Creating, collecting & recycling textiles & papercrafts. I love preserving the past for the future.

Tuesday 26 June 2012

My Great-Grandmother's Vintage Postcards

I recently learnt about a collection of postcards (still in existence) that were sent to my great grandmother in the early 1900's.
My grandmother (who was her daughter) was about to burn them with the rubbish and my aunty saved them from the fire.
She has had them for decades
 and
I had never heard about them until 12 months ago.
I have been trying to scan them so I have them for myself forever.
They have to go back to my aunty as soon as I get this job done
but
I'll admit I like having them close to me.
I have received so much pleasure from reading them and
gaining a little insight into how much my great grandparents
must have loved each other.
Many of them were sent to my Great-Grandmother by her future husband.
They are indeed very lovingly written.
I never knew anyone related to me could be so 'smooth with words'...LOL
I love the way so many of the postcards were addressed...
seemingly so loosely,
as though everyone knew who lived in the district,
which indeed they did.
I'm talking about country folk.
My relatives were not big city people.
Simpler times and simpler lives.
My great-grandmother's name was Anna but this was only discovered when her death certificate was sighted.
All her life she went as Annie.
Annie is also one of my nicknames.
This postcard was from my GG's cousin Rachel in 1911
Rachel was trying to organize meeting up with my GG
and suggested they may meet up at the local country show.
It must have been hard with no phones etc when you lived a good horse ride apart from each other.
Love's Victory...a postcard
from my great grandfather William known as Bill,
 to his future wife, Annie.
I love the address on this postcard
Miss Emma Janke
C/o Mr Janke,
The bootmaker
...love it!...
Don't know how my GG had this one, maybe she never got to post it
or
maybe
she collected her friend's used postcards.
Who could blame her?  
They're so lovely.
To Greet You on Your Birthday
Best wishes for your birthday
Here again not sure why she had this postcard in her collection
maybe she had a friend called Annie, maybe she never posted it
We'll never know now.
Christmas card by Beagle's Postcards
from my GG's friend Mary Jessop
to
Dear Annie
Hope you've enjoyed looking at some of my family history
through
these
beautiful old postcards
that are now mostly just over 100 years old.
I knew my Great grandmother well.
She died when I was 20.
I never knew my Greatgrandfather as he died before I was born.
Thanks for visiting
and
please leave me
a comment, I'd love to hear from you.

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24 comments:

  1. What a beautiful treasure you have there. They are gorgeous. Thank you for your sweet comments on my blog I appreciate it so much. Loved looking at your postcards.

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    Replies
    1. Thankyou so much you lovely comments to me Diana. Hope you can visit again sometime.

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  2. Hi EllenaElizabeth,
    I love your great-grandmother's post card's...It's wonderful that your family still has them they are very special.
    I have a small collection of my grandma's postcards that she would send to grandpa also post card that an old bow sent to her (I wonder if grandpa know she had kept it all these years)They are postcards from Hawaii my grandparents were born and raised in the island my Mom too until she was a young girl and they moved from Hawaii to SF. The post cards really are fun to have and you are so right the postman knew everyone by name, the post cards I have also just have my grandma's name and the island she lived on and she received it! If we addressed a post card with just a name on it now it would get lost! times have really changed. I enjoyed your post very much. Have a sweet day, Elizabeth

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  3. These are so precious and you were so lucky to discover them. Don't you just love reading the sweet messages on these old postcards? Thanks for sharing them with all of us.

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  4. Oh these postcards are so lovely, and I have a collection of these kind of postcards with the same time frame on them, but mine are not from relatives, just random cards. I think that era had the most lovely artwork. It was fun ready your lovely post and knowing they told a love story too. My son just arrived in WA in the perth area, he will live in WA for two years and get transferred around, but now he is in a suburb of Perth. It looks like that is a very pretty city and seems lots like america. It seems like the Australians are a lot like Americans, with some British influence. I think Australians are very nice people! What part of Australia do you live it?

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    1. I'm on the opposite side of Australia. WA is so far away it's like another country. I'm in Queensland. Hope your son has a nice time in my country. And yes we are much alike with a lot of British influence. That's how we began, the British needed somewhere to transport criminals in the 1700's.

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