Photographs – Family Finds

Sports – Family Finds

Sheepish Sports – Sheep to Shawl

During the 1980’s, my mother, Betty LaFara, participated in a competitive, team sport called Sheep to Shawl. As the name suggests, the competition begins with a sheep and ends with a shawl. A sheep is sheared, the fleece is carded and spun into yarn, the yarn is then woven into fabric, and finally, the fabric is fashioned as a shawl. It is a timed event, typically set at 2 to 4 hours depending on the amount of preparation allowed. An event is made up of 4 to 10 competing teams. Team size is set by the event organizers but will include at least one shearer, three spinners, and one weaver.
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Preservation – Family Finds

Genealogy is all about preserving the past. Documenting ancestors’ lives, recording family stories and collecting family memorabilia, is the mission of a family genealogist. I do each of these tasks for my own enjoyment. This blog site is one way I preserve family stories, it will live in “the cloud” long after I am gone. So will the large family tree I have created on Ancestry.com. [1] However, memorabilia and keepsakes are in the real world and subject to personal attachment. In anticipation of my keepsakes ending up in a second-hand store, dumpster, or elsewhere, I will document them here so their images and stories will survive.
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Steps – Family Finds

For this week’s prompt I thought I’d share some favorite family photos that include steps. While writing this post I discovered the term “stairs” typically refers to a collection of steps in a stairwell. With that definition in mind, just one of my photos can be called stairs. I then discovered a “stoop” is a set of steps terminating at a landing in front of a door. So, most the pictured steps here are really stoops: front-, side- and back-door varieties. Who knew, there was so much to know about steps?
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Fashion – Family Finds

Osborne sisters 1911 — Grace, Sadie and Pearl Osborne, 1911

When I look at old photos I sometimes wonder about the fashion choices of the subject. Were they wearing a favorite outfit? Does their clothing reflect the fashion of the era? Or, are they simply making a personal fashion statement? When photographs were nearly exclusively for special occasions, the clothing choices reflected economic status, social standing, era, heritage, or profession. Whatever the case, many of my favorite old family photos show the subject in clothing I think is charming, humorous, or unique.
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