Four Versions of 1948 Family Portrait Discovered

Walton Siblings identified and labeled

      Earlier this summer (2011), cousin Claudia Shuttleworth sent me a group portrait photo of the children of George and Constance Walton. I had previously received a copy of this from cousin Molly Lewis about 10 years ago, along with a similar one containing the children’s spouses. The difference was that Claudia also included a scan of the BACK which her mother had labeled.

Using Picasa software, I was able to add text to the photos and label the siblings. I added a number to indicate birth order. When I shared them with some of you for review, we discovered  some mislabeling. By cross referencing with other family photos, we made corrections and discovered we had 2 slightly different versions of the “spouse”  photo. And then Claudia discovered a third spouse view that contains some unidentified friends or possibly relatives.

In all, we identified 4 different views, all taken at the same time. Claudia’s photo identifies the date as October 30, 1948. Research has shown that this was a Saturday, so it makes sense that a family would get together for a weekend party. Since no one is in costume, we ruled out a Halloween party. A quick check of my database indicated that Lillian (Walton) Halpin‘s birthday was on October 29, 1904, (and her Wedding date was October 29, 1927) so perhaps this was a birthday or anniversary Party. Whatever the reason, I’m glad they left us this series of pictures so we know what they looked like in 1948!

I have placed all four versions on the newly created Walton Family Photo Archive site for your viewing pleasure and comments. Nearly all of you have Grandparents or Great-grandparents in this picture. Can you find them? Most of them have posed together as couples, but two couples have “swapped” mates! Can you spot who? We are not sure why. They seem like a happy and fun loving bunch, so it is not hard to believe they could be goofing around, even while some poor guy is trying to take a portrait. We’re talking about brothers here…maybe one of them refused to leave his seat and his wife ended up next to his brother. We may never know why, but this is a good example of why it is important to label your pictures for future generations. 

I invite you to look at your grandparents or great-grandparents as they looked in 1948. It’s amazing to me to realize that I am more than 10 years OLDER today than my grandfather was when this picture was taken. 

All four versions of this picture as well as a labeled copy of three of them may be viewed by clicking on this URL: 
https://picasaweb.google.com/104920865641639603179/GeorgeWaltonSChildren1948Portrait?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCM7K8IHa8Lj94gE&feat=directlink 

Take a look and let me know what you think. Do you, perhaps, have yet another version of this photo you can share? If you have any additions or corrections or any stories about this photo, please let me know.

Thanks to Claudia and Alice for Sharing these photos and helping me label them.