Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Wordless Wednesday ~ Mother's Childhood Home

Last week I attended the FGS 2017 conference in Pittsburgh. The main reason I went was because it was being held in my mother's childhood hometown and I could visit my cousin, who shares an interest in family history.

Not only did my cousin and I visit Uniondale Cemetery, where we have many maternal ancestors (see my 2014 post Pittsburgh Burials at Uniondale Cemetery), but we visited the home where our mothers grew up. We knocked on the door and the current homeowners couldn't have been nicer, letting us explore the grounds, walk around inside, and take photos. (I have since shared some of my 1940s and 1950s photos with the homeowners, some of which I previously shared at Mount Royal Boulevard.)

This photograph of the house was taken about 1958-1959 when my grandparents were preparing to sell it:


This photograph of the house was taken almost sixty years later, on September 2, 2017:


The house was originally built in 1820, one of a pair of farmhouses built by brothers. It was also a stop on the Underground Railroad.

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7 comments:

  1. DonnaSeptember 7, 2017 at 3:43 PM

    Very cool, Elizabeth!

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  2. DonnaSeptember 7, 2017 at 3:45 PM

    We are also enjoying finding our ancestral homes and spent time in Italy a few years ago at both my families home town of Petina, and Bill's hometown of Sant' Eufemia a Maiella; both in Southern Italy. : )

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    Replies
    1. Elizabeth HandlerSeptember 7, 2017 at 4:35 PM

      Wow - that's quite a special trip!

      Thanks for reading and commenting.

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    2. Devon Noel LeeOctober 5, 2017 at 8:32 PM

      Such a great memory. Such wonderful history. I love the then and now photos.

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    3. Elizabeth HandlerOctober 6, 2017 at 2:28 PM

      Devon, thanks for the comment. I also love then and now photos and I instinctively took my photo from that location because I had looked at the old photo so many times!

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  3. NancyNovember 20, 2017 at 12:59 AM

    The house looks just the same, the grounds a little different -- more modern, maybe. It's sad not to see that grand pine tree in this year's photo. How exciting that the owners let you walk around inside. One of my dreams is making arrangements to visit the home where my great-grandmother and her parents lived in the 1800s and getting a tour of the inside. Maybe one of these years.

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    Replies
    1. Elizabeth HandlerNovember 21, 2017 at 4:42 PM

      Nancy, as you can see, I had looked at the old photo so much, I instinctively knew where to stand to get a similar photo and it is interesting to see the landscaping is more modern, but the house is so much the same.

      Best of luck getting to visit your ancestral home and thanks for the comment!

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