Family Photos and Ancestor Authors

This guest blog post was contributed by Ed Davenport, Associate Director for MIS at Thomas Edison State University.

Many years ago, I was helping my dad clean out his uncle’s attic, and I found old cameras and negatives in the attic.

I was able to print these negatives in my college’s dark room and sat with my grandmother, who was able to help identify the people and places in the pictures.  Many of the images showed events in her family’s neighborhood.  The local school had a fire in the bell tower and there

were pictures of that.  And more importantly, there were pictures of my grandparents as children, who actually grew up a few doors down from each other.

There were also pictures of my great, great grandfather.  I learned that he was a schoolteacher, a photographer, and as it turned out an author.  He published a book titled The Rockaway Records.

But life, as it does for so many, moved on and the pictures were once again stored.  I got married and started my own family and moved several times.   The cameras and the negatives always moved with me.  Finding the cameras and negatives did start a lifelong passion for photography with me, but I never really kept up with all the family history during this

time.  From time to time, I would find things of interest.  Dad and I discovered a photo album in his brother’s possession that held pictures of his father and mother as well as his brother and sister.

Fast forward to 2018, my dad had recently passed away and my mom gave me a plastic tub that was the ‘family history’.  There were family tree drawings and some pictures I hadn’t seen before that my dad had collected over the years.  In the tub was the book the Rockaway Records.  I had known that my great, great, grandfather was a civil war veteran and that he was part of Battery D, 4^th NJ Light Artillery.  I knew where they served during the war, but from reading through his book, I found stories of his time during the war!

My future goal is to take all the family photos from past generations and digitize them and to record all the family stories to share with our current and future generations much as my great great grandfather did for us.

The Rockaway Records, written by Ed’s ancestor J. Percy Crayon, is available at the New Jersey State Library!  The book, published in 1902, describes history and families of Rockaway, Morris County, New Jersey.  You can also find digitized versions online!

About Ed: I am the Associate Director for MIS at Thomas Edison State University.  I have been with the University for 17 years.  I am an avid photographer, and enjoy reading about history.  Contact: edavenport@tesu.edu.