Sometime around 1915, three children named “Barnes” were carefully arranged for a photographic portrait.

The three – Dean, Ralph, and Gladys – are all smiling nicely and looking in the same direction.

Dean is standing on a box, Baby Ralph is in a chair,  to create a similar height of the three siblings.

Alas, the postcard has no indication of date or of location.

The name, “Helen Barnes” is written where the postcard address would be inscribed.

We don’t know if Helen was the proud mother of the lovely children or another Barnes relative.

In any event, one hopes the twentieth century brought happiness and success for the children and that the three remained friends throughout their lives.

NOTE:

A bit of internet research produced the following:

Bert Clyde Barnes married Edna Adeline Potter and the couple raised their family in Ord Valley, Nebraska.

Bert and Edna had three children:

Gladys Elaine Barnes was born in 1905, Ralph Gerald Barnes was born in 1907, and Dean Russell Barnes was born in 1909.

Gladys married Harold Wilson Smith in October of 1923 in Havelock, Nebraska.

Gladys had one son.  She died in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1991 at age 85.

Her son died in 2003.

Ralph had one daughter with Marguerite Lillian Delhay.

Ralph outlived his daughter, dying in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1999 at the age of 91.

Dean Russell Barnes married Eva Norma Headrick, but the couple had no children.

Dean died in Lincoln, Nebraska in 2002 at the age of 93.

I wonder sometimes how family photos end up in antique markets, but the Barnes children demonstrate how a family can sometimes leave no inheritors of family memorabilia.

Their lifespans encompassed most of the 20th century – witnesses to remarkable changes.