faces from the past

Beatrice Gribble Smith, who was born in this house, sent me some beautiful photographs of her grandparents and great-grandparents, all of whom lived on McNutt's Island. Beatrice is the daughter of Myrtle (Goulden) Gribble Demings and George Gribble. Beatrice's mother Myrtle was born in this house, too. You can read more about the Goulden family on McNutt's here.Here are Beatrice's grandparents, Bertha (Snow) Goulden and James Goulden. I think the narrow sliver of white along the left edge of the picture is the southwest corner of this house. Behind Bertha and James I think I can see the clothesline that was attached near the side door in the earlier photograph. So I'm pretty sure the picture itself was taken on McNutt's, at this house.

Here's the notation Beatrice made on the back of the photograph:
I'm writing this in exactly the same space where Beatrice was born, even though it's lost two of its walls and is now a part of the living room instead of a separate bedroom. I wonder who else was born or died in what used to be this small room, or just slept here over the years.

I'm hoping other photographs and documents will float my way and that eventually we will have patched together a picture of life on the island in the first half of the twentieth century, which already feels so long ago.