Old Family Photos

August 12, 2009 – Day 224

A few years ago I did some in-depth research on my Grandfather Leo Kunce’s family history. My search took me out to B.C. in 2004 and again in 2005 to meet several of the current-day families of Leo’s brothers and sisters.

In 2005, I was graciously invited (by Leo’s sister Gladys’s family) to attend a Halldorson family reunion (Gladys Kunce married Joe Halldorson). It was exciting to meet several of my cousins that I never would have met had I not researched the Kunce family history.

Step-by-step and over the course of about 4 years, I was able to trace Leo’s family back to the mid 1700s. A few of the cousins I met along this great adventure shared photographs with me, which I scanned and returned to them. That was the first time I’d seen pictures of my great grandparents – and it was thrilling. It was also the first I knew that Leo’s mother, Ida Alice Kunce, was buried in High Prairie, the town I’d grown up in. Once I’d discovered that she was buried right there in my old home town, I went to visit her grave site and took pictures of her headstone.

I could go on for hours about the things I learned about the Kunce family but I’ve created a private family website where I’ve uploaded many of the photos and other interesting information I discovered along the way. If you’re related to me, haven’t yet been invited to the site, and you’re interested in seeing it, please let me know and I’ll send you an invitation.

I bought this old-style photo album at a garage sale, some old black photo corners at another garage sale and printed many of the old family pictures to add to the album. There are 210 old photos in this album, ranging in dates from 1881 to the mid 1970s. I display it on the coffee table in my living room, as it would perhaps have been displayed in the 1940s or 50s - and it is one of my absolute most-favourite things.