Author Archives: Diana - Page 8
[neat photo] Biplane over Canton
I posted this a couple years ago. Then I found a second photo Biplane that stopped in Canton, Missouri from time to time to offer rides. From my grandfather Homer H. Wagner's collection. Taken ca. 1924. Kind of looks like it's hung up on a barbed wire fence. Then I found this pic taken FROM the plane. I think that is Canton, definitely nearby along the Mississippi River.
My ancestors helped found Santa Claus, Indiana
by Diana Thornton My 3rd great grandmother, Susan (Aegerter) Freyhofer, was born in Switzerland on Christmas Day, 1805. She died 57 years later in Santa Claus, Indiana, a town she and her husband Jacob helped found. Susan and Jacob Freyhofer and their two young children immigrated to the US in 1834. They landed in New Orleans and made their way up the Mississippi River to Indiana where they received a land grant of 160 acres…
Did the Vespers and the Fryhofers know each other?
Recently I connected with Susan Vesper, a 5th cousin. She alerted me to an error in my Ancestry tree and we've been trading data and photos ever since. When I added Susan to my tree, I did a little more research on her lineage. She descends from Johann Wilhelm Vesper, my ggg grandfather Frederick Vesper's brother. Three of Johann Wilhelm's sons came to America in the late 1800s and they lived for a few years…
Christmas Past
PLEASE EMAIL ME YOUR MEMORIES AND PHOTOS OF CHRISTMAS WHEN YOU WERE A KID OR OLD PICS FROM YOUR PARENTS/GRANDPARENTS FOR THE ONLINE COLLECTION. My Wagner family sure knew how to do Christmas. There was always a tree, lots of presents, and usually a model train set at my grandparents house. Living up north in Pittsburgh, there was usually snow. I was lucky to have my grandparents (Homer Wagner and Louise Weiler) nearby to spoil…
[neat photo] Art Hirschhausen and his huntin’ buddies
I came across this photo on Ancestry attached to Arthur Hirschhausen 1893-1984. He was the son of Frederick Vesper's second wife's daughter by her first marriage, so Arthur is only a step cousin, but I just loved this photo of them proudly holding up their turkeys and rabbits from their hunt, and all their dogs and guns. The photo was probably taken in the first half of the 20th century in St. Louis, Missouri. Arthur…
Digitizing your Photos – Captions
OK, so you've just spent two weeks scanning your box full of family photos. GREAT! Don't stop there, because this is not much better than not scanning them. The next step is to IDENTIFY them - IMMEDIATELY. Why captions/metadata are critical The caption will travel with the photo. Programs like Lightroom read the metadata and use it to group photos into collections or find a photo. If there is only one person in the photo,…
Pittsburgh 1928 film
1928 is about when my grandparents Earnest Thornton and Helen Strawser connected in Pittsburgh. Earnest is listed in the 1930 census living on North Side. My Eckert, Giegerich, Weiler and Wagner ancestors were also here at that time.
Thornton DNA Update
For years, many people (including me) have assumed our Thorntons descended from William "the immigrant" or Luke (spoiler alert - we aren't). William and Luke immigrated from England in the 1600s and settled in Virginia. Their descendants were connected to some famous names - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and others out of America’s history book. They owned huge plantations, and had many children. It made sense that these Thorntons were our ancestors - the time,…
Scanning and Restoration Services
Diana has a Master's Degree in Archaeology with specialties in historic documentation and photography. She has 40 years experience in genealogy and digital photo restoration. Her own collection contains nearly 5,000 photos, documents and objects from her family. Collection Scanning Send your originals for professional high resolution scanning and preservation. I will carefully scan both sides of your photographs, postcards, letters, drawings, newspaper clippings and documents. Original photos will be returned in archival storage sleeves…
Historical Sketch of Snowville, Virginia by WR Hundley
I discovered this original typed manuscript in the Radford, VA library. It is a delightful memoir of a lost time and place by a former resident of Snowville in the Appalachian mountains of southwest Virginia written in 1931. My ancestors lived there during this time. Cousin Mark Francis gave me a nice tour of the Snowville area a few weeks ago (2016), and even though the town is only a few buildings now, the area…