Mystery Picture 091008

Yesterday we looked at cars. Today our mystery picture has another car in it.

I am no expert on old cars, but this one does not look like the Mayflower from yesterday. Does anybody know anything about this picture?

Cars, New and Old

A few days ago Dave posted on his blog an entry and picture of a Porsche getting pulled over by the Indian police on "the one piece of road [in Mumbai] that is actually built for going fast." He even taunted the Porsche driver with the Eastern-themed "Instant karma, baby!!" Honestly, though, I thought he could've come up with something more clever, perhaps, "How's that karma suit ya?" (Yes, yes, I know the contraction is colloquial.)

Dave's post reminded me of the time this spring when Sam decided to play chicken with a Porsche, and all I could think to do was grab my camera.

(No Porches or kids were harmed in the making of this picture.)

This got me thinking about cars and our family history. There have been some posts with cars as background objects, but no posts featuring cars. Let's change that!

I'll start with pictures of Grandpa's first car, which Ellen identified as "the Mayflower" in a scrapbook she put together about Grandpa's family.* (Thanks, Ellen!).

Regarding the third picture, Ellen wrote, "About 10 years later Jolayne stands by what is left of the Mayflower - 1949 -". It would be great to know some stories about this car and, ultimately, its demise. Where did Grandpa get it? How did it run? What did he use it for? What happened to it?

I also have a scan of the receipt for the first car Grandma and Grandpa bought.

Imagine, a $5 deposit on a car! You would be hard pressed to get two gallons of gas for $5 now days. I am not sure whether or not I have a picture of this '28 Chev, but would love to see one.

Does anyone else have a car story they'd like to share? Leave a comment, and I'll post stories and pictures on the blog!

*A PDF file of this album exists and is under 10mb, so it can be e-mailed easily. If you don't have it yet, just ask and ye shall receive.

UPDATE

Andrew Bore writes in the comments that the picture of the girl in front of the Mayflower "is a picture of my mom (Jolayne) that I've never seen before. Thanks!" For those who may not know Andrew, he is the grandson of Fern (Grandpa's sister), who was Jolayne's mother. Thanks, Andrew!

It's good to see the extended family providing their insights to these pictures, as I hoped they would in an early post (end of second paragraph).

Mystery Picture 091007

Do you know anything about this picture? Tell me!

This beautiful, hand-colored family portrait was loose in an album with a variety of individual portraits.

UPDATE

Ellen writes in the comments (thanks, Ellen!):

"That is Uncle Rowan and Aunt Gladys with their two oldest children Gail and Gary. It must have been taken about 1942-3. Rowan is Grandpa Stutz's brother."

Mystery Picture 091006

Do you know anything about this picture? Tell me!

I do not know anything about this picture except that it was with pictures of Craig and Priscilla's family in an album. Who is this cutie?

UPDATE

Mike asks in the comments, "hey rob is there a date when this was published?"

No, there was no date. That's part of the mystery!

Mike later wrote that this is Jordan, and who am I to say it's not. Thanks, Mike! Your brother sure was -- and undoubtedly still is -- adorable.

Blog Changes

I changed the blog to a new template that makes it easier to find links within a post, based on feedback that the links were difficult to see.

Also, Susan has joined the blog as an author. I figured that she should join because she was writing half the posts anyway, with her great comments and the stories she related from Grandma and Grandpa. Welcome, Susan!

If anyone else would like to be a regular author, let me know. If you would like to contribute but are unsure how you could contribute, I have some ideas.

Mystery Picture 091005

This picture had a curious message written on the back: "This is the prize picture. I think we should have it enlarged and framed. Poor Butch is so sleepy!"

Do you know who is in this picture, when it was taken, or where they are? I have wondered whether Butch is the baby or the soldier, thinking that perhaps the soldier is sleepy because of his military training.

UPDATE

Andrew contributes in the comments, "I can't help with an identification but the soldier is in the Royal Canadian Engineers." Thanks, Andrew! I could not find a "Butch" in the family tree that I have, but at least we have more information to go on.

The woman and soldier appear to be the same couple feature in an earlier mystery picture.

Mystery Picture 090909 - Revisited

The September 9 mystery picture included in the background a boy in a truck holding a newspaper. Here is my highest resolution image of the boy, which might help identify who he is or what he was doing.

This picture from an album offers a little more detail than the original.

Bugging Out

An earlier post about getting close to your subject when taking pictures included a couple of pictures of bugs. I was inspired by beautiful pictures Susan took of thistles. Well, she has done it again, this time with a picture of a spider fat with eggs.

So, yesterday Sam lost one of Boyd's Lego lightsabers in the grass. The red, Sith one! These things are about one inch long, so let's say it is not likely we would find it somewhere on the lawn. While futiley crawling around, though, we saw a winged ant and decided to try the macro function on the camera and see how close we could get. Here it is:

We followed it for awhile and here's what we saw:

You might not notice initially, but in the first picture the ant is missing one of its wings. It is reaching back and has placed a rear leg on the remaining wing. In the second picture, the ant has used its leg to pull off the remaining wing! In the third picture, you can see the ant, wingless! I don't know why it did that -- was it a defense mechanism, or was it a normal part of its development?

Good stuff, but what does it have to do with family history?

I think Grandpa inspired my love of science and of taking pictures. I think Grandma and her family history writings inspired me to put it all down in this blog. I will never be the scientist that Grandpa is or the writer that Grandma is, but I am working on the photography thing. Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa, for your inspiration!

Mystery Picture 091004

Do you know anything about these pictures? Tell me!




These four beautiful women had their portraits together in an album. I am guessing they are family, because I think I recognize some of them from other pictures. Unfortunately, I do not know who they are!

UPDATE

Karen writes that, "#3 looks like Aunt Eleanor Stutz Cook, youngest sister of Howard Stutz. - Karen & Dot (Dorothy Ann)"

Karen writes again in the comments:

We sent a copy of these 4 pictures to an elderly lady in Cardston. She identified herself as the lady in picture number 4. Her name is Durraine Nelson Leavitt. She also verified that Aunt Eleanor is picture #3. We are still trying to verify pictures 1 & 2 but will keep you posted.

I must say, I appreciate both the information about the pictures and the tenacity with which Karen has sought to identify the people. Thanks, Karen!

Karen follows up again in the comments with yet more information!

Picture #1 is Reatha Walburger Stoddard. She boarded with Grandma Stutz for a little while. This is a picture of her when she was in high school. She later married Ray Stoddard and lived just down the highway from my Grandma's (Fern's) house and her husband drove the school bus which my mom and Aunt Jolayne and the Crawford's rode to school. She is in the Good Samaritan's home in Magrath now and was quite excited to see this picture.

Wow, this is amazing investigative work. What a great story! I am thankful that Reatha was able to see the picture and tell us -- via Karen -- her history. If she has any stories or pictures she would like to post, I will happily do so. Karen, I cannot thank you enough for following up.

Stutzfamily Wiki, Stutz Barn, and Other Sites

The extended Stutz family has an extensive internet presence with many personal web pages and Facebook members. I do not keep track of everyone's daily activities, but I try to glance at the different sites from time to time. I also try to link to active personal web pages; if your page is active and you would like me to link to it, just let me know.

In addition to personal sites, there are several places to go for "bigger picture" Stutz family information. In particular -- and let me know if I am missing any sites -- the Stutz Barn and the Stutzfamily Wiki serve special purposes.

The Stutz Barn is used for the family's current events. On it, you can find (and post!) announcements, information, pictures, thoughts, or whatever else may be of interest to the extended family. It is a collaborative site with many authors. Want to be an author? Just ask around with the current contributors, and your will likely receive an invitation to contribute to the blog.

The Stutzfamily Wiki is used for the family's collective memory. As a wiki (just like Wikipedia), existing pages can be edited and new pages can be added by anyone. There is a learning curve, but it is not much steeper than learning to use e-mail for the first time (remember that) -- intimidating for a day or two, and then you know it for life. Check it out, contribute to it, and enjoy.

I hope Grandpa's Apple Press compliments these heavy hitters of family history. This site mostly has posts about digitizing and archiving old film, pictures, and papers, but I try to include some ideas for preserving today's history. Anyone can submit comments -- no registration necessary! -- and contribute information or questions, which are often used to update the original post.

Are there other sites I forgot to include? Let me know!

There is plenty of room for Stutz family members to contribute to these sites, start their own personal page, or start another "bigger picture" page. (In particular, a site that stores a large number of large family files -- pictures, scanned documents, audio and video recordings, etc. -- would be useful, at least to me.) There is also plenty of room for creating and preserving "analog" family history for the future -- scrapbooking, oral histories, art and photography, even rummaging through dusty boxes to discover hidden treasures.

There is room for everyone in this big Stutz family tent!

Finally, because I live far from Utah I miss out on many family activities; not all family communication is via 1s and 0s on a computer, after all. If there are off-line family history projects I am missing -- newsletters, book transcripts, awards, etc. -- it would be great to hear about them. For example, I appreciate Priscilla letting me know about the family tree she was working on several months ago. Thanks!

Mystery Picture 091002

This is a picture shows Grandpa and Quirt on a farm. The picture is difficult to see, but I presume that Quirt was Grandpa's pet.Does anyone recognize the location? When do you think this picture was taken? Was Quirt one of many pets? How did Quirt get its name?

UPDATE

Susan writes about a Grandpa and his favorite dog. This picture is from an album.

"This lil dog-photo brought back all sorts of memories for grandpa. The photo was taken when he was about 11yrs old. Quirt followed him home one day when he was 9 yrs old. It was some years later that he met a heartbreaking tragic ending; that of being shot by a sheep herder. (something like that) He was g-pa's best and most faithful companion during those years. Grandpa also related that he remembers how out by an old watering trough, is where he would tell Quirt all his secrets, feelings and innermost thoughts."

In the Navy!

I saw on Facebook today that Joey has enlisted in the Navy! Congratulations, Joey, and thank you for serving this great nation, just as Uncle Kent did.

If there are other family members who served in the Navy, please let me know.

Mystery Picture 091001

Do you know anything about these pictures? Tell me!



These three pictures were together in an album and show three locations that should be fairly easy to recognize -- if you've ever been there. Do you recognize any of them? And, who is the strapping young man in front of the capitol (of Utah?)?

UPDATE

These pictures from an album now have identities. The first is the Mormon Battalion Memorial on the grounds Utah State Capitol. The second is the Manti Temple. The third is the Utah State Capitol. The people, however, remain anonymous. Susan relates in the comments.

"The 2nd photo, according to G-ma is of the manti temple. She thinks the capital is in SLC and neither of them can place the odd statue photo. G-pa was a student at BYU (late 1930's) and quite the sight-see-er too."

There are many more beautiful pictures of the Manti Temple here.

As a side note, while poking around trying to identify the Mormon Battalion Monument, I found out from several sources that it was dedicated on May 30, 1927. The Utah State history website, however, incorrectly lists the construction date as May 30, 1937. I will not be writing to them to correct it, but if you are so inclined....

Finally, I think I have the capital/capitol usage correct now, but let me know if I do not.

Sharpening Pictures

I messed something up yesterday, so I am going to try and turn it into a teachable moment.

I posted a mystery picture that looks fine but could look better. Right click on the link and open it in a new tab. Here is the same picture looking a little better; right click on the picture and open it in a new tab, too.

Now, click back and forth between the two tabs with the different pictures and see if you can see the difference. Today's picture looks a little better, a little more crisp; let's call it a little more sharp. Can't see the difference? Check out the tree leaves as you jump back and forth between the tabs; see how they pop into focus and are less blurry? Or, the pattern on Annette's dress? Once you get used to seeing it, everything looks a little more sharp.

What I forgot to do to yesterday's picture, which I corrected on today's picture, is to use the "sharpen" tool in Photoshop after I shrank the picture down to viewing size. Some programs, including Photoshop, call it "unsharpen mask". Sharpening increases the contrast between closely located pixels in an image, making their edges look more distinct. Many programs allow sophisticated adjustments of the sharpening process, which will yield vastly different results. Or, you can do as I did here and use the software's automatic sharpening function.

Wikipedia has a good article on the process.

Oversharpening an image will make it look anywhere between weird and bad. It is always better to not sharpen or undersharpen an original image, since you can always apply the sharpening process to a copy (don't mess up the original!) later in Photoshop or whatever program you use.

Mystery Picture 090929 - Revisited

The September 29 mystery picture was referenced at the Stutz Barn site, where Susan noted in the comments that Grandpa would have been person "#15, but he was busy taking the picture". Well, as it turns out, I have several other pictures from the same series, and they include #15!

I won't bother with an identification list since everyone (but #15) were in the earlier post. I do wonder, though, who took the photo of the larger group including Grandpa? Does anyone know?

The three slides from this series are numbered 6, 9, and 10, so I know there are other slides from this family reunion. If anyone finds them and would like to share, please let me know. As always, I am willing to scan and return them.

Also, the slides were developed in January 1968, but I think it is safe to say that they were not taken in January in Provo. Does anyone know the date of this reunion?

Finally, there is at least one other roll that was developed in January 1968, which -- as mentioned in an earlier post -- can lead to file naming problems. That one also has a picture numbered 10, so I know the two rolls overlap. Sorting these things out is part of the intrigue of archiving the family history!