Gloria had a large number of photo albums in her apartment in Florida. They occupied about the same volume as the refrigerator, but I confess generated less visits.
When Mom died in May, 2008, Geoff and Randy agreed to allow the albums a journey to Ecuador, where I would scan a selection of photos and make them available to the three brothers and any other interested relatives. The albums arrived safely but remained another year below my radar. Finally, in June of 2009 I was able to hire a talented and enthusiastic graphic artist, Marcelo Reinoso, who has now scanned over one thousand five hundred photos and texts. His brother Patricio built the website.
The albums were a treasure—historical, emotional and generational—and I am absolutely delighted to put them up for all to see. So many of these photos for me are framed in question marks: How I wish I knew what I was seeing! For sure, hordes of information died with Gloria and previously with John, but perhaps you, who read this and study these photos, will contribute what you can.
I saw two basic options for the web site: a static one, with its information ascertained and elevated to family fact, or a more fluid and ambivalent site, always under construction. Partly because so many photos are partial or complete mysteries to me, and partly because it’s fun to build stuff, I chose the latter. This is why, associated with each photo, you’ll see a window that invites your comments—please note your certainties and your guesses, your memories, and anything else that comes to mind. This body of comments could eventually build a marvelously layered caption for each photo. We’ll upload a few hundred photos to start, but will be able to add more in the future, up to the size limit of our account. Over time, with your participation, we’ll have a better idea of how we got here, and be able to pass this on to our kids. They won’t care!, you object, and I’d agree. But just as Gloria used to say, “You like your spinach”, maybe in time they will.
We have five sections: Home, Family Tree, Gems, Homes and Places, Texts, and Contacts and Links. Family tree is my attempt to put Gloria and John’s predecessors and successors on a single page. You’ll see that for each family member a mouse click on their portrait or oval will take you to a series of photos of that person. Information I’ve presented may be incomplete or wrong, and I’d be grateful for your help correcting things. Thank you to Muffy Pedersen for her interest in the Terrills of Barbados, and the genealogical work carried out by Stephen Young; to Aunt Ellie Pedersen for information on Jacob Pedersen’s origins in Norway, from the State Archives of Kristiansand; and to my brothers for their clear recollections of family particulars.
The Gems tab attempts to highlight the photos that have special impact, either for their age (the earliest photos date from the 1880s), their graphic beauty, the mystery of whom we’re seeing, or their capture of the subject’s specialness. Homes and Places inventories some of the houses and landscapes of our family. The Texts tab reproduces newspaper articles and other documents about our illustrious progenitors. Finally, Contacts and Links, I hope, will make contact easier with me, the website and among you, and eventually could aid in doing genealogical research, or sharing results. If you have photos to add to any of the galleries mentioned here, please upload them (a procedure is in the works and will be described on the Home page) and they’ll be added to the inventory.
A bit about the mechanics: Navigating should be straightforward, but if you encounter difficulties—or worse—please let me know. The photos on the site should load quickly because they are resized and compressed, but we have the original scans in large formats if you’re interested in reproducing them. These we could put on a DVD and send them to you by mail. Your suggestions about the site and how to improve it will always be welcome.
Memorial for Glo at Todd’s point
Stu White
Cuenca, Ecuador
November 2, 2009