This past summer my family and I visited my brother in Colorado. I can't believe I'm only now getting around to writing about it. There were no specific genealogy goals planned for the trip, apart from getting a photo of my paternal grandfather's grave, but we were visiting a cousin and stuff just happened - I discovered long ago one must always be prepared. While we were sitting around my cousin's table chatting, she all of a sudden left the room and came back with an envelope containing old photos. Included in the envelope was the above - the only known photo showing my mother's family all together. From left to right: Anna C. Hartford (my grandmother), Mary J. Zaring (my mother); Franklin E. Zaring Sr. (my grandfather), and Franklin E. Zaring Jr. (my uncle...the little boy straddling my grandfather's neck).
The photo is rare because of how dysfunctional this family was. The photo was probably taken sometime in 1923 and the family split apart shortly after that. My grandfather was a violent alcoholic and he left my grandmother with two small children probably not too long after this photo was taken. My grandmother, then only 19, had no way to support the family and sent the kids to live with her older sister in a home located between the towns of Bailey and Grant, Colorado, and she moved to Denver to live with another sister while working as a house keeper around the city.
The location of the photo is Hall Valley which was a silver mining area somewhat close to Grant, Colorado. My grandfather worked a mining claim at the top of the valley and lived there with the family for a year or so. I remember as a child we used to go on camping trips in Hall Valley and visit the old mining shack where my mother and her family lived.
The photo is a critical part of my family history and am so glad it unexpectedly fell into my lap.
Tim, this is so great! I understand the joy of finding a family group photo for a family that disintegrates. I still would love to get two family group photos: one of my mother with her parents before they divorced; and one of my grandmother with her biological parents before she was left in an orphanage.
Posted by: Miriam Robbins Midkiff | October 18, 2009 at 01:26 PM