The photos in this gallery were collected by Lunsford Pitts Yandell 4th (my father's older brother, 'Uncle Lumpy'). They document parts of the Yandell and Hosford families and their relatives in Kentucky and Connecticut between about 1830 and 1950. In particular, they are focused on LPY IV's close relatives, his childhood and early life on the farm in Kentucky, and after the family moved to Connecticut. This was also my father's childhood, although my father kept few photos and rarely discussed his childhood memories with us. I never met my paternal grandparents, both of whom died before I was born.
In 1992, about 10 years after my father's death and at age 91, Uncle Lumpy brought a large box of photos to our family in Vermont on his annual summer visit from Arizona. His intention was to share them with us; he left them, and asked that when we'd finished looking at them, they be donated to the Yandell Family Archives at the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, Ky. During this visit, my sister Hope had the foresight to videotape a discussion with Uncle Lumpy in which he explained the content of each photo. Even at 91, his recall was still excellent. That VHS video, done over 2 days in June of 1992, is nearly 2 hours long.
In 1992, I moved the box of photos from my mother's attic to more secure storage, where they sat untouched until 2019. In August 2019, I made high resolution scans of those photos and digitally restored the majority to the condition you see in this gallery. Many were iin very poor condition and some could not be restored fully. I also converted the aging VHS video from 1992 to a digital format, and edited the video to add the restored photos in each place where Lumpy discussed them. In the original VHS video, Lumpy did not want his face shown and most of the video iis of these photos, but many are out of focus and difficult to see.
The original prints will be moved to the Filson Historical Society this fall ('19) and the edited video will be made available online. Any extended family members who would like to download these is welcome to do that. Please contact me and I can give you instructions on how to do that.
© Dave Yandell Photography
