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PHOTO ALBUMS OF THE BLILEY AND WAGNER FAMILIES An Introduction to a Wonderful Collection

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION — Background story these online galleries.

FEATURED GALLERIES — List of albums online and a brief description.

OTHER BLILEY.NET ONLINE GALLERIES— What to know how to scan glass plates? Or, see some "trick photography? Look over this list.

INTRODUCTION

Photos? You want photos? There is plenty here for you to look at and learn from. In fact, I have many thousands to view. And why? Read on.

In 1999, I began a quest to put together a digital photo album of my Bliley ancestors. I started asking family members if they had any albums or photos to share. Few had any to offer. Then, I made a third request of the group and my cousin open up his archive and offered me my first and richest photo album. Our grandmother Lula Bliley created it in the 1930s. After months of scanning, I published it on my Web side and made a CD to distribute to the family.

In 2004, I was introduced to a new cousin, Dave Wagner, of Lima, New York, just 15 miles south of my home . He is the grandson of Sam Wagner, my grandfather Bliley’s nephew. I was introduced to Dave through another "new" cousin, Norma Venable of Morgantown, West Virginia. She wrote to me after she discovered my family history Web site.

Norma told me that during the Labor Day weekend of 2003 a number of the Sam Wagner’s descendants gathered at Dave’s home for a Wagner family reunion. The participants were given an opportunity to look through a large collection of photographs Dave had inherited from his father. Among them were 10 photo albums created by the gifted hands of a brother and sister team, Sam and Inez Wagner in the late 1800s into the early 1900s. Sam was the principal photographer, and Inez, an artist and illustrator, captioned dozens of photo albums they created. Norma and Wally Venable were at the reunion and took the albums home for Wally to scan.

When I met Norma through my family history Web site, she told me of this collection and offered it to me for me to review. With Dave’s permission, I added this invaluable collection to my Web site in 2009.

Finally a year later, in 2010, I traveled to Boulder, Colorado to visit my brother, John, and do some “commando genealogy” archiving the family history archives he had there. It was far richer than I expected, but I managed to photograph or scan many hundreds of items during the week I was there.

I found eleven family photo albums from the late 1800s to the mid-1940s. I scanned one and decided it was too much to do in such a short time. I sent home 10 albums and dozens of other artifacts for processing at my leisure back home in Rochester, NY.

It took me five years to complete the scanning of the material I sent back home. The preparing the albums for my Web site developed into a major project that took five long months to complete and put them onto the Web site.

The Wagner and the Bliley collections now reside on this site awaiting your review. I hope you find something of value in each album as I have. I have tried as often as was practical to label many of the photos and people in them, but alas, most photos do not have captions.

Have fun!

Chuck Bliley
November 11, 2015

FEATURED GALLERIES

Click on the title below to go to pages dedicated to each collection:

The Photo Albums of the Bliley Family in Boulder, Colorado

Here are 11 family photo albums of the Bliley, Wagner and Dawson families found in the Bliley family archives in Boulder, Colorado in October 2010. There are many "new" photos by Sam and Inez in the Number 2 album. The image quality range from hand-held camera versions that simulate "reading" the albums on your lap, to full-page and detailed photos of each album. There are almost 2,000 unique images in this collection from the 1960s to 1939.

Photo Albums of Sam and Inez Wagner of Wesleyville, Pennsylvania

I have begun work on the large glass plate collection of photos taken, by or copied by, Sam Wagner. This small sample of eight photos provides some insight to Sam's photographic duplication techniques and an apparent experiment with Ambrotype positive imaging. (Caution: These are large images.)

Photo Album of Lula Dawson Bliley

Here is an extensive gallery of one 52-page album, done to perfection. It was created by my grandmother in the 1930s. It is a classic album of black paper with dark leather covers and, almost everyone inn the photos is named in the captions! All photos in chronological order. Principal families: Bliley, Dawson and Halls. Web page also includes development story and guidelines for the preparation of a family photo album CD of her work.

This album developed into a major project and was presented to the Computer Interest Group of the Rochester Genealogical Society in 2000. If you are looking for thing to consider when distributing your photo and slide scans, read my overview. I am sure you will find it as relevant today, as it was in 2000.

OTHER BLILEY.NET PHOTO GALLERIES & RESOURCES

Glass Plate Collection Preview

I have begun work on the large glass plate collection of photos taken, by or copied by, Sam Wagner. This small sample of eight photos provides some insight to Sam's photographic duplication techniques and an apparent experiment with Ambrotype positive imaging. (Caution: These are large images.)

Family Assets in Boulder Colorado (40 Pages)

This gallery is of the family assets that I found in Boulder, Colorado, in the home of my brother John in Sept. 2007. I did a quick and dirty job of photographing and scanning them. Among the treasures is a photo album by Sam and Inez. This is a archival gallery of 114 images to be used for reference only. Most of these items are the personal possessions collected by Frank Anderson Bliley. Included is the family bible records page, his education certificates, The deed for the transfer of the family farm on Station Road, in Wesleyville,to Wilfred Bliley, on the retirement of his parents.in 1892. The "sea chest" believed to have been the property of Charles A. Bliley, Frank's father.

The Web page gallery will start as a slideshow. To stop the show and choose images from the navigation frame at the bottom, click on the square between the arrows on the top of the page. Note: the pencil comments in white, are in the hand of Frank Anderson Bliley, my grandfather. (NOTE: This is a temporary gallery and location on this site and most photos are duplicates of the Bliley Archives galleries briefly described above.)

 

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