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| The Smiths |
First of all, I thought I'd better put up a reference tree for the cousins to check out before I launch into my new discoveries. I was contacted on Ancestry by a cousin. My thanks to my cousins Andy Cracknell and Chuck Dietsche who are descendants of the Estill Smith branch of the family. They supplied the wonderful photos.Some of the photos they sent I had seen. A few I had bad or cropped copies of. But the photos I have never seen were a revelation. Let's start at the top of the tree. I decided to make use of a little AI to see what I could discover. My Heritage, Ancestry, and Image Colorizer.com will all colorize photos with different results. More on that later.
The picture of Letitia is the same one that hangs on my wall with the family pictures. Although AI is an "intelligent guess" with photos, I have to say this shows her pretty jewelry and brightens her up considerably.
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| Letitia Ellen Johnson Smith "Ella"- my great, great grandmother |
What excited me was the next photo. I had never seen a photo of my great-great grandfather George F Smith. |
| George F Smith- the railroad man |
My Heritage takes a fairly restrained approach. I notice they focused on skin color mostly and didnt' go crazy colorizing everything.  |
| George F Smith- older |
George died in 1915. My guess is this photo is from a period after 1900. I was thrilled to get these photos.Next is their oldest daughter, Cora Elizabeth, my great grandmother. I know a bit about her because she spent a lot of time with my mother when mom was a child- they lived right next door. I have this photo, but mine was cut down for framing. I love the full version. The details jump right out at you and you really can see a hint of humor in her eyes.
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| Cora Smith Rogers |
We have her brother Estill in the next sets of photos.  |
| Estill Lowell Smith |
I must say that Imagecolorizer.com did a fine job of repairing the scratches and bringing this young photo of Estill to life. Estill, like my great grandfather Ned and my grandfather Harry worked for the City of Fitchburg. |
| Estill |
This slightly older picture wasn't as successful. probably because it's still in the frame.Here's Estill's wife Bessie Priest. I don't know too much about her, but I must say her daughter Marion looked like her as you will see.
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| Bessie Priest Smith |
I have no pictures of Frederick. Would love to, but they haven't turned up yet.Finally, we get to the youngest two daughters: Lotta and Clara. I knew Clara as a child- what a character. She lived to be 101 or 102. Neither married. Lotta had a brief local musical career in her young days, but became a hairdresser later and gave up music. Or so the family story goes...
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| Lotta Mae- a young photo |
Lotta was a pretty girl. Talented but maybe troubled as well. She got accolades for her singing in local musicales and quartets. I've been told the whole family was musical. |
| Lotta Mae |
The bonnet and the bouquet of posies is a nice touch. I had a copy of this, but this one is in better condition. And she looks happy here, which is nice.Clara was the baby. It has been suggested that she was a little spoiled. Perhaps. But I see spirit and humor and intelligence in this photo. And perhaps a strong will. Clara taught kindergartners and first graders all her life. She also spent a good bit of that time looking after Lotta. |
Clara Letitia
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Here's a slightly later picture of the two girls together. That was them: where Lotta went, Clara was with her. |
| Lotta and Clara |
The colorized version brings out the details of their pretty tops. I don't think I had ever seen this photo either- my framed version was cut down.
This next photo surprised me, because Cora looks very different in the picture. Andy said they were in their choir robes from church. |
| Cora and Clara |
This last photo was the clincher for me. Just too adorable. From left to right we have my grandfather Harry, my Aunt Dorothy (Deo), and their cousins Marion Smith and Webbie Smith. Dorothy was born about 1903, so my guess is maybe 1905. |
| Harry Rogers, Dorothy Rogers, Frederick Webster "Webbie" Smith and Marion Smith |
Just look at those cute little faces. They must have taken single shots of the children on the same day, because I remember seeing a single photo of Harry in that outfit.
Here is where AI doesn't always get it right. My grandfather Harry had red hair. I mean really red hair. The family called him Uncle Rusty. Neither of these colorizations picked up on that. The photo on the left is Ancestry's version and the one on the right is from ImageColorizer. I think the second one gilds the lily a bit. And you can see how much Marion looked like her mom.  |
| The four cousins about 1905 or so... |
And lastly, if you want, My Heritage will animate your photos. So I took the sweet photo of Lotta and tried it out. They zoom right in on the face and that's what animates. I think the eyes do something weird. Cool or creepy? You decide.I'm very pleased with this new collection of photos.
