But growing up we lived right behind my grandparents and she knows my grandmother and I were two peas in a pod when it came to many things, including the pictures and interest in family history.
I really should mention it… just in case. Excellent point, thank you! Better safe than sorry to be sure. I would be heartbroken if they didn’t come to me.