Merry Christmas from 200 Years

I wish a very Merry Christmas for all of you from 200 Years in Paradise.  Christmas is a time for family and no one understands that better than those of us who spend the whole year thinking about family, genealogists and Family Historians.

For Christmas this year, I wanted to post a picture of Christmas in St Croix, but I have very few of them.  I assume that there are very few pictures that look like Christmas since decorations were typically indoors and I don’t think my grandfather had a flash in the early days.  Nearly all of my photos are outside.  I did run across this picture, a nativity scene in a church.  While there is no indication on the photo of where or when the picture was taken, I think it’s probably Holy Cross Catholic Church.

While I was looking, I found this picture.  From the railing, it may be the same church.  I’m not sure it is a Christmas picture, but it could be.  Does anyone recognize the church?  Is it a Christmas picture?  I’d love any information at all.

Who’s That Girl?

Tintype Phot - Unidentified Girl

So, I’ve got this big ‘ol box of pictures that I’m trying to sort and identify.  At the bottom are some truly old ones.  Most have no indication who they are of or when they were taken. Some of the pictures are very old, but one is rather unique.  It is a tintype photo.  It is in pretty good shape, considering its age, but I was fairly sure I would never know anything about the girl since there are no markings on it at all.  I thought perhaps it might be my 2nd great grandmother, Adelaide Robson (not for any particular reason, except that I thought it would be great to have a picture of her).

Amy van Beverhoudt 1840-1873

Since I figured I’d never know if this woman was even a member of the family, I scanned it, put the original away, and moved on to continually bugging my mother about writing down all the names of all the people she remembered in the more recent photos. (My mom insists she doesn’t recognize any of the people in any of the photos from the 1800’s, she’s not that old, and that I should quit asking).

The “Gentlemen of Jones”

As my loyal readers (both of you) will recall, I am going through a boxload of old pictures from my grandparent’s house in St. Croix.  While many pictures are of family and friends (and I know who they are now!) many are of the island, the island people, and events.  Some were sent to my family but most were taken by my grandfather, Ludvig Conrad. To date, I have scanned over 1,400 pictures from that box. 

While I was going through them for initial edits and labeling I ran across this picture. Written on the back it clearly said “Gentlemen of Jones”. 

A Little Genealogical Serendipity

One of the fun things about genealogy research is the tendency of the stars lining up where you least expect.  I had one of those events this week.  It was so unlikely that I thought I’d share.  A 100 year old letter in Denmark helped me identify who was in a 100 year old picture I got from my grandmother’s house in St Croix, of a family in New Jersey, featuring a guest from St Croix.  Confused?  We’ll sort it out.

Photos: Cartes-de-visite (CDVs)



Louisa van Beverhoudt, 1890

This weekend I spent a big chunk of time going through the old pictures from St. Croix.  The pictures seem to run from about the 1880's to the 1980's in a variety of formats, including 4x6 cabinet cards and little cartes-de-visite.  I discussed the Cabinet cards in by post Profile: Mary Conrad Simonsen.  Most of the oldest pictures are of that format.  The "carte-de-visite", or CDV, was another popular format, approximately 2.5" x 4" and, like the cabinet cards, mounted on thick cardboard.  Sizes weren't variable since they were made by cutting down standard film sheets to pre-defined sizes. The process was developed around 1854 and became popular because it was easier and cheaper than older photographic processes.  It was common for people to get many of these printed up and hand them around, as the name suggests, as visiting cards.

When dealling with 19th century photography, it is important to understand a little of the history of photography.  The earliest photos were daguerrotypes (c. 1839) which were imaged on silver.  Ambrotypes (c. 1854) were on glass, and tintypes (c. 1856) were on cheaper iron (not tin).  This brought photography in reach to the masses.  Portraits of common

Profile: Mary Conrad Simonsen

One of the reasons I wanted to start a family history blog was to share my research on my family.  This week, as a result of my post “I Found My Great-Great Grandfather” I made contact with a cousin who gave me critical information to track one of my relatives, Mary Conrad,  and pointed me to another cousin, who was a descendent of Mary’s. As luck would have it, when I went through the boxes I described in “Treasures from Mom’s House”, I found pictures of Mary Conrad.  I figured this would be a wonderful opportunity to share the information I have on her and where it came from.  I thought my new found relatives would appreciate seeing it too.

Treasures from Mom’s House

My grandmother Olga was something of a packrat.  When I was little we visited her in her house on Strand St. in Christiansted.  She had all kinds of stuff around, papers, knickknacks, odds, ends, everything a little boy could want.  She used to tell me she had a “Curiosity Shoppe”.  When she died, it took two trips to the island to sort things into what to ship, what to give away, and what to donate.  Fortunately, my mother kept the photos.  Boxes of them. That was 25 years ago.  Last night, we opened the boxes…