When my paternal grandmother died, my dad and his siblings divvied up the photos in her albums. It made sense at the time, as it was before the internet and the scanning of photos. But it left each of the families with an incomplete overall picture of whose photos exist.
I have been going through family photos for a number of years. One of my paternal first cousins has been going through the photos her father had from my grandparents over the two years or so, and when she finds something interesting, she emails the photos to me. Last week was special. She found a photo of our paternal grandfather’s mother. I have written several blogs based on these photos. (See list below.)
But I had NO photos of my grandfather’s parents. ZIP. It was a hole in my genealogy puzzle. In July, I wrote a blog about my grandfather’s family and its many mysteries. And last week, my cousin sent a photo of our great grandmother with my uncle that she discovered. WOW. I was struck my how much my grandfather looked like his mother! I immediately put the photo into the blog. (See below.).
But I think the acquisition of this photo needs its own blog, as now I have photos of seven of my great grandparents and four of my great great grandparents. That is amazing! I think of my children and my cousins’ children and grandchildren, and I realize that to have these photos labeled is an important gift I can give them all. For my future grandchildren as well, they can now look back and see some of their four times great grandparents. That to me is quite wonderful!
I did know one great grandmother, Rae/Ray. I have vague memories of how she looked. But I remember seeing her when we went to my paternal grandparents’ home. She lived with them always. We have the most photos of her as she lived until 1957. I have photos at different stages of her life and her husband, my great grandfather who passed away in the late 1930s. (See blog about him below.)
Because of this great new photo, I thought it would be great for my family to see all of these photos in one place: my grandparents, my great grandparents and the two sets of great great grandparents. I also used both their Yiddish/Hebrew names and their English names when they were different, so that everyone knows these names as well. Also you will notice my great great grandfather Jacob Zev Litwack. This is not the last name that my great grandfather used when he moved to the United States.
This is my Thanksgiving gift. The gift of identified photos! Happy Holidays to all.
MATERNAL Family
Maternal great grandma Sara, she died very young.
Great grandma Chava when younger.
Maternal great grandparents/Chava and Gimple
Maternal great grandfather/Shlomo/ Solomon Avraham .
Maternal grandparents. Taube/Tova/Thelma and Nissan/Nathan
PATERNAL Family
Paternal great grandma Sarah (The new photo!)
Baruch Lev/Louis and Rasha/Ray when they married
Paternal great grandparents Baruch Lev/Louis and Rasha/Rachel/Rae/Ray when older
Paternal great great grandparents Elka/Esther and Avigdor/Victor
Paternal great great grandfather Yaacov/Jacob Zev. (My great grandfather did Not use this last name in the USA )
Paternal grandparents Harry/Hirsh Zvi and Esther
Blog about my great grandmother and family mysteries: https://zicharonot.com/2019/07/18/some-of-my-paternal-family-mysteries-solved-but-not-all/
Other photos from my cousin:
https://zicharonot.com/2017/12/19/my-familiar-ancestor-who-we-cannot-identify/
https://zicharonot.com/2018/01/26/your-heart-just-gets-larger/
About my great grandfather, Baruch Lev:
https://zicharonot.com/2016/03/08/louis-of-the-blessed-heart/
zicharonot 
This is quite amazing, Ellen—you are so lucky to be able to see their faces.
Absolutely! I would love to have all of them, but know I am fortunate.