Last month I wrote about making contact with a very distant relative because I had found a photo of our common ancestors on-line. As I mentioned, we then exchanged more information and helped each other out. There was an unexpected result, however; she sent me an image of a postcard and it told a surprising story.

My great-great-grandparents were living on a farm in Minnesota in the early 1900s. All the historic references I had found about them suggested that they were pretty sedentary; there was an account of only one trip back to Wisconsin after about 30 years on the homestead. Then this photo arrived in my inbox. Judging from the clothing, it seemed to date from about 1910. At first I thought it was a trick studio shot, made up to look more adventurous than it really was, but closer inspection confirmed its veracity. Here it is:

It really was taken outside and those are palm trees in the background. This begged to be researched! I noted the words on the wagon and looked up the ‘Los Angeles Ostrich Farm’ on-line. I found that this Californian ostrich farm was the longest running such farm in the area, opening in 1906 and closing in the 1950s. So, it did seem my ancestors really visited this exotic place around 1910!

I learned a lot about ostrich farms of the era. Apparently the demand for the feathers in fashion fueled a market that made the importing of living ostriches to the warm climate of the west coast feasible. When the strange birds arrived, people flocked to see them (sorry, couldn’t help that!). Wise farmers decided to increase their profits by opening the gates to paying tourists. Of course, there were all manner of extras that could be purchased there, such as photo postcards like the one above, or boas or eggs from the inevitable gift shop. You could even watch the races at the Ostrich Race Track!

This unexpected photo was evidence that my staid old farmer ancestors really weren’t. They had journeyed to the far-away west coast of the continent in the early 1900s (an adventure in itself) and had witnessed strange happenings and seen alien beasts. They bought this photo, and likely the flamboyant feather adorning great-great-grandmother’s hat, as souvenirs of their novel exploits on their Californian holiday. Fortunately, this photographic treasure was kept over the years and passed to me so I could appreciate the true character of my ancestors.

So, remember to look carefully at old photos for the clues they hold to your ancestors’ experiences. You may not be as lucky as I was to find an eccentric postcard with an intriguing clue emblazoned across it, but maybe that glint in Grandpa’s eye needs a little investigating. He might turn out to be a lot more interesting than you thought!

This article was originally printed in the Bergen News and is being reprinted with permission. Photo courtesy of Jan Talpin.