Tattered Time Mini-Album Part 6–Page 1 Photos

I’m really glad that a few weeks ago, I scanned a whole lot of old family photos into the computer – this was a packet of photos given to my Dad and me by Dad’s cousin after my grandfather died. He had very helpfully written on the backs of them who most of the people were.

Today I was able to make a start on adding photos to the first page of my album – a page concentrating on my Dad’s ancestry. Unfortunately I don’t have many pictures of his mother’s side of the family so today I’ve concentrated mainly on his father’s side.

Using my desktop publisher, Serif PagePlus, I made up a couple of sheets of photos scaled to the size I wanted for the wallet mini that I made the other day. I printed these out and cut them out, rounding off the corners in a not-too regular fashion and distressing them with Tea Dye Distress Ink.

You can see in the above photo the difference the distressing makes – the black and white prints came out a little too stark and modern looking, and the distressing gives them a slightly sepia tone which is much more pleasing and in keeping with my album. After this I went over the edges with a light dusting of Vintage Photo Distress Ink, to darken them a little more.

Here are all these small photos, duly distressed.

Here they are, stuck down onto the various photo mats in the wallet. There is journaling on the back of several of them, done with my Uni-Ball white pen and also with a 08 sized black archival pen.

I’ll just show you a few of the photos as had I scanned them into the computer (without the distressing). I love this first one – the baby is my grandfather, and it was taken in Barcelona. I love the Victorian style, with the backdrop and props, and the hoop the little boy is holding (not sure who the little girl is, but the boy is my great-uncle Edward). I think this is a very charming vintage photo! I deliberately retained the board it is mounted on when I scanned it, with its rounded corners and the photographer’s name at the bottom.

My great-uncle Edward and his wife Faith on their wedding day.

Grandpa with his sisters Esther and Rachel.

Esther as a nurse.

Family group.

Unfortunately I don’t know who they all are, but Grandpa is in the back row, second from the left. My great-grandmother Eliza is seated just in front of him, and my great-grandfather Henry is in the centre of the picture. I have got 2 larger portrait photos of my great-grandparents which I have not yet scanned, and these will also go in the album.

My great-grandfather Henry.

He was a Brethren missionary working in Barcelona, only returning to Britain at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. He looks a formidable character! My father can just remember him as a very old man, living his last days with my father’s parents. He was 99 when he died. He is quite well-known in Brethren circles; a few years ago my hubby and I were having lunch with a vicar and his wife that we have known for many years, and I discovered that his wife had been raised in the Brethren Church, and when I mentioned my great-grandfather, she immediately asked his name, and when I told her, she rushed from the room, returning a few minutes later with her family tree. I filled in an entire branch which she knew nothing about, and it turned out we were fourth cousins!!

Here is my great-grandfather with his youngest daughter, Rachel. You can see that she is wearing a large hearing aid. When the children were young, they were sent back from Barcelona to England, to a strict Brethren Church boarding school, where Rachel contracted measles; she was told not to make a fuss, and her hearing was affected. By the time she was 30, she was profoundly deaf, and remained so for the rest of her life.

Throughout her life, she wrote out the entire Bible several times in Braille, by hand, with a stylus into a special board. This had to be done from behind, of course, to give the embossed raised dots. Towards the end of her life she herself became blind, but was unable to read Braille because she only knew it backwards! She lived to be 101. Here she is, in her old age, using a Braille typewriter.

Rachel was my grandfather’s favourite sister; I get the impression she was a great favourite in the whole family, and loved by all who knew her. I know my grandfather missed her dreadfully after her death, and he often spoke of her. I never met her, and would really have loved to have known this very special lady. I do have her Bible, though.

This is just a sample of what is on Page 1 of my Tattered Time album.