Finding Color in Black and White

Finding Color in Black and White
I love looking at old photographs.  I always wonder what the people in them were thinking when the picture was taken.  Were they happy, sad, or angry?  It makes me want to know them.  Additionally, I always feel that I've hit the jackpot when I'm given or when I find old black and white photographs of my family.  There's just something about them that gets my imagination going.  Sometimes, though, we forget that even though the photographs are in black and white, the people in them were living a colorful life.  Have you ever heard the song "In Color" by Jamey Johnson?  He's a country singer, and the song just touches my soul and captures my feelings about old photographs.  Even if country music isn't your thing, I highly suggest listening to it if family history and genealogy are your thing.  Here are the lyrics:

In Color
Said grandpa what's this picture here.
It's all black and white it ain't real clear.
Is that you there?
He said yeah, I was 11.
Times were tough back in '35, that's me and Uncle Joe just tryin' to survive a cotton farm in the Great Depression.
If it looks like we were scared to death like a couple of kids just trying to save each other you should've seen it in color.
Oh, and this one here was taken over seas, in the middle of hell in 1943 in the winter time.
You can almost see my breath.
That was my tail gunner ole Johnny Maggee he was a high school teacher from New Orleans and he had my back right through the day we left.
If it looks like we were scared to death like a couple of kids just trying to save each other you should've seen it in color.
A picture's worth a thousand words but you can't see what those shades of gray keep covered you should've seen it in color
This one is my favorite one. This is me and grandma in the summer sun all dressed up the day we said our vows.
You can't tell it here but it was hot that June and that rose was red and her eyes were blue and just look at that smile I was so proud.
That's the story of my life right there in black and white.
And if it looks like we were scared to death like a couple of kids just trying to save each other you should've seen it in color.
A pictures worth a thousand words but you can't see what those shades of gray keep covered you should have seen it in color.
You should have seen it in color.
 
Mother's Day
So, I guess my love for old photographs is really about turning them into color...finding all that I can about them...finding their family story.
In honor of Mother's Day Week [...I think it should be a week - not just a day, kind of like a birthday week...you do have those too, don't you?], I'm going to share with you pictures of mothers from my family...Just trying to keep the "color" in the old photographs.  After all, what is a photograph, but a glimpse of a family story?
 
Catharine Caroline Vaughn
The photograph today is of my great-great grandmother Catharine Caroline Vaughn who was born, lived, and died in Southern Illinois [Johnson County].  It's one of my favorites because she is so "grand-motherly-looking" seated in her rocking chair and clutching her Bible with both hands while giving the camera a big smile.  Coincidentally, I wasn't named after her, but I think she has a really cool name, and I'm proud to share it with her!
 
Caroline