I love finding historical treasures in my family's old photo collections. Inadvertently, I learned what a supercharger worker was from an unlikely source.

My mother gave me a scrapbook of her mom's - one that I have enjoyed looking through. My grandmother worked in the nursing profession and traveled until she finally married in 1944, when she was just over 30 years old. Her album was full of travel photos and snapshots of things she did with her girlfriends.

In the another box of photos, I found a print of her in what looked to be like a softball uniform with some other women. She also had a negative with the print so I figured it must have been important to her. But some months passed by.

Then I Found It . . .

When I finally returned to start scanning the album, I realized she had a whole page dedicated to those photos - including the one I had found loose in her box. On this album page, there were pictures of she and her friends posing on a motorcycle and more.

She'd written "Super Charger Workers" and dated the page June 1, 1944. Now, I realized, this wasn't a softball or recreation team. (I should have known women's sports really didn't take off until later in the century.)

Of course, I knew that World War II was going on in the early 1940s. So, I looked up "Super Charger Workers" and sure enough, found a photo and the subject in the Library of Congress.

Unbeknownst to me or my mother, my grandmother was a part of the war effort right here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I was fascinated to learn this. Just think, if she hadn't had those photos in her scrapbook, or if someone had just thrown the scrapbook away, I would never have learned this about her. Absolutely a treasure for my family to learn all of this.

In another photo from the Library of Congress, we see women buffing small delicate airplane engine parts. The listing notes that they are wearing protective head coverings and comfortable slack suits. The photo is also from Allis Chalmers Manufacture Company.

What family mysteries and hidden stories are waiting in your old family photos? We find these all the time when we assist a family with creating their photo estate. I can usually bet we will find at least one fascinating fact about your family that you didn't know. It might not be a supercharger worker story, but it could be something else historically important!

Let us know if you need help with old boxes and bins of photos you've inherited from your family. Email us at [email protected].