Family Photos

 

Recently a cousin found this photos among family papers. As they all came in doubles, she gladly passed copies on to us. This is my Grandpa with his mother Great-Grandma Anna. We did a bit of thinking and figuring and think these were taken just before he was drafted in 1941.

 Isn't Grandpa natty in his winter coat and fedora? This must have been a special occasion. He even has a white scarf tucked around his neck!

Here he is a few months later with one of his brothers. We think this was probably taken when he was on leave before being shipped over seas.

After serving in the Army, being wounded several times, Grandpa became a carpenter and settled in Chicago to raise a family. Even though he was not the easiest person to always get along with, like his mother Anna, he had a deep sense of family duty. Not just duty, but clannish-ness, a stick-together-through-thick-and-thin-always-there-for-each-other-ness. The highest praise his sisters could give was"he was the best brother". I am glad to say, it is becoming a family trait, passing down through the generations.

Great Grandmother Marie

Marie around 1916-18

Even though my Mom or I had never met my great grandmother Marie, we always remember her for her housekeeping abilities. She instilled such a strong sense of cleanliness, proper housekeeping and care of one's family in her daughter(my grandmother) it is still going strong!  

Maire with her children and husband.

I know that sounds like a strange legacy, but that is what we remember of Marie. We don't really know much about her, other then the usual facts. She married a not so stable man, had three children, divorced and later re-married. Her personality doesn't show up in any of the family stories and so she remains a bit mysterious.

 Marie, like any good housekeeper wearing a a cute apron!

Walking in Their Footsteps....

 Recently, my sister and I made a trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Our Grandma lives there, in the same town she grew up in and met and married Grandpa. The same town he grew up in and the same town Great Grandma Anna grew up in. We got a chance to visit the old farm and take lots of photos!

 The lane to get back to the car, left at the bottom of the hill at the gate.

I love the texture of the house, logs, chinking and a bit of siding. The farm is unoccupied and the grass is knee high. It made for very picturesque pictures!

Starting on the right, the milk house, pig sty, hen house and very last the outhouse. We are not sure why they are all built very close together, perhaps to make it easier to get to them in a blizzard....

 Isn't that a nice red? It looks like the tar paper came that color.

A picture of some of the other outbuildings. The only ones standing are the ones I mentioned above. It is sad they are all falling in, but not much anyone can do.....

Anna feeding her chickens in front of the barn.

I am so glad we got to visit the farm. It was so very nice to see where so much family history happened......



1900s Photo Inspiration

Don't you love old Photos for inspiration? I love looking at the clothing, the faces, the backgrounds and of course the Aprons! The 1900s are a little boring in apron fashion, mostly plain styled waist aprons. They are also very hard to find photos of! The home camera was not widely used at this point, so if a photograph was going to be taken everyone wanted to look their best!! Here are a few I found on Etsy.

RougeValleyVintage

 I love this Mother/Daughter pair, such lovely aprons! This picture is probably on the laer side, closer to 1918.

PaperSeeker

 Isn't that a grand house? More full aprons and a waist apron.

DawnandRoss

She is such a cutie, had to share her too! Did you notice? Her apron is striped!

If you would like to see other views and purchase information, please click on the link under the photo.

26 Stenographers

Did you know in the 1930s census 775,140 women were listed as stenographers? That made it the third largest occupation for women. First was domestic service, second teachers. By the 1940 the census shows the number was up to 1,000,580 women, with another 68,300 looking for positions as stenographers. For that decade, first place occupation was still domestic service, second manufacturing and stenographers third again.  That is an awful lot of women! But in that era there was only a small percent of occupations that were considered"proper" for women.

This picture I found in a antique shop years ago. I just love all the faces! It is so fun to imagine what it would be like to work in a stenographers pool in the 1930s. My sister and I use to make up stories about them. Do you see Dorthy peeking out from behind everyone? And Miss Glamour on the left in the first row, is she on her way to Hollywood? And doesn't the lady just behind the first row look like she could be a Scottish Nanny? So many different styles of hair and dress too!

Photos!

I am so excited to be sharing with you today old photos of aprons, not just aprons but my relations wearing aprons! I love old pictures, especially when they are of relatives. My sister is the unofficial family historian. She had taken it upon herself to digitize and catalog the family photos. At least once a year she goes to grandma's and gets another batch of photos. So these are freshly discovered!

First of all, here is Great-Grandma Anna. As you can see she has one of her trademark aprons on! She is holding two of her grandchildren. This is only the second picture I have of her is color. It was a very exciting find!

Aunt Margy (wearing a cute half apron with stripes!) with her son and an unknown lady. She is a great aunt on my Dad's father's side or something like that!

My grandma and her sister playing with their new dishes and wearing aprons!

I love this one, too cute.

Great-great Grandparents Andrew and Alma with their son. They were Finnish.

This week has been a little crazy as my car died on Saturday. Not just broke down, laid down and died dead!  So I am in the midst of car shopping, not the most enjoyable thing. I hope everyone's week is going well!

Old Apron Photos

Do you ever visit etsy.com? It is such a fun site. A great time waster, but very inspirational! One of my favorite searches is to just type in "apron" under the vintage category and see what is new. I can get anything from apron fabric to vintage apron patterns to actual aprons. The last time I was on, I found these old photographs featuring aprons! So fun!  All of the photos are for sale on etsy.

Courtesy of www.etsy.com/shop/thevintagemode

Courtesy of www.etsy.com/shop/MeetTheInLaws

Courtesy of www.etsy.com/shop/MeetTheInLaws

Courtesy of www.etsy.com/shop/christmasangel
I had to post this one! How often do you see pictures of men wearing aprons?

Courtesy of www.etsy.com/shop/vintagewarehouse

Courtesy of www.etsy.com/shop/photoparty

Courtesy of www.etsy.com/shop/vintagewarehouse

Courtesy of www.etsy.com/shop/gwensewvintage

Courtesy of www.etsy.com/shop/RomanceWriter

Courtesy of www.etsy.com/shop/maclancy

Great-Grandma Anna

If you have seen my website, you will know that my Great-Grandma Anna was my inspiration for starting Apron History. Today I will tell you a bit more about her.

wedding photo 1916

Anna was born in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in 1896. She married my Great-Grandfather in 1916 and had 7 children. Unfortunately, he was killed in a mining accident in 1930.

family photo abt 1926
In 1933 she married a widower with 9 children and they had 2 more children. Between the two families they had three farms and 18 children! A lot of hard work! And in the middle of the depression! No wonder Anna always had an apron on! She was a hard working, cheerful woman, who never complained. Unfortunately, I never met her. She died before I was born. But she has left a wonderful legacy behind, of hard work, love of family and Aprons!

Anna and one of her daughters

Feeding her chickens!