This is from our 1975 family trip to Sault Ste. Marie, Canada. I believe this was taken at the Canadian Soo Locks observation area. The kid in the yellow shirt second to the left I think is Cindy Sandvik’s brother (assuming she had a brother). My brother has vivid memories of Cindy Sandvik (not pictured) because he has a small crush on her. So she was probably 18ish.
We were visiting them on our way to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. I’m not even sure how we knew the Sandviks. My understanding is that they are related to us somehow via my grandfather John Chuncich with links going back to Croatia. I don’t think I ever met them again after that day but my parents continued exchanging Christmas cards with them for many years.
The other people in the photo I know well. That’s me on the left, my sister Paula and my two cousins Paul & Robert.
This is a shot of the crane/cargo ship DC Everest entering the Canadian Soo Locks at Sault Ste. Marie in the summer of 1975. This appears to have been taken from the park located on Canal St. on North St. Mary’s island.
According to boatnerd.com, DC Everest was built in 1953 and primarily carried wood (pulp) products between Marathon, Ontario and Green Bay, Wisconsin. Later it was renamed to Condarrell.
OK, I know what you’re thinking.
What an adorable kid… and where can I get myself a pair of pants like that?
Well, sorry, that kid is all growed up now and he’s no longer adorable.
That’s me circa 1975. Luckily the 70s wasn’t really my coming-of-age decade but I was still collaterally damaged.
(How could one wear clothes like this and not be traumatized?)
I’m not sure of the location. Some nature or park setting, most likely in Southeast Michigan.
This is a photograph of Trenary’s Rustic Motel from the summer of 1963. The preceding photos on the roll were taken at Fort Michilimackinac so I think this place is somewhere near Mackinaw City. However is also possible that it was in the actual town of Trenary which is in the U.P. (Michigan’s Upper Peninsula). The street number noted on the office is “261.”
George Janjecic was my step-grandfather whom I never met. My grandmother was always known to me as Grandma Janjecic (pronounced Yanyechich). According to his death certificate he was born 12 Nov 1889 in Croatia. His given name was Juro according to his 1938 naturalization record.
I believe they got married sometime between 1940 and 1950. It could have been a common-law marriage without an actual wedding license.
He may have had children with his first wife and is the main reason I’m posting this photo. The story goes that he caught his wife cheating on him and beat her up with his shoe and kicked her out. (No idea how much truth there is to it.)
My father resented him but he wasn’t necessarily a bad guy. More likely it was because this new father figure came into my dad’s life in his late teen years. George died in Nov 9, 1959 of a heart attack and is buried in Mt. Olivet in Detroit (Tier 79, Section 29, Grave 631).
My grandmother was able to receive some small pension from Burroughs Corporation as his widow. He worked there as a “drill operator” according to a 1950 city directory for Royal Oak Township (Madison Heights).
I don’t have a date for this photo. Maybe late 1940s or early 1950s.
Here is a photo of Johnny DesRosiers (my dad’s best friend in the early 1940s) and his sisters and mother.
Presumably it’s in front of their Detroit house (not sure where). If I’m correct, depicted is John, his mother Agatha, sisters Noella and Antonia and possibly a sister-in-law (Mary?).
John also had an older brother, Joe, who died in WW2 (Aime Joseph Des Rosiers).
Johnny Desrosiers was my father’s best friend in Detroit around 1940. He was from a French Canadian family that moved to Michigan. These photos would have been taken around 1942. Location of the “park” is unknown but almost certainly within Detroit, Michigan. Belle Isle perhaps.
On the right side of the photo is my dad, Louis Chachich.
I believe this is the John DesRosiers who was born 12 June 1927 and died 5 June 2001 according to social security databases. According to my mother his wife’s name was Lillian and was of Polish descent.
The whole purpose of this blog is to post random photos and stuff that may be helpful to others searching their family roots. My father took a lot of pictures over the years and I’ve been a big picture taker myself. So my hope is that some photos I post will be found and give a thrill to descendants of the people in them. I thought about posting in ancestry.com but that site isn’t really free. And Facebook is another possibility but not well suited for this. For now I think I’ll try this. Eventually any search engine should pick up whatever I put on here. If you have any tips or advice please comment.