one history

I found four pictures, depicting my grandfather. Three of them have a definitely kind of ‘important occasion’ character. The first one must have been taken around 1912 in Antwerp, 25 kms of Zandvliet, a little village where is parents were living. Probably this picture was taken at the occasion of my grandfathers first communion (catholic tradition). Apart of the shipmate outfit there is nothing depicting here anything that could be related back to who my grandfather was. Was he a shipmate? Certainly not.  His father was a farmer and it is just some fancy dressing for the occasion.  The only other elements in this picture are the chair, an often used object in the portraits then, and the gorgeous painted background with the nice fading effect of the light. Probably natural light was used. Most of the photographers in those days used studios with one or more walls of windows.
The is also the carpet, seemingly very baroque and the frivolous thing in the foreground is probably some kind of lion skin or something similar.

This picture must have been taken six years later. Probably another catholic tradition was the reason to take this one: the confirmation (in Dutch de plechtige communie en het helig vormsel). This is considered in the catholic tradition as a coming of age ritual. My grandfather is dressed up here as a boy, not  just a child anymore, ready to become a man.  Notice the hat on the ever present chair, a symbol of maturity as grown up men had to walk around  with a casket or a hat on. My grandfather also holds a little book, probably a catechism. No rug of an animal here but the most uncommon detail is the chair, this time, made of branches of a birch. This picture must have been taken after the first big world war, in 1919.

Here my grandfather (first of the left) is in a picture taken during his army service. Must be around 1926. These men all look much older than 18 and has you may have noticed, they all are holding a cigarette.

The obvious photo that now should have the next one would have been the one of my grandfathers marriage, but i did not find this one back.

The last picture is one where the special occasion element is unknown to me.

My grandfather is the man on the second row. The people in front of him are his parents.  My grandmother is the woman on the left, second row, my mother the girl on the left and her sister, my aunt, is the girl on the right.  Nothing to dervice from this picutre iether and maybe the date isnot exactly right but probalby this was taken in 1941, during worldwar II, and are we looking here also at a piece of territory, occupied by the Germans. What we see in the background is a part of the house my grandparents had build.

My grandfather was a carpenter. The odd thing is that is surname was also Carpentier, the french for carpenter.
But nothing is to be found of this information in this picture. I know the location and I know the building in the background is the work house my grandfather used to make furniture and coffins. All these picute have so little information, so only by adding soem information they become part of a story again.

There is for instance the story of my grandmother: she had a groceries store and at the back of the house she had another store she run: she made paint and varnishes on demand. And my grandmother was a very strong character. This picture was taken during wartime. and that’s so special:  just before  the occupation started she decided to give everything she had in her groceries store to all the people living near her house. She did want it to fal in the hand sof the enemy. And in the last year of the war she hide for several months – my grandfather was actually a little shy man who just had to do what she said- some british pilots in the stables at the back of her house. This while in the front of her house the germans came buying tobacco and other things.

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