Family Archive

The Rosenfelds

My Grandfather Harry and Great Aunt Juliet had a younger sister named Marjorie Rosenfeld. This is a photograph circa 1920 of my Great Aunt Marjorie with her parents, my Father's Grandparents, Sam and Sarah Rosenfeld. Unlike  her two siblings Marjorie was not a professional actress or in Show Business. Marjorie took  a different path. She married a dentist named DDS Irving Perlmutter, moved to the suburbs and had 2 daughters. As it turns out, she got married 5 days before my Grandparents in June of 1927.

In an old leather valise at the top of a closet in my sister's old bedroom I found reels and reels of 16MM film that my Grandfather had shot in the late 1920's and 1930's. As well as being an actor and a playwright Harry was also an Early filmmaker who owned a 16mm movie camera in the 1920's and did a fairly thorough job of documenting his life on it. I restored and put the films onto DVD's and I'm currently teaching myself how to edit this unique and extraordinary footage which includes the wedding of my Great Aunt Marjorie, the wedding of my Grandparents and my Grandparents honeymoon; all relatives  I never got the opportunity to meet, who passed before I was born.  

   

Old Things

I've always been attracted to old things. There's something innately valuable about them.  They trigger a pleasure center by disrupting the context of the present world while providing insights into the future. Some people refer to this as history others might think its a form of escapism, still others call it nostalgia,  however you want to tag it, I'm drawn to it. Other than as decorations  what can you do with old things? How do you use them? learn from them? What are the factors that make  material  items evolve into new forms and make their predecessor old? Better technology. Is technology always better?  How is a passion for old things compatible with the current technological revolution and 2.0 world?  

I'm also intrigued and always pulled in by family stories and dynamics. People preserve their histories and legacies differently; heirlooms, lore, photographs, etc. But they're almost always handed down by way of the family. Sometimes they're simply given over by a parent or relative other times they can be discovered through  less traditional or expected paths.

These are my first thoughts and queries as I enter the blogging arena. A few years ago, I stumbled on a remarkable collection of personal family history  at the top of a closet in my parent's apartment. Some of my findings are over a century old and covered several different types of media. Since then I've immersed myself in this discovery and  figuring out how to "handle it"; to use the resources available to me to learn about, catalog, preserve, write about and ultimately pass it on to my kids and their families. 

In this space I hope to share the knowledge and insights I gained through this experience and hopefully get others to share their interesting family stories, discoveries and archives with me.