Experimenting with Blogging

I'm not a writer. My friends (and some of my relatives) will attest to that. Right Dusty? However, I really want to learn to write, especially about my research. I'd like to write short biographies of my (dead) ancestors and be able to share photos and documents and my notes and thoughts about them with those that might be interested in the particular families that I research.

This first post is about a picture that I found just a few days ago in a long time closed box that contained some of my grandmothers dishes. In the bottom was a stack of postcards that I'd never seen. Well, at least I don't remember ever having seen them. Anyway, among those post cards was a picture of two men that I recognized as my dad and his dad.

It is a picture in bad condition. My dad, Kenneth Brandes and his dad Harry Brandes are seated, looking at a book. It is hard for me to date this photo. Dad appears to be in his teens. Other pictures I have of him at about 18 when he joined the Navy show him with alot less hair so this one must be when he was a younger teen...maybe 15 or so...which would be about 1939-40. His dad (my "Pappy") looks really young to me here too.

Most interesting to me is the background. Gosh, what on earth is the pattern of those curtains? The rug isn't something I'd have picked either. Whose house is it? The love seat they are sitting on I was thrilled to see is the one I now have in my own home, inherited from my dad. Of course the finish and the upholstery is definitely not the same anymore. Floy Brandes (my "Nana") had it 'antiqued' sometime in the 1960's when it was popular to do that horrible thing to furniture. She had the baby grand piano done too and I remember almost passing out with shock when I saw it.

If this isn't my grandparents' house then it is likely that of my Great grandfather Christ Brandes My grandmother told me that the love seat had belonged to his wife Minnie (Wilhelmina Carolina Lange) and she died in 1915.

Probably, I'll have this picture restored. Too bad it isn't in color though as I'd really like to know what color that love seat upholstery was!