I sat down with 2nd cousin Glenna and her mom, Donna Mae, last night to put names on some pictures I had come across a while back. Donna Mae hurt both of her ankles last week and is sitting in a wheelchair while she heals. I know its wrong to take advantage of a situation but right now she can't run away very easy so I had her captive for a few hours. Very mean, I know, but necessary! Actually, the 3 of us had a great time looking, guessing, arguing and writing the names of people in pictures that are only 15 or 20 years old.

Even pictures that new, relatively speaking, proved to be a challenge. If I am studying a picture that is 80 years old, imagine the difficulty! Take the picture above. At one time it was so newly taken that anyone in the family would have known exactly who everyone was. How silly to write names on a picture like that! Now it is a very difficult task. Never write something like "Grandma and me" on a picture. In 80 years, your decedents will not have any idea who that refers to and it will become one of the mysterious pictures that gets set aside as unidentifiable. Do you see where it says "Great Grandmother Warnken"? This would be okay if we knew who labeled the picture but there is no clue as to the writer. I'm lucky that Henry is in the picture which would be "Great Grandfather Warnken", so this must be my Great Grand Aunt Sophia. Henry is my Great Great Grandfather but his first wife, Wilhelmina was my Great Great Grandmother. This is Henry's 2nd family after his first wife died and he had remarried her sister. This is where names REALLY help!

Still, it's a lot of fun trying to solve these mysteries.