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Time Traveling with Your Camera
03rd December 2010
I enjoy genealogy, the research and study of my family heritage. My research has taken my wife Deb and I to many parts of the US snooping through old dusty and musty smelling county courthouse records, family landmarks, walking old cemeteries and discovering fascinating facts.
Many years ago my father gave me an old shoebox of family photos. Many dated back to the late 1880’s and on to the present. Most were of family members in posed (studio) positions for photographers but there were many that showed family members outside in various scenes.
Some were shown in front of old barns, a few with horse and buggy but many were of old family homes. Many photos were done at cemeteries, funerals and thank goodness, happier times. In particular, some were taken in front of buildings that were relevant to my ancestors at the time of the photo. Other examples would be possibly a town square or courthouse or even a church.
One such photo I discovered showed two of my relatives, dating to the summer of 1938. The two, both of whom were my uncles, are standing in front of a church. The church has a unique ‘front’; it had double doors spaced apart. Doing some detective work I knew the area where the church may still be standing. But I wasn’t sure exactly where. I did know the name of the church at the time the photo was taken, Pine Grove Church, in Pine Grove, Ohio. (Ed note: Pine Grove is no longer there.)
After several months of preparation Deb and I drove to Ohio in search of my relatives – both alive and deceased. We were also focusing on churches and homes that we’d find in the area that we had seen in various family photos. Possibly they’d still be around. One site in particular I wanted to find was the Shady Grove Church in south-central Ohio. This church and cemetery were very important to several of my ancestors and I was hoping that the old church just might still be around.
To the point, we did find the church after much driving. And, I was fortunate to be able to show my mom and dad the church on a later re-visit. And, to make it way cool, I had them stand in the same spot (I had the original photo with me to look at and compare) as our two ancestors stood nearly 70 years earlier.
Is time travel possible? Probably not in my lifetime. But you can ‘travel back in time’ with research and using your camera to document the passing of it.
Written by Jim Oldfield