A Box of Old Photographs

When Arthur Frank Vanek and Mona Inez Leeson wed on August 31, 1949 they linked the following family trees, [Maternal ~ Muench and Leeson] [Paternal ~ Vanek and Gremaux].

Muench Ancestry ~ Leeson Ancestry ~ Vanek Ancestry ~ Gremaux Ancestry

 

January is the month I traditionally do house cleaning. And although for the past several years I haven't browsed the contents of a frayed and graying box sitting in a closet, the people in those photos came to mind every now and then.

I'd met some of them as I grew up, but many I know only through stories told by my parents during the era before television when the box was brought out to entertain visitors.

During my childhood photos and portraits were passed from hand to hand and memories of times spent with them became stories of not only them, but also of their past. I wish I could recall the vivid past our parents evoke in those intimate stories today. However, you'll find some of the details in the pages posted on this website, from time to time.

Tonight, I'm simply going to upload digital scans of a few photos from the old box, and name each one. Perhaps I'll write a paragraph or two, but more likely most of their life stories won't show up for quite a while yet. My immediate goal is to show our kinfolk as they looked during various periods in their lives.

Please enjoy them and share them with other kinfolk. I'll start with my father's mother, Elizabeth Margaret (nee Murison) Leeson.



I found this September 7, 1926 image of Elizabeth

Leeson behind a studio portrait of her taken several

years later in Spokane, Washington.



I don't know the year this studio

portrait was taken of Elizabeth,

who had wed Jack Roberts earlier.

Mounted in a beautiful oval wooden

frame, her portrait hung on the wall

over her son and his wife, Tillie's bed

until Tillie died in 1987. The whereabouts

of this family keepsake is unknown today

is unknown.

After Elizabeth was widowed when her husband dropped dead of a sudden death heart attack when son Albert was 10 years old, she moved her family from their homestead at Stratford, Washington to Spokane, Washington, There, she purchcased this home and supported herself and her three children by turning it into a Board and Rooming House for working men. She also catered gormet dinners to wealthy Spokane residents.

 



Albert Leeson, circa 1909-10, holding his dog.

Please feel free to contact me. Email Mona: mtscribbler [and] @ [and] air-pipe.com.

Family ancestry information has been posted previously. Use the Archives, scrolling downward and reading each previous post.