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Monday, March 9, 2009

Brothers, Sisters, Cousins, Kids

I've searched high and low through all of my family photographs from four generations and found several photographs showing all of the brothers and sisters in a family, including:

* Family Photographs - Post 22:The Boys - this is how I remember my childhood in the 1950s. We three had a wonderful childhood playing in the house, park, the block, the streets.

* All dressed up - this photograph is of the young Thomas Richmond family, taken in about 1885. Thomas and Julia (White) Richmond were my great-grandparents.

* Thomas Richmond (1848-1917) and Julia White (1848-1913) - this photograph is of the older Thomas Richmond family, taken in the late 1890's.

* Family Photographs - Post 3: James Richman Family, 1885 - this photograph is of the older James and Hannah (Rich) Richman family, taken in about 1885. James and Hannah were my great-great-grandparents.

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of my father with all of his siblings that survived childhood. I have my father with one sibling or another, and pictures of several of his siblings, but not one of all six of them in one picture.

My mother was an only child, and her parents were only children, so I don't have a sibling picture for them.

Perhaps the best, and I think the happiest, picture of five of my father's Seaver siblings is the one shown below, which also includes three complete sets of siblings in the next generation.



I hesitate to try to identify all of them from memory. I will do them by family groups (identified by back, middle and front row, from the left):
* Frederick W. Seaver family - wife Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver (middle row, 4th from left), daughter Geraldine Seaver (back row, first from left), daughter Marion (Seaver) Braithwaite (middle row, second from left), daughter Evelyn (Seaver) Wood (middle row, third from left), daughter Ruth (Seaver) Fischer (middle row, fifth from left), son Edward R. Seaver (back row, sixth from left). They are all of my father's living siblings. Note that the father of this family is deceased.
* Walter H. Wood family - husband Walter H. Wood (back row, third from left), wife Evelyn (Seaver) Wood (middle row, third from left), daughter Virginia (Wood) Soule (middle row, sixth from left, holding baby), son Jack Wood (back row, second from left), son Walter H. Wood (front, first on left).
* Edward R. Seaver family - husband Edward R. Seaver (back row, sixth from left), wife Janet (Roukes) Seaver (back row, seventh from left), son Peter Seaver (front, third from left), daughter Joan Seaver (middle, far right, held by Virginia Soule).
* Bowers A. Fischer family - husband Bowers Fischer (back row, fourth from left), wife Ruth (Seaver) Fischer (middle row, fifth from left), daughter Judy Fischer (front row, far right), and daughter Barbara Fischer (front row, fourth from left).
Others in this picture include Grace (Richmond) Shaw (sister of Alma Bessie Seaver, middle row, first on left), Lewis Soule (husband of Virginia (Wood) Soule, back row, fifth from left), Nancy Braithwaite (front row, second from left).
Isn't this a great picture? There are five of the six children and eight of the eleven grandchildren of Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver in this picture.
This family got together occasionally in big groups like this when they all lived in eastern New England. It was taken in the 1947 time frame.
One of my regrets in life is that I didn't get to participate in this family until I was a young man. We were in San Diego and they were in New England where it snowed in the winter, was hot in the summer, and everybody went on picnics and outings and saw their aunts, uncles and cousins. I've met all of my first eight first cousins, and most of their children and grandchildren now, and am close with several of them through visits and letters/email/phone calls. I enjoy being with each of them - they are warm, positive, successful and fun people. My Nana Bess would be proud of all of us!

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