ANATOMY OF A PHOTOGRAPH: Lives Lived Years Apart

ORIGINAL PHOTO, CIRCA 1924 - 1926

CLOSE-UP OF JOSEPHINE HIGGINS STEEL (born 1902)

PAM (born 1964)

I found it in the spring of 2006, amongst the photographs and documents

given to me by a second cousin. Prior to our 2006 meeting, Barbara and I

had met only once before, in 1979. That meeting consisted of a brief intro-

duction and a few polite words. We talked on the phone several times over

the years, both of us genealogy buffs, trading stories and information,

passing along clues, and learning about each others lives and families.

I knew Barbara was fighting for her life when my sister, Pam, and I made

the two and a half hour trip to see her. We brought her fresh peaches and

corn, she gave me an envelope with old photographs of the ancestors that

connected us.

When I first studied the umpteenth 2" x 2.5" photograph in question,

I could not distinguish it much from the others. I saw what I recognized

as Barbara's first cousins sitting on rocks near a slow moving stream or

creek. The two young women were also my mother's first cousins.

This photo was the earliest I had ever seen of them. I later estimated

that the photo had been taken between 1924 and 1926.

As I slipped it back into the envelope, something suddenly struck me.

I removed the photo and studied it more closely, paying particular

attention to the young woman whose child was sitting slightly below her

on the great boulder. I looked up and across, staring for a moment at

Pam, then turned my focus back to the photograph. The young woman

in the photo was a dead ringer for my sister!

Knowing Pam, a skeptic by nature, would likely proclaim there wasn't

a modicum of similarity between herself and young Josie Higgins Steel,

I hesitated to say anything, but studying the photo one more time, I

simply could not contain myself.

"Oh, my gosh!" I gushed. "This girl looks just like YOU!" Pam gave me

her trademark look, the one that says, sure she does. (It is actually

a good thing to have a sister who is cautious and wary considering the

pitfalls of life that are laid before us like hopscotch grids. I have very

weak ankles.) I passed it to her and waited for her to denounce it.

She studied it closely. Turned it this way and that to catch more light.

Squinted at it with a quizzical look on her face. Concentrated on it until

the normally invisible worry lines in her forehead were stacked up like

so many pancakes.

Suddenly a huge grin of confirmation burst forth. "OH....MY.....GOSH,"

she exclaimed quietly. "How freaky..." It gave her chills the more she

looked at it. She couldn't put it down.

I eventually pried it out of her hands so that Barbara and another second

cousin, Jimmy, could take a look. We were all amazed at the resemblance

and passed it back and forth a number of times.

Over the next several days, friends and family members examined it with

a magnifying glass. Which only magnified the obvious.

I have posted the photo above after snapping it with my digital camera.

I then searched for a photo of Pam with her hair pulled back in a similar

fashion. If you cannot see the striking resemblance, it is undoubtedly due

to not having my sister before you in the flesh.

The tiny photo has amazed us all; I only wish the resolution here were

better.

NOTE: Barbara died of metastatic breast cancer several weeks after our visit.