Family Stories and Photos

Family photos are treasures. Many of us have childhood and lifetime memories that we can go back to in our minds by merely glancing at a particular photo. Maybe it's a picture of your first camping trip, you hugging your first puppy, a photo of you going to your first dance, a bar mitzvah, birthday party capped with pointy hats and all; whatever the photo, that one moment in time can trigger myriads of memories.

If you're like me, you have old square photos with white trimmed borders, a little blurry, with tones of yellow and pea green--yes, the wondrous 1970's photos. There are photos however, that many of us don't have. Photos from another time, another era. I consider myself one of the lucky ones who actually has some old, classic, black and white or cepia toned, family photos.

There is something special about looking at photographs from a time in which life was radically different than now. Seeing grandparent's smiling faces, children dressed up and posing, smiles plastered on for minutes on end while the photographer with his accordian camera takes minutes to snap just one photo. These are the photo's I treasure most. I am so fortunate that on my mom's side of the family there was a cousin or uncle (I can't recall who)who was a photographer. We have some great old photos that I will begin scanning one day and archiving online. Additionally, my father's side of the family also has many treasured family photos.

The photographs above are my grandma Hilda and grandpa Sol's wedding. The other picture is, from my understanding, taken in Poland. The shorter girl standing is Grandma Hilda. Hilda's sister, Hilda and her mother came together to America in 1923. Hilda's father was already here, staying on Louisiana Avenue in Brooklyn. His name was Leo Chadasewicz (spelling different depending on where you look). They came by Red Star Line from Miadel, Poland-traveling out of Antwerp. In 1923, Hilda was 9 years old. I have photocopies of Hilda's travel documents, vaccination records, ship record, visa, passport. It's a treasure to have these.

Not only am I thankful to have these special items, I'm thankful they were able to get out of Poland before the war. Hope you enjoyed a little look into my history. Maybe I'll start posting more often like this.