We don’t have very many old photos from my husband’s side of the family, and the ones we do have have been reprinted from already developed photos instead of negatives, so the quality is not good. This one is of Keith’s mother and father, Albin Stark and Ann Louise Peterson, with their first child (invisible, almost) who, incidentally, grew up to be an occasional commenter on this blog.
One of the fun things about photos of the grandparents when they were young is that you can look for family resemblances in the grandchildren. Everyone always said that Keith looked just like his dad Albin—and he does—but with youngest son the resemblance is even stronger. Youngest son’s hair is exactly the same—dark and curly—while Keith’s was lighter brown and straighter. Youngest son’s build, nose, mouth, eyes, hands, and swarthy Mediterranean complexion—everything, really—are all very similar to his granddad’s.
Youngest daughter may look a little like her grandmother, and in some photos (not so much this one), oldest daughter does as well.
Both grandparents were born to immigrant parents. Albin’s parents were Slovenian and Ann Louise’s were Norwegian. The only family recipe I have from that side of the family is one for pasty, which, according to Wikipedia, originated in Cornwall, United Kingdom. There is, however, a good explanation for that seemingly odd traditional food. Both grandparents grew up on Minnesota’s Cuyuna Iron Range, one of the areas world-wide where Cornish miners brought their “expertise and traditions”, including their pasty recipes.