Five Generations

Dear Diary,

Pouring down rain yesterday so I spent the day rummaging through a box of old photographs. This morning I created a collage of four generations, my mother, my grandmother, my great grandmother and my great great grandmother who was born in 1828. She must have been in her early thirties, around the time of the civil war, when this photograph was taken. I tried to match their ages as best I could. Somehow the imperfections in the photographs aren't bothersome to me. Their faces are quite clear.

Tracing your family on the internet, reading the names and the dates and the locations, is one thing. Seeing their faces is quite another. I'm making digital collages of the photos and information I'm gathering. I want them to be more than just a name on a page.

The advent of photography in the mid-19th century was an amazing thing. It has allowed us to look back in time and see things as they saw them...that is the face that gazed back at them from their mirror. In a way, that is what this journal will be for me. In time, my descendents will look back and see the world through my eyes along with my words. History may be written mostly about male accomplishments but it is the quiet women in our lives that shape us most. I'm feeling a special thankfulness for the women in my life that helped shape me.

Even though fathers, grandparents, siblings, memories of ancestors are important agents of socialization, our society focuses on the attributes and characteristics of mothers and teachers and gives them the ultimate responsibility for the child’s life chances.

- Sara Lawrence Lightfoot


UPDATE: Thank you to a fellow blipper for the idea of adding my own photograph to the collage! I am, after all, a product of those four women. Now it is five generations of women in one image! I added my high school graduation photograph...my, my how time does things to a person! I love to see the different hairstyles. Mine is sooooo 1967!