Kind Of A Drag . . .

. . . . or is it? Could it be 4 really homely women :^) Sorry. This is another 'orphan' photo. As I thumbed through the stack I thought hats, I must check them out more carefully. When I went back, boy was I surprised! I didn't catch it first time around. The middle two are a little more creative than the other 2. A wig and a purse! I will never identify them. Wish I could. What would a researcher say, I wonder, if I said I have a photo of your grandpa?
Actually I could just have easily posted a drag photo of my own. I have one of my grandfather and his friend hamming it up like this too. It must have been all the rage in the early decades of the 20th century.

What appropriate timing.

^..^Trick or Treat!^..^

Submission to:
6th EDITION
Smile For The Camera

Dad's Quilt

My dad wanted me to make him a quilt. We poured over books and patterns, discussed color schemes and fabrics. He finally chose the "Maple Leaf" pattern which I put on point. He wanted a scrappy quilt in more blues and fall-like colors. He loved the quilt when it was finished. I gave it to him in 2000. I took the photo above a couple months ago. My step-mother returned it to me when he passed away in 2006.

The Wm. H. Alexander Family

William Hays Alexander was born May 11, 1880 in Jackson County, Indiana, and died October 10, 1928 in Seymour, Indiana. He was the son of John and Amanda (Atkins) Alexander. He married Olive Ellen Martin, daughter of Samuel Martin and Margaret Hovis. She was born December 25, 1885 in Jackson County, Indiana, and died January 21, 1975 in Seymour, Indiana.


Children of William Alexander and Olive Martin are:



Della Mae Alexander, born September 4, 1904 and died June 6, 1996 in Seymour, Jackson County, Indiana. She married James Jaynes.







Gladys Alexander, born March 30, 1907 and died Jan 1973 in California. She married Joseph A. Taylor.








Merril Harris Alexander, born September 11, 1909 and died November 6, 1931 in Seymour, Indiana. He married Bertha Manning.








Lucille D. Alexander, born 20 October 20, 1913 and died in April of 1987 in Seymour, Indiana. She married Arthur Gerth.







Opal Louise Alexander, born 16 January 16, 1916 and died 16 May 16 1948 in Seymour, Indiana. She married Woodrow R. Bush.








William H Alexander, born June 12, 1919 and died January 15, 1971 in Seymour, Indiana. He married Lois Lee Plumer.






Norma Alexander, born 05 October 5, 1922 and died May 16, 1993 in Seymour, Indiana. She married Eugene Wright.

Della's Quilts

My grandmother loved pink. She also loved sewing and gardening. She could get anything to grow.

I own a large bed quilt that she made. As a child I would stay with her and sleep under it. It has that very familiar feel. There were originally 2 of them. I think the other has probably been destroyed, but I am not sure.

Below are 2 items that she created and I proudly now keep safe.



This is the pink quilt. It is full size and has a thin batt. It is also in very good shape. It was made in the very late 1940's or the very early 1950's.

This is the quilt my grandmother made for me and my dolls. It is all handmade. I know it was given to me when I was about 3. I am 54. She taught me how to sew and crochet. I will always have that.

A Cemetery Visit

I've been so busy lately that I have not had much time to blog. Allergies are bad right now, too.
Yesterday my sister and I went to visit and clean up my dads grave. I am always in a 'mood' after that. We also ran by the gr-grandparents graves on the way home. I didn't have much time, but I got photos of all the old stones that had broken and fallen since last time. Each time I will fill my card/camera with photos until they are all photographed.
Both are small country cemeteries. My dad is atop a knob overlooking the 'holler' in Cummins Cemetery. He was born in Alabama in the mountains. He had spent his last years in the area and said it reminded him of home. I wish he was closer to town as we can't get out there as often as we'd like, but I know he loved the area. The gr-grandparents cemetery, Chestnut Ridge, is larger, and had lost a couple trees in the storm. It's not as isolated, but still quite a ways out of town.
I enjoy walking through cemeteries. Nice way to end a busy day.

Bizzie's Quilts

Bizzie Lee [Beard] Brock made all of these. When she made them is probably fuzzy but I am sure she made them all before the move to Indiana from Alabama. So that would be pre-1951. They are all in bad shape, some worse than others. But they were all used. A lot. My dad told me of the quilting bees and how they pulled out the cotton to make the batts. You can still find cotton seeds that they missed in some of the quilts.
This one is the fanciest one she made. I think she actually bought fabric to make this one. So it would have been for something special. I wish I knew the history!
This one almost matches. That one block throws it off. It's a small quilt and it is in very bad shape. I believe because of its size it is most likely one of the childrens quilts. Because of the color I would say one of the girls.
This thing weighs a ton! The fabric you see was added later when the original quilt was in really bad shape. She didn't throw it away, she simply recovered it. She also took the time to re-quilt it. She bulked it up with a flannel lining. The thing is heavy. A small child would not be able to move under this thing! It was obviously covered with scraps from other projects. I can't tell what the original design was without further damaging the quilt. This is the quilt I have the most questions about!
I am building my museum/artifact pages for my site, FamilyTwigs. When I have it up and running all the stats on the quilts will be listed; such as size, fabric types, more detailed photos and damage. I also try to date them all.

Regrets, I've Had a Few. . . . . . .

I'm still working on photos. I will probably be working on photos for the rest of my life!
When I first got a computer it had Windows 98. Good program. But, as often happens, you get a new computer, you get a new OS. I got Windows ME. Oh my. It was so awful. I crashed with nauseating regularity. The first time I lost a lot. I quickly learned a new term. Backup. That was such an awful OS. Crashed about every 4 months like clockwork and hung daily. Then along came XP. Breath of fresh air. Though, I don't agree that it was the greatest ever, I'm just sure it seemed to be the greatest ever after having ME. :0) At any rate, I had a scanner. It worked with 98, ME and XP. It had 3 settings, 100, 200 or 300 dpi. It scanned JPG. I was happy, even though I didn't know what JPG or 100, 200 or 300 dpi was. The how-to book consisted of pictures of how to plug it into the computer, and how to push the button. So, this is how most of my photos were scanned. One could say blindly.
But, as you know, nothing lasts forever. Get a new system, end up with a new OS. I got Vista. Now, I have no complaints about Vista at all. I personally feel it is better than XP. I really like it. But my scanner would no longer work. So, I went over to the site to update the drivers. Bad news! They hadn't been updated since 2002. It was discontinued, of course. So I was forced to go get a new scanner.
I bought a 3-in-one. It is a little more complicated than the one I had. It actually has a learning curve :o) My old Memorex scanner had a button. You said 100, 200 or 300 dpi and pushed it. Now I have choices of file types, and the dpi is endless. And it has all kinds of little fixes. Quite an improvement. Took some practice too. I still accidentally learn a new trick now and then. A large number of photos I have since rescanned. Many I will not be able to rescan.
Now I have all these photos to tag and change into a safe format (.tif). Gigs of them. But I will hack away at them until they are done. Big job though.
I bet everyone has something they did in the beginning that they wish they had done differently. I wish I'd kept more careful notes and learned to cite sources right in the beginning. Wish I'd took scanning 101.