This is another recent find: My stepmother, age 3, with her maternal grandmother in Scotland. The back of the photo says "Marion with Wee Granny." I guess this grandmother wasn't very tall. :-) Wee Granny's name was Marion Orr Hughes. Her daughter Mary emigrated to America with her new husband shortly after their wedding. They returned with their children--a boy, 4, and a girl, 3--for a visit several years later, but never went back after that. It must have been so hard for the parents in the old country . . . no email, no Skype, no jet travel. I've often thought the same thing about the parents of American pioneers. To see their grown children and grandchildren venture out in a covered wagon, not knowing what might befall them. Anyway, here's little Marion and big (or not) Marion.

If the photos are REALLY stuck - try heating them up with a hair dryer on a low setting. Sometimes that will loosen the "goo" on the pages and let you scrape the picture off without too much damage. Many of those old pages had loads of acid in the adheasive, so get those pictures out as soon as possible.

I just did one...beautiful... :) Anyway...this is what we did so it can be ever changing should we want it to be.....my hubby cut a piece of backing from thin stock he had that was slightly bigger than the glass but did not extend past the wooden frame. We attached it with mirrow clips so it will come easily off and one and then painted it black on the inside....then you don't have to worry about pictures solidly on it, you can let randome black areas show through for effect..quite stunning. I think you could also do this with black foam posterboard if you did not want to mess with woodbacking..but beware it will easily bend and the black is not quite as rich as the paint it..but would still work. Either way, you can then "scrapbook" as usual..however you usually attach your pictures...glue stick, glue tabs, adhesive machine...whatever your usual method will work with this... A added bonues is also the look it gives when the pictures are behind the glass with depth between the glass and pictures rather than ON the glass..nice depth. One more thing tho..I did paint the inside lip or the glazing lip of the window the same black as the backer board so it was a smooth transition. It nicely frames everything.

alisande asked in regard to my Phoebe McCoy: "Jemdandy, how did you learn so much about your g-g-grandmother? Interesting! She looks so at peace in that photo." After I inherited her photo, I did some serious research on her. My break-through came when I traveled to the city library of Winchester, TN in the county where her mother eventually arrived with the Franklin(s). I found a well reserched article by another genealogist that gave me the lead on the origin of her parents in NJ. The best information of all was how and when Jemima (mother of Phoebe) met her husband-to-be and his correct name, Hugh McCoy. The story continues below: It was during the Revolutionary War. Hugh McCoy, a Scotsman, was not a military man and had gone to a seaport town to attend to some business when the Brits grabbed him and said, "You are in the Army now". (He was conscripted for war with the American colonies.) Hugh McCoy was shipped across the ocean and placed in Lord Howe's army at New York. Hugh was wounded and his commander took him to the house of Franklin(s) in NJ to recuperate. While there, his term of enlistment expired and he refused to re-enlist. The daughter of John Franklin, Jemima, had caught his eye and captured his heart. He asked for her hand in marriage. [To date, this is the only source I have found for my Scotish lineage. These Franklin(s) had immigrated from Acton, England.] Using land warrants from the War, these Franklin(s) and their married daughter, Jemima (Franklin) and Hugh McCoy, removed to Burke Co., NC where they aquired land. After Hugh and Jemima (Franklin) McCoy had about 6 children, Hugh supposed that he may have had some property comming to him in Scotland. He embarked on a voyage back home. He and the ship disappeared. It was presumed he had been lost at sea. Several years later, these Franklin(s) (and Jemima and Phoebe) voyaged by wagon train through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky and eventually arrived on the Elk River in Franklin Co,, TN about 1808. Jemima had married for the second time and outlied her 2nd husband. She married for the 3rd time and outlived that husband by a couple of years. Jemima and her second husband is buried on the family farm. I was privileged to view their headstones and dates on these stones were very readable. John Brown and Phoebe McCoy married in TN, but I have not been able to find any documentation. I do have the birthdates of their children who were born there by calculation from data in Illinois. Also, strangely enough, I know where and the date of Phoebe's demise but can not find anything about her burial.