Family Photographs: Memories and Histories

Welcome to my world

What we are today is the sum total of the footprints left by our forebears on the sands of time. Memories - written, oral or visual - are records worth cherishing, preserving and sharing. They are vital in the process of identity construction, foster intergenerational connections, and add up to the evidence or resources available to social and family historians.

Digging up those precious photos in my family archives was an exercise I undertook with love. I guess one’s perspectives on life are deepened and broadened as one revisits those blessed moments spent with kith and kin. It’s as if the dear departed had never left me. Those narratives shared with me as a child by my great grandmother Emelda Easton (born James in Calcutta in the 1890s) came back more vivid than ever. She was a bold young lady who left her family behind to follow her beloved to a remote country beyond the seas. Widowed some ten years after she landed here, she managed to raise her extended family. She passed away in 1970.

Today I honour her memory and that of my late parents and siblings. I dedicate these intimate glimpses into the everyday life of my branch of the Easton family (Charles Gaston) to my wife, children and grandchildren.

George Lewis Easton

2nd September 2019