It's a bad picture, but the post card is represented fairly well. The colors in real life are a little darker and more muted, but still pretty saturated. It's a painting by someone named Robert Schmidt of the North German Lloyd ship, the Bremen.
Why do I care about this? Because my grandfather spent much of his working life in the bowels of this ship, because when they emigrated to America, my mother's family sailed on this ship, and because my grandmother and I took it back and forth to Europe the summer we spent the summer in Muenster.
I don't know the exact vintage of this particular postcard -- there are many different ones -- but I'm trying to find out.
I also have a menu from the ship that's the vintage of when my mother's family sailed, and a number of poster stamps. I'll do a whole post on poster stamps soon -- anyone else know what they are? Here's a poster stamp from the early 1900's:
These things mean a lot to me -- it's the visible history of my family. Now that I'm retired, I'd like to do something with them -- scrapbooking ideas, anyone? I haven't really scrapbooked before.
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8 comments:
This is amazing Elise!
How fortunate you are to have it.
xo.
Wonderful post. I love the painting and vintage postcard. Family heritage, memories and heirlooms are great. I look forward to reading more.
Thanks, Lisa and Lady D! I feel as if I need to leave something behind, in case someone is interested :)
What a wonderful find! I do a lot of genealogy and I'm always looking for things like this to attach to the family tree.
I love working with our family history and I am fortunate to have a family full of hoarders that saved letters/receipts/etc...for me, and I am a scrapbooker, I have chosen not to scrapbook these items, instead I am creating a family history 'book'. At this point in time I have five 3inch 3 ring binders that represent our family history...it's fun and easy to 'read' plus when I work on a section I make sure I update the digital copy.
Thanks, Squirrel Queen, I've just started the genealogy thing too, but so far I haven't wanted to spend the money to get into the records, and the trail very quickly leads to Germany on both sides. I think that's harder research to do, right?
Danielle, that sounds wonderful. Are you saying that you do all the writing and such on the computer, then print it out as pages in a book? That sounds interesting.
Elise -- I have been working on a family project similar to the one you describe in your post. I have tried different approaches as I find the standard family genealogy/history template rather boring.
Ancestry.com can sound hard and boring but it is a good tool to have. They offer a free trial for, I think, 14 days. It is not just names and places but it has answers for very puzzling questions that you have.
I feel that context is an important element of a family. Just scribble down a memory when you think of it. It will fit within the whole as you put it all together.
The ship postcard you bought is great for descriptions.
I find family history is an ongoing process. There is something personally fulfilling to one's self as you travel through it.
-- barbara
Thanks very much, Barbara for your insights! Maybe now that I have open time in my schedule, I'll try the 14-day trial at Ancestry.com -- I should be able to accomplish a fair amount in 14 days, right?
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