One Mystery Solved

I love going to estate sales and auctions, as well as antique stores. Often I come across a boxes of old photographs – pictures of families, of children, of someone’s ancestors – someone’s link to the past.
This really saddens me, no one has claimed these pictures, no one knows who they are.
I too have a box of pictures in my possession – I know they belong to our family, but I don’t know who they are. These are just a few “Unknowns” in my collection.

Unknown couple 2Unknown FamilyUnknown Couple
Unknown Soldier 3Unknown SoldierUnknownUnknown BoysUnknown children 200x311Recently I was doing some online research on my husband’s side of our family tree, and came upon this site: Het nageslacht van IJtzen Lieuwes Tamminga en Hiltje Karsjens Kalma As I was looking around on this great site, I ended up on this page page and found a very familiar picture, a picture in my “unknown” collection.
I now know that the lady in the picture was Antje Tjitzes Miedema, a sister of my husband’s grandfather – Klaas Tjitzes Miedema.
This site also provided me with more pictures of his grandmother’s family.
So thank you.
This leaves me one less mystery to solve.

Gerrit Lieuwes Tamminga and Antje Tjitzes Miedema

Gerrit Lieuwes Tamminga and Antje Tjitzes Miedema

STRANGERS IN THE BOX 
-Pamela A. Harazim

“Come, look with me inside this drawer, 
In this box I’ve often seen, 
At the pictures, black and white, 
Faces proud, still, and serene.
 
I wish I knew the people, 
These strangers in the box, 
Their names and all their memories, 
Are lost among my socks.
 
I wonder what their lives were like, 
How did they spend their days? 
What about their special times? 
I’ll never know their ways.
 
If only someone had taken time, 
To tell, who, what, where, and when, 
These faces of my heritage, 
Would come to life again.
 
Could this become the fate, 
Of the pictures we take today? 
The faces and the memories, 
Someday to be passed away?
 
Take time to save your stories, 
Seize the opportunity when it knocks, 
Or someday you and yours, 
Could be strangers in the box.”
~