Mother’s Day is tomorrow and I thought I would post some unpublished photos of my Grandma Grace, which I count among my favorites of her.
The earliest photo of my Grandma Grace that I am aware of. This would have been taken on the family farm in Elizabethton, Tennessee.
I love this photo of Grandma Grace. I wish I knew where this was taken.
Grandma Grace with my mom as an infant
She was so pretty.
Below are photos of this year’s archaeological dig on The Hill in Easton, part of an effort to prove The Hill is the oldest community in the nation established by free blacks. This year’s dig is taking place on the property of the Women’s Club of Talbot County (18 Talbot Lane). Residents of The Hill are believed to have lived and worked on the property and the archaeology students from the University of Maryland and Morgan State University are looking for evidence of their presence during the dig. The dig will continue through Friday, July 26, and the public is welcome during the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. each weekday.
The scene at the dig. Today was a special weekend open house for the public.
One of the students was sifting through the dirt that had been dug out of the test pits.
He found several pieces of pottery. He would lick them to see if they were porcelain. Porcelain pieces won’t stick to your tongue.
He also found a porcelain button.
Other students were working in the test pits. Morgan State student Brittany explains what they’ve found so far in this photo.
This test pit is a tricky one to work in due to the tree roots.
The students are finding a lot of oyster shells in the test pits. They say that oyster shells were given to chickens in the yard. The chickens would eat the shells to aid in their digestion. They have found other evidence of a chicken coop during the dig.
One of the most exciting finds so far this year is this 1794 metal coin.
The back of the coin.
The students had some of their finds on display, including a metal toy gun, marbles, a door hinge and other objects.
Tools of the trade.
The students also had a washing station where they were rinsing finds from another dig in Talbot County. Following are photos of those artifacts:
The rinsing station.
The students found this glass bottle with the word ‘Baltimore’ stamped on it.
A piece of porcelain.
Metal objects.
Funds for the dig were raised by Historic Easton. You can learn more about The Hill on the Historic Easton web site. If you would like to help support future digs, please click the ‘Donate’ button on the Historic Easton homepage.
Friend No. 43
Be sure to check out the latest issue of Shades of the Departed magazine. Not only is the issue chock full of school days memories and vintage photos, but I was given the opportunity to tell the Friends Album story (see page 36). Enjoy!
Digging out more photos from the treasure trove my aunt shared with me last year. Here are some gems of my mom at age 2 or 3 on Easter Sunday:
2013 will be a year of big change for me. I’m starting a new job closer to my home and one of the results of this will be recouping hours each week previously spent in my car commuting. I’m hoping this will translate into more time that I can put towards genealogy.
Additionally, I’m in the midst of a genealogy re-boot. While I’m choosing to blog about it at the beginning of the New Year, it’s actually been underway for a couple of months (even before I knew that I’d be taking the new job). I’ve been slowly making changes to my blog and how I do research, in the hopes that I will be a better, more organized genealogist in the long run.
Steps I’ve taken so far:
1) most notably, was the re-design of my blog, which was mostly cosmetic, but was needed to make my content more accessible and pleasing to view;
2) I updated my versions of Crossover and RootsMagic, as I plan to start using RM more (more on that later);
3) I started blogging more often, using the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories as a convenient way to bring more content to my blog (this also helped me to make use of many photos I recently acquired; more on this later as well);
and 4) I added a small “cousin-bait” paragraph to blog posts about my ancestors, inviting those who may share those ancestors to be in touch with me. Folks still find my blog by searching for terms that make it painfully obvious that they share, or at least are searching for, an ancestor of mine, but still, they don’t make contact. However, I have started to hear from cousins more often (one of whom cited the cousin-bait paragraph in his email to me), so I think this was a worthwhile update to make.
I have many more changes that I hope to implement. Among these is to set goals for things I’d like to accomplish each week or month, such as:
There are some specific things I want to have completed by the end of 2013:
I’m publishing this post as a way to hold myself accountable for the above goals. I’ve been in a holding pattern over the past year when it comes to my own personal genealogy research. This is partly due to a lack of time, thanks to my old commute. However, the biggest problem was that I didn’t have a plan. I expect that I’ll be revising the above plan as I achieve goals, acquire new skills and learn about new resources. I’m looking forward to sharing my new discoveries with you.
This is the only photo I found that even came close to today’s topic of Christmas music. I know I had a piano like that when I was small. I can still here the tinny plink-plink-plink it would emit when I banged on the keys.
Thus concludes my posts for this year’s Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories! I hope everyone has enjoyed the photos. Happy Hols!
I have still more photos from my mom’s first Christmas to share. These three photos of her with my grandpa are so stinkin’ cute:
Christmas 1949
I don’t really know much about this photo except that my mom and Aunt Joan are the two girls on the right. I don’t think that this is at my grandparent’s house. The tree is uncharacteristically huge compared to trees in other Christmas photos and the tinsel is missing. Maybe by posting this photo here, the mystery girl and location will be identified.
As with most first-time parents, I think Christmases after my mom was born were all about presents for her (and then her and her siblings), as far as my grandparents were concerned.
Here’s mom at Christmas in 1950, grabbing one of the first presents she saw:
Here’s Mom modeling the robe she received for Chrismas (it’s hanging off the stair rail in the previous photo):
Later, it was all about us grandkids. Here’s a couple photos from the 1980s for a change:
The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history 24 different ways during 24 days in December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.
My mom was the oldest of four and, true to form, my grandparents took TONS of photos of her at any opportunity to do so. Thus, we have a plethora of pics to peruse from her first Christmas:
Mom and Grandma Grace, Christmas 1949
You have to admit, my mom was a cute baby.
I love this photo of my mom transfixed by one of her toys.
Mom just can’t believe how she cleaned up this Christmas. Look at all those toys!
The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history 24 different ways during 24 days in December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.
Bayside Blog 
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