IT'S LIKE A BABE RUTH BASEBALL CARD
In a tit-for-tat with Cousin Jack from my husband’s side, who sent a glorious olden-day photo of the other branch of his ancestry, I sent a picture of my Granduncle Louis’s family. Commenting that I don’t know anyone else who has that picture, Cousin Jack, who also has a passion for genealogy, wrote, “It’s like a Babe Ruth baseball card.” I chuckled.
True that it is for anyone like us. We are engrossed in the history of our families, and we yearn for pictures to match the names.
In last week’s blog post, I discussed being contacted by Cousin Justin, who descends from Uncle Louis’s family line. Although there are pictures in my collection with duplicates in his, I have a few that he had never seen, and he has some that were not in my albums. To say that we made each other’s day with our photo exchange is an understatement.
Our family history came to life as Justin and I feverishly pressed the “send” button with a full-blown “picture” of our mutual ancestry. It’s the type of thing when you want to sit and let out a loud cheer.
While the confirming piece of the puzzle was the wedding picture Justin and I each had showing his great-grandparents as bride and groom, we found added joy with the previously unseen photos. The feeling came to me after seeing a picture that Justin possesses of his great-grandfather’s extended family with his wife, my father’s cousin, known to us as “Anna from the farm,” and two of their children (in the photograph, circa 1937, Justin’s grandmother was not yet born).
The added joy for Justin came from seeing the photo I treasure from my Aunt Fannie’s photo album collection, which shows his great-great-grandparents, my father’s aunt and uncle with their four daughters, including Justin’s great-grandmother. In that priceless picture of the Philly cousins found in my Aunt Fannie's album, standing second from left with her three sisters and their maternal aunt is “Anna from the farm.”
Justin and I both hit grand slams. Now to find that Babe Ruth baseball card.
Cousin Anna “from the farm” and her husband, Isador Saffier October 21 1928 Philadelphia, PA
Isador and Anna from the farm standing center Their daughter Dorothy and son Bernie seated on their Saffier relative’s laps Gracie was not yet born
Granduncle Louis Mark and his wife Bluma seated with their four daughters and Bluma’s sister Fannie, standing second from the right
Anna from the farm standing second from left