Hot or Honest?

As I fill in information on Ancestry.com, I notice there is a photo attached to one of the records (Great Grandma Place).  It says “Charlotte Anna Schram, age 19”. She is young and pretty in this picture.

So then I am filled with the dilemma – do I post young, handsome (or hot) photos of ancestors and relations, or do I post later vintage (gray haired and wrinkled) photos?  I notice that my brother-in-law has a mixture of both in his family tree.  He has a very young (World War II) photo of my father-in-law attached to Dad’s profile, but he has a very recent photo of my mother-in-law attached to her profile. 

I found a very young photo of my Grandma Ford.

I also have a photo where she is older.

I prefer the younger photo, but I settled for the photo of her holding my father when he was a young child (even though you cannot see her mouth in the picture). 

I chose that one of Grandma Ford because it mirrors the one I have of Grandpa Ford (also holding my father on the porch steps).

The only other photos I have of my Grandfather are either where he is older or where he is posing with an even older man.  I have no idea who the older man is (his father perhaps?).  I wish someone had thought to label the photographs when they were put into the albums.  I have no idea who 50% of the people in my father’s family albums are. My Mom wrote on some of them but not nearly enough; perhaps she didn’t remember who they were either!

I posted younger photos of my Mom and of my Dad.  Some of the more recent photos I have of my Father are either after he had his stroke or after he was diagnosed with acute leukemia.  I don’t want to remember him that way so I chose to post a young and handsome World War II picture.  He was very handsome in his uniform.

For my Mom, I chose the photo that Dad carried in his wallet.  It was one of his favorites, and it’s how he chose to remember Mom. If it was good enough for the man who was head over heels crazy about her, it’s more than good enough for me. There are some really beautiful pictures of my Mother, but this is one where she is smiling. 

So you will forgive me, everyone, for choosing more glamorous shots of me and Eric, too.  My picture is from May 1993 when I had lost 65 pounds, and I was young and pretty.  This is how I like to remember myself.  I wish I still looked that good.

The picture I posted of Eric is probably one of the few I have of him laughing or smiling.  It is also from May 1993.  He was playing with Matt and pretending to slide down Matt’s plastic toy slide.  It is one of my favorite shots.  I wish he smiled in pictures more often.

I guess one conclusion you can draw from my family tree is that I am vain and prefer pretty pictures over the real, honest “gritty” ones.  I prefer to think that I am just being consistent. We will all be young and hot in my family tree.