Contributed by Stephanie Sprague
The attached photo is of my great-grandfather’s siblings, Bruce and Eva Cochran. It was taken about 1884. Bruce and Eva died in 1888, just four years later. They are buried in a “boot hill” cemetery in the ghost town of Calico, in southern California. After they died, it is said that their mother had had enough of the desert and moved into town–San Bernardino.
Â
I found this photo after visiting the museum at Calico and talking with the organizer. The town is now operated by San Bernardino County. She had a bad copy of the photograph in her files. We then tracked down the original in a museum in Barstow, California. It was so nice to finally have faces and real people to go with the headstones we had been visiting for many years.
Click on an image to enlarge it.
Contributed by Roger Lewis, Napa, California
This is my family circa 1922 vacationing in Newport Beach, California. Front row is my great-grandmother, Susan Waddle Lewis, my uncle, Roy D. Lewis, and my father, Charles K. Lewis. Back row is my grandfather, George E. Lewis, my great-grandfather, Daniel L. Kimmel, my great-step-grandmother, Edith Preston Kimmel, and my grandmother, Launa Kimmel Lewis. Daniel and Edith Kimmel were visiting from DuQuoin, Illinois, and the others lived in the vicinity of Santa Ana, California.
I was so saddened that those lovely little children died just 4 years after the photo was taken. Do you know how they died and did they die at the very same time? Life was so fleeting and uncertain back then–not that it isn’t now but somehow we feel more stable about it. It’s probably the reason our greeting “How are you” started every meeting of family or friend.
Why do you only publish photographs from USA.
Comment to Ann Jeanes, – 3 rd March 2008
They DO publish from other places,
I had my grandfather’s photo published a couple of months ago, taken about 1903 on his wedding day in Victoria, Australia..
Keep sending photos, they will publish yours eventually, I’m sure the editor will back me up on this !
Robert ,, in Australia ,,,
The photo of the two little children is beautiful, but I was so upset when I read they had died so young. Do you know anymore about them. We visited Calico when we were touring USA, I cant believe we were so near to those two poor little ones. English Reader.
It is believed that Bruce and Eva died at about the same time from some sort of epidemic probably from the bad water.
Even today Calico is subject to harsh environmental extremes. In the summer it is so hot but the winter brings strong cold winds. I can’t imagine raising babies there.
As a kid myself we would visit out there and I have pictures of their graves over the years, but now I have finally made the connection and importance of those family stories (oral histories). Don’t we wish we could talk to our ancestors just one more time and finally listen to what they were telling us?
Stephanie
I sent two photos of ancestors soon after this feature was added to this newsletter, which I believe was at least two years ago. The photos have never been published in the newsletter. I sent another two photos a few months ago, and they have not been published, either. This makes me wonder whether there are criteria for publishing photos that are not made clear in the newsletter.
Jayne
[email protected]
This feature is so popular, I imagine that the editor gets lots of photos each week and only has room for a couple. Maybe it would be a good idea to spin off this feature onto its own site and publish as many photos as are received? I always enjoy the stories and though I haven’t sent any of my own, I do get caught up in the family stories.
I may be related to the Cochran family since my ancestor was Susannah Cochran of Ohio and no doubt was born in New York where she met and married Daniel Farber. Other photos have been connected to my line that you have printed on this site but no way to contact the owner or find out the address to get connected.
So hope that will be something you might look into for helping other connect when they find family photos on here.
thanks
Why can’t I see the photos on the newsletter? All I get is a big, blank box, with another little box, with a red letter “x” in it!
And NOTHING I CLICK ON CHANGES ANYTHING!!
Nancy, you didn’t say what program you are reading mail with and if it happens on other mail, so I will guess. If you are using Outlook Express, go to Tools-> Options-> Security tab. Find ‘Download Images’ and make sure ‘Block images etc’ is not checked. You may also need to uncheck the one above it, ‘Do not allow attachments …” , if you have anti-virus software that scans your incoming mail, you will be fine.