The late 1950s photograph of a birthday celebration for my grandmother contained her, my grandfather, their two sons, some of her siblings, and a few nephews. My grandmother would have been in her late forties at the time. Then there was a small girl (maybe around the age of three or four) in front of my grandmother’s slightly younger brother. I had no idea who she was. My Dad and his brother had no children at that point in time. The other identified adults had no daughters.
Then I looked again at the back and realized there was an unidentified woman who could barely be seen. Then I remembered that one of my Dad’s older male cousins had two short-term marriages before he married the woman who was the mother of his children. A little research turned out that one of those short-term wives had a daughter by a previous marriage. They were married during the time the photograph was taken.
That’s who the girl was and that’s why I had no memory of her. She was my uncle’s step-granddaughter for a short period of time, well before my memory of the family starts.
That person who appears in a photograph may have been a “short-term” relative who, depending upon the situation, may never have appeared at any other family functions and may never have been mentioned after the fact.
No responses yet