In search of a house

Recently my son Rob and his family, while on a trip to the Trans-Pecos area of Texas, visited Fort Stockton, the town where I was born. He asked, before the trip, if I knew the location of the house we lived in at that time. I consulted with my brother Jim and my sister Pat, and with their memories,  the help of a 1945 USGS topo map and some clever map manipulation on his part, Rob came up with the probable location on the corner of 6th and Texas. Here's what they found on that spot:

It might be the correct location, but it probably isn't the actual structure. After all, the crust of the earth was not yet cool when I was born.

That sent me in search of more information however, and this past week I dug through boxes of old photos and came up with this picture:

This might be the house where the family lived briefly in Eastland, Texas, prior to the move to Fort Stockton. Pat points out that the summer clothes suggest that it is not the right time of year for the family's brief stay at the 1st house they lived in in Fort Stockton, on 4th Street, and both Pat and Jim agree that there were no trees at the house on 6th. Their ages in the photo also agree with the time line when my parents lived in Eastland.

Or, as Jim pointed out, it might be in front of some friend's house and we have no idea where. Obviously, I didn't take the picture, so who knows where this is.

Which prompts me to say that you should go right now and get out that box of old photos that you have been meaning to do something with and write down who all is in the picture and when and where it was taken.

If you do that, then years from now your children can look in the box and say with certainty "This is a picture of the house where my father was born; 1 1/2 miles northeast of the Johnson County Courthouse in Cleburne, Texas, a 2 room, box construction house located on the Grandview Road."

And this is where my mother lived as a child in Stubblefield, Texas. This was most likely across the street from the house where she was born - that house burned down in 1918 when she was 10 years old.

And this is the house where my Grandmother Anderson was born in 1883 - the "Old Knight Ranch House" in Palo Pinto, Texas. 

From the looks of it, that house may still be standing. Perhaps that should be Rob's next quest.

How about you? Do know the location of the house where you were born? Will your children? Just saying.