Old Pictures and Lovely Memories

Our second cousin Evie has come into boxes of old pictures. She has been sharing any that feature us Ackleys, and has given me permission to share them with you all!

Enhanced and colorized using MyHeritage

This one brings back so many happy memories from visiting Great-aunt Marie in Florida. We were stationed in Albany, Georgia, and she lived in DeFuniac Springs, Florida. From the left, this is Denise, Eric, Marie holding Suzie, Debbie and me. Behind us is Pal, the dog. Evie says they called Marie, Pal Grandma, to differentiate her from her other grandma, Fanny Grandma. I think it was about 1960, and it looks like it was around the 4th of July. I remember learning to pump water with the old pump in the yard. In the evenings, the grown-ups would play pinochle, talk, and laugh. One night, I talked them into letting me watch Rod Serling's Twilight Zone. Oh, I assured them, I was plenty old enough not to be scared! Wrong. I can still remember that episode.

When Evie and I first found each other using DNA, and figured out that her grandma was my great-aunt, I shared the story about one Florida weekend. Sunday morning we would have to go to mass, of course, but we had forgotten to bring church clothes. Uh-oh! So Great-aunt Marie sat down at her sewing machine, with materials she had on hand, and sewed skirts for all of us girls - in just a few hours! I think we wore handkerchiefs on our heads. Evie remembered her grandma Marie being a great seamstress.

Marie was the second child and my grandma Ann was the fifth child of Johann B. Eichhorn and Elisabeth Liebl. If you look back at my blog post from the July trip to Bohemia, you can see Elisabeth's hometown. Johann's hometown was Eslarn, in this blog post.

Have any readers found new relatives and uncovered old memories? I'd love to hear your stories. Comments are open and also anonymous.