Not Quite Wordless Wednesday

Loving the fashion in this one! Load the full picture and check out the details on the pants. That’s me down front, my next youngest cousin, Eric, is looking concerned in the middle, and his father/my uncle looking on. This was taken at my grandparents home on Main St in Rockford, Michigan sometime around 1980-81.

Now imagine Eric with the body of The Hulk… it’s a startling transformation to say the least. We’ve come a long way.

I’m still wishing for spring and some time to play outside

Happy hunting,

Jess

 

Not Quite Wordless Wednesday

This one is fun on so many levels!

This is my father in what he calls a P. I. hat and shoulder holster with toy gun—probably a Christmas present around 1962. I think it’s the actual outfit that keeps throwing me—in particular the pattern of his sweater? And I’m pretty sure that’s my oldest uncle grinning in the background.

I believe this photo is taken near their home in the Brewster-Douglas Housing Project in Detroit, MI.

Happy hunting,

Jess

 

Not Quite Wordless Wednesday

So, I’m hoping we’ve hit the end of weather like this. Here are my Mom (the tallest) and her siblings outside my Great Grandfather’s house in Rockford, MI sometime in the mid to late 1950s.

Happy hunting,

Jess

 

Not Quite Wordless Wednesday

I am currently experiencing home hardware issues but I still couldn’t miss Wordless Wednesday.

This is my mother’s unintentional version of the Victorian Hidden Mother—which I learned about at the blog The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things. 

That’s my brother and I (and Mom behind the tree) on the Michigan State University Campus.

Happy hunting,

Jess

 

Not Quite Wordless Wednessday

Someone’s birthday is this week!

Happy hunting,

Jess

 

Not Quite Wordless Wednesday

The Electric Slide!

This was a fabulous find that my father included in a slideshow he created for my grandmother’s funeral. I don’t remember ever seeing it but it’s from my oldest cousin’s wedding reception in January of 2007.

Happy hunting,

Jess

 

Not Quite Wordless Wednesday

We’ll miss you, Grandma!

Elnora (York) Trotter, 1926-2013

Mother, Grandmother, Great-Grandmother

Enjoy the time you have and ask questions while you can!

Jess

 

Snow Days: The Blizzard of 1978

Today is the 35th anniversary of the Blizzard of 1978 which evidently I got to see. It dumped 19.3 inches of snow on Lansing, Michigan in two days after the region had already been hit by snow earlier in the week. The end result looked like this on our block.

Happy hunting,

Jess

    

 

Not Quite Wordless Wednesday

The weather has been on my mind this week so bear with me… I believe this is my 2nd Great Aunt Grace (Packer) Elliott near her home in Grand Rapids, MI. This is one of the happiest expressions I’ve seen on her in the photographs Gran and Aunt June have… but her family seems to have been hell-bent on putting huge bows in her hair. She was my Great Grandmother Cora’s youngest sibling.

Happy hunting,

Jess

 

Tombstone Tuesday

This is the headstone of Thomas William Horton Packer and his wives Mary Garbutt and Isobel Black. Thomas was the brother of my 2^nd Great Grandfather, Cornelius and the 2^nd son of Joseph of and Harriett (Vaughan) Packer. He was born in Gillingham, Kent, England in 1851 and named for one of Joseph’s older brothers. The family then moved 8 miles east to Sittingbourne.

When the family immigrated to Canada around 1870 he was already almost 20 and was only listed on the 1871 Census in Canada with his family in Hamilton, Ontario. Not too long after that the family moved to Woodstock, Ontario where on 01 December 1875 Thomas married Mary Garbutt, the 4^th daughter of William and Martha (Ward) Garbutt.

On the 1881 Census Thomas reported working as a Sawyer and 1891 he was a Glass fitter and Mary’s nephew, William Rennick, was living with the couple and working as a photographer. In 1914 Mary died of Bright Disease.

In the summer of 1916 Thomas married Isobel Black, the daughter of John and Charlotte (Roberts) Black. Thomas died right around the new year of 1835-1836—a newspaper dated 31 Dec 1935 noted his death but the headstone reads 1936.

All three are buried at Hillview Cemetery on 5^th Street, on the southeast side of Woodstock, Ontario.

Happy hunting,

Jess