The past week, my parents went through a box of papers and photos that my late uncle's daughter gave us.  The box once belonged to my dad's parents and is filled with old letters, personal history, photos, and other memorabilia.  One of the first photos found was a photo of my grandpa's mother, Martha Brady (lower right corner) (click on photos for larger images).  Mary Lovina and Jordan Brady were the proud parents of twelve children, which beats the Brady Bunch by double and they were only married once.  I always wondered why I love to watch the Brady Bunch and now I see, it's in my blood. 

The photo to the right  is from 1923 just after my grandparents married (they married in Oct 1923).  My grandma is on the left in the back, my grandpa is in front of her and his brother Warren is to Grandpa's (Jordan) right (they're facing one another).  I believe this photo was taken outside of the Veterinary school in Colorado; both Grandpa and Uncle Warren went to Veterinary school. My grandpa went on to be a veterinarian for the US Government and was one of the country's leading experts in Hoof and Mouth disease.  As a family, they moved all over the US through the years and even lived in Mexico city for two years when my dad was a teenager.  Warren practiced privately, mostly in Ogden, Utah.

In 1935, my great grandparents, Arthur and Martha, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary;  we found a newspaper article about  their anniversary and this is the photo they used for the article.  He was a judge and they resided in Manassa, CO., and were instrumental in building the town and area.  I am anxious to read more of their history and perhaps find photos of my grandpa when he was younger - if there are any to be found. 

We found some photos of grandma though, when she was small.  They're incredible photos and we were excited to find them.  This first one, in this incredible buggy, is her as an infant (born in 1903).  Her mother died two hours after grandma's birth.  Grandma's given name was Mary Jane, but she went by Mamie.  She was raised by her maternal grandparents since her father could not raise her alone.  Grandpa Sowards also felt that he needed to serve  missions for the church after his wife died.  He didn't abandon Mamie though, the Jacksons were capable of raising Mamie and he often visited her.  Grandpa Sowards married again and had other children (I'm not sure when), but he lived to be over 100.  I saw him often when I was young. 
 This photo is of Mamie and her cousin, Glen Jackson, when she was about 3 years old.  Neither look happy, but it's probably because they had to stand still for so long.  Isn't she adorable?  

This photo is my grandma's cousin Chloe and her (on the right ) in 1920, on the day of their 8th grade graduation, they were 16 years old.  It is amazing to me, to think of being in that time, getting lost in thought about what it would be like back then.  I remember many stories she told me of learning to cook, clean, and to be a good wife and mother.  There was more to her than that though, she was a giving, loving, and gentle soul.  She had a delightful sense of humor and  always made anyone feel at home and that they were loved.

As a point of interest, we found three post card photos.  This postcard is a photo of a young man giving an electrical treatment to a neighbor boy who was a cripple.  If you look closely, you can see his special shoe on the right.  On the back of the postcard, this is written but we don't know who the boys are.  It was just cool that these photos were put in postcard form and mailed out.

On this postcard,  we don't know who the women are but what we found most interesting was the stamp; it's a 1-cent stamp with Benjamin Franklin on it from 1909.  The street address was familiar to my dad but in 1909, his parents still lived in Manassa, Colorado, so it may have belonged to a relative or a friend of the family. 

Once I got started on scanning these newly found photos in, I had a hard time stopping.  Just as Nikki-Ann can attest to, searching for ancestors and learning about their lives is addicting.