Prior to my sister’s request I was talking to my webmasters about changing the format of my blog and website. In fact over the past few days I had been working with them on improvements, enhancements, and changes.
I originally planned the website to be in three or four sections–Capturing the Soul was about looking at photographs beyond the conceptions and stories to sense how they touch you. Exploring family photos was about storing and archiving photos and writing a family history. The final section, William Henry Jackson’s San Diego is about my master’s thesis on William Henry Jackson’s Photographs of San Diego.
As I began to write my blog my cousins began responding and asking for more. To their children the family history is something they know little of. Although the photos were taken at family events they were rarely shared so the images were new to everyone.
To please my cousins — I love positive feedback — I wrote a lot about the family. In doing so I was straying from my original intent which was to be a more general site about looking at family photos. I have a number of stories that I want to share. After hearing from D’s wife G I wanted to share stories about him. I didn’t because as I thought about writing on one story I realized that if it and the related story about his father were publicly seen they would be funny, but embarrassing.
So I’ve been editing my stories in my desire not to offend. Sometimes I haven’t written because I couldn’t send the story out to the world at large. Web searches change everything. I want Search Engine Optimization for my website, but I don’t want it about my personal life. I’ve worried about people getting hold of names and dates. Identity theft is a big problem.
I realized that my changing the format of my website and blog is the right thing to do. I will continue to have a general blog about looking at photos or about life in general. I’m also going to add a private site for the family only. I want this site to be interactive. I want feedback from the family and changes and modifications as they come up. To my family I’ll let you know the information once I get it running after Re’s bar mitzvah.
Henry G. Peabody Collection
To the rest of the world, I’m working on getting William Henry Jackson’s San Diego up on the site. This site may also contain work by other photographers of the period. In a Google search totday I found another reference to my thesis. This time it was on the Henry G. Peabody Collection at the Huntington Library page of the Online Archive of California website. Peabody was Jackson’s partner in the Detroit Publishing Company and had photographed a number of the CA images in the Detroit Publishing Company Collection.
Hi Rosanne,
I have been waiting and wondering if you have our new family website up yet. I don’t want to miss it as I enjoy looking at the pics and reading about family.
Thanks,
Gail
Rosanne – Please contact me for additional info on Henry Peabody.
I have enjoyed browsing through Capturing the Soul. I am going to read your articles. I think about your dad, mom, you and your sisters from time to time. I also think about Aaron as a 4 year old boy. I remember working at the store, and the kindness shown me. I was very sad to read that your sister Amy has passed on. I liked talking to her, and hearing her jokes (several of them at your expence). I am a math teacher now in Yuma. Your dad once said that my mom would make a good Jewish mother, and his suggestion was to make definate boundaries for her not to cross. He was right. Shortly after I was married, my mom’s interferance in our lives got to be so bad that we moved from San Diego to Cedar City, UT. We lived there for 8 years. I came down with Fibromyalgia, and decided to pick up the additional classes I needed to teach. We moved to Blythe CA, and after 2 years there, I was offered a teaching position at an alternative high school in Yuma. I have worked there for 6 years now. I have been married for 19 years now. My wife, Lori, and I have 3 children. Your mom and dad saw our first child when she was a baby. Julianne weighed 10 lb, 2oz. as did our second daughter, Jenilind. Julie is 17 now, and Jeni just turned 16. They were born in San Diego. Our son Jason is 13, and he was born in Cedar City. I want to put together some history of my family, and I will be visiting Capturing The Soul again. What I realized as I was looking through pictures I took while I was growing up (Mostly with 616 cameras) is that scenery is fine, but what I am interested in now is seeing my family back then. I am making a special effort to take pictures of family and friends. I have had 2 digital cameras- one just stopped working, and the second got damaged in a car wreck I was in. My Nikkormat FTn from way back when still works fine, and my wife has a Ricoh KR 5 that works well too. I have a lot of scanning to do, and pictures to borrow from my mom, and my brother Norman. Please email me when you can.
Gary Langley