These are some designs done on very thin tracing paper. They are then used to etch the copper plates. The copper plates are then inked, paper is put on top of them, then the designs were transfered to a plate .
I have also included some of the actual plates. Some of them I found on eBay and some of them we still have.
Here is a 1949 advertisement that my grandfather (Frank Wilkinson) did for a department store in Syracuse.
Bob, Frank Wilkinson, Minnie and William Wilkinson
Minnie and William visit Stoke-on-Trent
September 20, 1948
My Great Grandmother and Great Grandfather (Minnie and William Wilkinson) visited their home town of Stoke-on-trent, England in the Summer/Fall of 1948.
Here is letter they sent to my Grandfather, Frank Wilkinson
A few notables from the letter:
- This appears to be the first trip they made back after leaving England in 1916.
- They were traveling with someone named “Cissie” I think I remember my Grandfather mentioning this person, but I am not sure who it is.
- Apparently “Cissie” is not coming back with them. She is going to marry a “man who lives in Blackpool”.
- Minnie’s cousins wanted to have the newspaper come over and take pictures of them. Apparently there visit was some kind of big event. I would imagine that in that time, people didn’t often leave Longton.
- She mentions how expensive things are there. During this time, England was still under fairly strict rationing. Minine says that everything was a “shocking price”
- They spent a few days at Rudyard Lake.
Here is Google Street View of the street where they were staying. note: Longton is an area of Stoke-on-Trent, England.
Picture of Frank, Joanna, and Bob “stagging” the table for the Rose Society. Newspaper from circa 1948
Here are several articles from the Syracuse Herald-Journal commemorating General John Pershing (my Great Grandmother’s third cousin).
Here is some artwork done by my Frank Wilkinson (my paternal grandfather). The art was probably done for a china design. 
My father (Bob Wilkinson) in an undated photo. Probably late 1940’s.
Robert Wilkinson Choir
In the summer of 1947, my father went to visit his Aunt Hallie and his grandparents in Absecon, New Jersey. Not sure if they lived there, vacationed there, or had a vacation home there. Absecon is near Atlantic City New Jersey. The address is listed as 17 Church Street Absecon, NJ but there is a East and a West Church Street. So I am not sure of the exact address. See maps below for images of where they may have lived.
This is 17 West Church Street (possible location of Aunt Hallie and Grama and Grampa’s house).
This is 17 East Church Street (possible location of Aunt Hallie and Grama and Grampa’s house).
Here is the Google Street view of the House at 17 East Church Street
Here is the Google Street view of the House at 17 West Church Street
Mason Dinner from 1946. This was prior to my grandparents moved back to Syracuse and they were living in Zelienople, PA. My grandfather would have only been 38 in 1946. I didn’t realize he was a mason at such a young age.
