In today's world of cell phones equipped with camera and video functionality, it's easy to take for granted how easy it is to record and save our precious memories. How fortunate for our future descendants who may never meet us or hear our voice.
If only the pilgrims had cell phones when they crossed the Atlantic. If only the soldiers in the trenches had vlogged the victory over the British during the Revolution. If only someone had recorded a video of our great-great-grandparents dancing at their wedding - or even took a photo! How great would that be!
Unfortunately, it is rarely easy to find photographs of ancestors born in or before the nineteenth century, and video was literally unheard of. Surely many of them were never photographed at all, and for the ones who were, it was a rare occasion. They may have had three photos taken in all their life and they could have faded, been lost, destroyed, or worse - unlabeled, leaving us with no idea who is in the photo.
Last month I found two photos of my paternal great-grandfather, Percy Daniels, in one of my most exciting finds, and now I have discovered a photo of David Reese, my maternal 5th great-grandfather!
He is obviously quite aged in the photo, and therefore it must have been taken in the 1890s or before he died on December 26, 1911. My great-grandfather, John Reese (his great-grandson, shown below), was just 11-months old at the time.
The photo of David Reese was shared on Ancestry.com, contributed by user "granteves". I cropped and framed the photo as shown here for the family. Thank you to Grant Eves, for sharing this precious treasure with us! Compare it to the 2002 photo of his great-grandson, John Reese. Do you see a resemblance?
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