Remembering the Past

I spent the last few weeks with my family in Pennsylvania. During the past few years, I have had a growing desire to learn the history of my family -- including looking at old pictures, hearing stories from yesteryear, and even tracking some of my family's genealogy, from when my ancestors first came to America in the 1600s (from England) and 1700s (from Germany).

As I put a face to a name with pictures, and as I put that name on a family tree, realizing how they are related to me and to others, the stories make better sense. What were once meaningless family photos now are rich in meaning. Here are 15 of my favorite pictures I brought back with me:

This is a picture of my Grandpa Phillips with his sister Inez (1940s).
My Great Uncle Phillips, Great-Grandma Phillips, Grandpa Phillips, and Great-Aunt Inez (1960s).
The same 4 Phillipses in the late 1980s:


This is the Strickler family in the 1920s: my Great-Great Grandma Strickler (standing in white) and her four children. Rosetta, the one sitting in the middle is my Great Grandma (Strickler) Hershner.
Here they are again, a few years later ( late 1940s), this time with my Great-Great Grandpa Strickler included:
Rosetta died not long after the picture above. Here are her three siblings - Ruth, Freddy, and Doris (in the late 1970s).

This picture has 4 generations of the Hershner family: my Great-Great-Great Grandma (Bowser) Hershner (seated - born in 1856!), my Great-Great Grandpa Hershner (right), my Great-Grandpa Hershner, and my Grandma (Hershner) Phillips. (Photo taken around 1940.)
This is my Grandpa and Grandma (Hershner) Phillips not long after they were married in the mid-1940s.
This is my dad and his older brother. (1950s)

This is my uncle again, with his cousin Bev. (1950s)Family dinner in the 1960s. L-R: Grandpa Phillips, My cousin Bev (actually, she's my first cousin twice removed), Dad, Grandma Phillips, my Great-Great-Uncle Fred (standing), and my uncle. (Fred is married to Doris, the baby in the first Strickler photo above.)

Now to my Mom's side of the family...

This is the Rupp family in the 1920s: my Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Rupp and their 5 children. My Grandma (Rupp) Hartman is on the left holding the dog.
Here are the five kids again with their mom in the 1980s. My Grandma (Rupp) Hartman is on the left, and Great Grandma Rupp is the 3rd from the right.
My Grandpa and Grandma Hartman not long after their marriage in the 1930s.
The Rupp/Hartman/Sprenkles in the 1960s:
Left: My Uncle (standing) and Aunt (Hartman) Sprenkle
Center: My Great Grandpa (standing) and gGreat Grandma Rupp
Right: My Grandpa (standing) and Grandma (Rupp) Hartman
Bottom: My 2 uncles and my mom (Hartman) center)


If I had stumbled upon a box of these photos and didn't know my family history, or didn't know who were in these pictures (or know the people but didn't recognize their younger faces), the pictures would have been worthless momentos from the past, completely meaningless to me. But as I have taken time to investigate them, they have become infused with rich and priceless memories.

This is not unlike how we can lose the meaning of many other traditions, including those in the church. When a sacrament like Holy Communion becomes a meaningless ritual, the Creeds become ancient documents, and the prayers recorded by saints of centuries ago are no longer recited, we must ask ourselves how we have forgotten the past. Church tradition is the living faith of the dead, not the dead faith of the living.

We might need to do some investigating to recover the lost meanings of our traditions, but in so doing, we will come to recognize that our heritage is much greater than the meaningless repetitions (or dusty forgotten photo boxes) which we have made tradition out to be.