Welcome to my blog Upstate Girl, (a.k.a Follow Your Bliss Part II), I am an independently published author. This blog is all about writing and the stuff that inspires me to write, the joys and obstacles that come along with the writer's life, and my fascination with the psychology of people and what makes them tick...the human condition, as is...and my love for words, playing with them and making sense of them...and I throw in a few photos from my acre of the world just to make things pretty...sometimes there are things I have no words for, only pictures will do.

*Copyright notice* All photos, writing, and artwork are mine (
© Laura J. Wellner), unless otherwise noted, please be a peach, if you'd like to use my work for a project or you just love it and must have it, message me and we'll work out the details...it's simple...JUST ASK, please.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Members of my family...


circa 1900, we think this is my mom's father, Gordon VanDusen...back when jumpers were the rage for little boys and girls alike...what a little sweetpea!

I've been working on organizing and scanning the family photographs...I grab a few and do some...it is a little bit addicting...it's too bad so many have no dates, no names, but some I recognize just because they're unforgettable faces...
This interesting postcard is of a shirttail relative, Albert Young a funeral director and licensed embalmer in Williamson NY, Yes, he embalmed his dog "Spot".


Gordon VanDusen on a jackass... (his word choice)
a baby taking a bath...could be Gordon...
 
My Aunt Mimi with her horse Ginger and Great Uncle Leslie VanDusen (Gordon's brother)

Mimi and Janie VanDusen (Janie is my mom.)
Mimi was a ballerina...studied in NYC with Martha Graham, and tried out with the Rockette's but was too short to be one of the dancers at the end of the line...
Janie was a beauty queen...c 1949

This must be Hazel May (Brewer) VanDusen, no date, my mother's mom

Sylvia Demaris (Woodworth) Farnsworth...this would be my great-great granny...Hazel's granny

The Pritchetts...Gordon's mother's folks


my great-uncle Charles Brewer (Hazel's little brother)

my great aunt Mabel, (Hazel's little sister)
Hazel and Gordon VanDusen on Janie's Wedding Day

 Lovely photos...I'm really enjoying seeing these treasures and taking care of them...