On Top of the World

Anna Sophia Tatar Simonik, about 55 years old, and granddaughter Anna Margaret Kozlina, about 9 months old. Photo taken about July 1938 in West Leisenring, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Unknown photographer.

I love this particular photo of Anna Sophia Tatar Simonik, my mother's Slovak maternal grandmother, and my mother Anna Margaret Kozlina Gilbride. Here is a grandmother clearly enjoying the company of her beautiful little granddaughter, perched--it appears--on top of the world.

This wonderfully clear photo, was taken when Mom was nine months old, about July 1938. It perfectly captures Anna's joy, and her delightful smile. Among the many special details visible are the crinkles around Anna's eyes and mouth, in contrast to Mom's smooth, baby skin. And while Mom wears a pretty little dress, white tights and clean shoes, Grandma Simonik wears a rumply, no-nonsense workday dress, dark hose and shoes, more fitted to her life and labors as a coal miner's wife.

I recall a drive we made to Pennsylvania from Ohio, to visit Mom's cousins when I was about eleven or twelve. As we drove along the road below, she pointed up to a high house on the hill and said, "That's where I was born."  Mom's grandparents, Anna and husband John Simonik, made their home in West Leisenring in Fayette County. Mom was born there 27 Oct 1937, to Thomas and Margaret Kozlina.

Many photos of Mom's childhood at her grandparents' house have this same amazing backdrop - a stunning view of the valley below, dotted with other frame houses.

Just over the picket fence in the middle ground of the photos, the coke ovens of the bituminous coalfields where John made his living, are seen. They are likely part of the Leisenring No. 2 coal mine, part of the Connellsville Coalfield which stretched from near Latrobe in Westmoreland County, to near the West Virginia border in Fayette County.

The amazing curvature of the earth visible on the horizon gives a sense of the top-of-the-world, bird's-eye-view enjoyed by those living in the house and visiting it.

It is an incredible backdrop to an otherwise homey scene: that of the old world meeting the new.


This blog post is part of the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" writing challenge by genealogist, blogger and podcast host Amy Johnson Crow. This week's prompt: Family Photo.