In a family videotape, my father, Cloise Lee Mooney, sat with Mother and me looking through old Mooney family photographs. As the camera moved from one photograph to another, Dad identified the people he remembered and shared what he knew about their lives.

BornOctober 22, 1919
East St. Louis, Illinois

DiedApril 18, 1996
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

ParentsCloise Edward “Ed” Mooney
and Ethel Lee Turley

MarriedElisabeth Victoria Bird
December 26, 1944

Known asLee

RecordingA family videotape
made by his son Dan

James and Margaret Mooney

The oldest generation in the photographs was represented by Dad’s grandparents, James Woodrow Mooney and Margaret Mossella Latham Mooney. James had been born in Kentucky and came to southern Illinois as a boy. Dad remembered that he spent most of his life farming.

“He farmed in Kentucky. He farmed in Arkansas—and in Illinois.”

The family eventually settled near McLeansboro, Illinois, where Dad’s father, Cloise Edward “Ed” Mooney, was born in December 1892. Dad understood that the farm included cattle, hogs, chickens, corn, and wheat, although he did not know which crop had been the family’s principal source of income. The old farmhouse was still standing when Dad and Mother visited the area many years later.

James with His Grown Children

One photograph shows James seated among six of his grown children: Cora, Nora, Press, Raymond, Jim, and Ed. By then, the children had grown into adults and begun families of their own.

Dad remembered that Aunt Cora had several children, but only Clarence survived. Aunt Nora had two daughters who lived to adulthood, Beulah and Eula. Beulah had a family whose children remained in the Chicago area, while Eula had no children.

James Woodrow Mooney seated among six adult children
James Woodrow Mooney with six adult children: Cora, Nora, Press, Raymond, Jim, and Ed. Restored from the videotape image; the precise left-to-right order is still being documented.

Ed as a Young Child

Another photograph reaches further back. It shows James and Margaret with five of their children when Dad’s father, Ed, was still very young. Raymond had not yet been born. Because Ed was born in December 1892, Dad estimated that the photograph was made around 1894, when Ed was about eighteen months old.

James and Margaret Mooney with five young children around 1894
James and Margaret Mooney with five children. The youngest is Cloise Edward “Ed” Mooney. Lee believed the photograph was taken around 1894, before Raymond was born. Restored from the videotape image.

An Earlier Portrait

The third photograph shows James and Margaret alone. No date was written on it, but Dad and I thought it might have been made near the time of their marriage. As we studied James’s face, I was struck by the family resemblance.

“There are some pictures of me that look astoundingly similar to that gentleman.”

Mother agreed immediately, pointing out the similarity in our faces and hairlines. What began as an attempt to identify an old photograph became a warm family exchange, complete with a little good-natured concern about receding hair.

Early portrait of James Woodrow and Margaret Mossella Latham Mooney
James Woodrow and Margaret Mossella Latham Mooney. The family thought this portrait might have been made near the time of their marriage. Restored from the videotape image.

Saving the Voices with the Faces

The recording preserves more than names and dates. It captures Dad studying the faces of his family, trying to remember details, and recognizing familiar features carried forward through later generations. At one point, we discussed gathering more photographs and repeating the process with other relatives.

“The thing to do is sometime when we’re together and we’ve got a camera and a box of old pictures—just like you’re doing.”

That is exactly what the videotape accomplished. It allowed Dad to connect the faces in the photographs with names, relationships, places, and memories. Decades later, his voice still helps us understand who these people were—and how their stories were passed down the line.