Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Duggars and Swansons, 2010

A few days ago, we shared the details of how the Duggar family met Lauren Swanson's family. On that topic, we thought you would enjoy this photo from the Duggar archives. It was taken at the Holocaust Museum during the family's 2010 Washington D.C. trip. The Duggars visited the museum with friends.

You probably wouldn't have recognized the friends back in 2010, but one in particular has since become very special to a certain Duggar son. The friends are the Swanson family! Now, eight years later, the Duggars and Swansons are looking forward to being forever joined when Josiah Duggar and Lauren Swanson become husband and wife.

Can you find Lauren in the photo? (Double click the picture to enlarge it.)

 Duggars and Swansons, 2010

If you enjoy this blog, be sure to visit Ellie's other blogs (NashvilleWife.com and BatesFamilyBlog.com).

Photo courtesy duggarfamily.com

43 comments:

  1. It’s a little hard for me to look at all those smiles at the Holocaust Museum. I have murdered relatives memorialized there, and it feels like a kick in the gut to see a photo of people looking like their visit was just another fun excursion. It’s not a fun place, but it is an important one. I’m glad they went there, and I hope they understand that to many of us it truly is sacred ground. I have family that was involved in the creation of this museum, and it’s intended to educate, not to entertain.

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    1. I agree. My brother-in-law's mother was a survivor of a concentration camp. She had numbers tattooed on her wrist. Education is good and hopefully the Duggars and Swansons learned something.

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    2. I totally agree with you 11:26. I also have Jewish family members. I cannot hold it together at the bar and bat mitzvahs when they mention the names of the children killed in concentration camps who didn't live to see their own special days, and when the service is dedicated to them. Tears flow. Jim Bob, as family head, should have made sure his group knew that it was a solemn museum and a valuable lesson of history that cannot ever be allowed to be repeated, not a happy family reunion place.

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    3. I know it must be hard, as many in my own family were slaughtered in the Armenian Genocide. But give the Duggars a break. People smile in photos, and I myself have smiled in photos at the Genocide memorial. Also, despite the abject horror of what he did in the Holocaust, Hitler's plan was thwarted, so that's something to be grateful for.

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    4. 11:26, as some one who also has relatives who were murdered in the Holocaust, I fully agree, but I’m wondering if those pictures were taken outside of the museum, since you aren’t allowed to take pictures on the inside. This picture could have been taken before they went it.

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    5. The workers are even smiling. I am sure they take their jobs seriously, but everyone likes to smile in a picture. The picture may have been taken before they even toured the museum. I don’t think anyone would choose to go there for fun. They are going to learn and remember those who were killed.

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    6. The museum workers are smiling.

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    7. I see your point. While I am certain no harm was intended, it is good for all of us to hear this. Thank you for sharing. God bless you.

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    8. Many groups tour this museum every year and I am sure they take group photos. Please don’t mistake the smiles of a group photo for disrespect of any kind. I am sure there was no intent to make light of the suffering that occurred during the holocaust. This is a serious subject and the Duggars certainly expressed that to their children.

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    9. They are smiling for a picture.

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    10. I don,t think it means anything with them smiling more so as the staff have even bigger smiles on there faces

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    11. That’s awful but you wouldn’t honestly expect them to frown in their picture because of where they are would you? Perhaps they took this photo before they took the tour?

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    12. I agree. It’s like the tourists doing selfie posts at Auschwitz.

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    13. My best wishes to you and your family members. I understand your feelings. It is a museum that you would expect, at least the adults, to have serious looks on their faces. They would refrain from cute family photos. It is called showing respect.

      Why would they bring small children? The children should be old enough to understand what they are seeing. And small children misbehave, get bored....

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    14. You are welcome to your opinion but so am I ... 1) Most people smile for a photo, even when the rest of the visit may be very quiet and reflective. 2) While you personally have family stories, many do not and thus, it is a history lesson and not a family memory so not fair to judge how another reacts. This is a museum, not someone's home. My relatives suffered as children and adults in Europe in WWI and WWII. Their experience is different from the Canadian and American and British and other soldiers who fought during those wars. etc History is different for everyone. I could say that the war cemeteries all over Europe are sacred ground and how dare anyone smile or laugh and yet my grandfather, who survived more horror than I can imagine, himself smiled and laughed because we reflect and learn from the past yet enjoy each day we are given on this Earth.

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    15. Wow, I guess they aren't supposed to smile when someone takes a photo? Please.

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    16. They really should have been in the moment while visiting there - a solemn, respectful moment. Gathering staff to take pictures with your group is not very respectful. What if it had been the 9-11 memorial, or a cemetery? Same thing. I would not feel like smiling or taking group pictures.

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  2. The woman on the left wears pants!

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    1. She works at the museum.

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    2. They were viewing an important part of history and you are worried about pant???

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    3. The young girl on the right pushing the stroller. Pushing Anna Duggar's daughter.

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    4. That's Lauren! 6:39

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  3. I'm surprised the Duggars went to a non-Bible based museum.

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    1. I'm not. The earlier shows showed them going on a lot of field trips, many of which were not Bible-based.

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  4. In the blue shirt with her hands on the stroller

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  5. The Holocaust Museum is too intense for small children

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  6. nice family photo

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  7. the people working there are also smiling for the picture. Maybe the workers even requested the picture with family and it would be rude not to smile.

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    1. I seriously doubt the workers requested the picture. The Duggars are NOT that important. The workers probably smiled because they were asked to and have to be nice to the public.

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  8. im guessing that Lauren is the one in the blue with baby mackyznie

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  9. My husband and I went to this museum when we were visiting DC. I, personally, was moved to tears. Don’t think I could have managed a photo op in the lobby. Maybe the picture was taken before the tour. Some of the displays are very graphic so I hope the younger children were spared that. Plenty of time to learn about mankind’s intolerant to each other when they are a bit older

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  10. shes the 1 all in blue with the baby buggy thats Lauren

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  11. When I visited Yad Hashem in Israel, I was sobbing for hours. No way could I have smiled for a picture.

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  12. I just realized I made a typo. That should be Yad VASHEM.

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  13. These relationships are created. Created by families knowing each other. I would love to see a Duggar meet a significant other naturally, out in the world, a coffee shop, a mall, a classroom, a burger place. Anywhere. That is the true test of whether you are compatible with someone. When they start off as a stranger!

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    1. You are right on the money.....
      For those of us who don't know the Duggars personally, it always feels like their significant others come out of nowhere, but really, these are people who have been intentionally brought into the Duggar circle of influence by two sets of parents. Such an interesting dynamic.
      With that being said, Jeremy did sort of come around by chance. He was not "in" the Duggar parents' circle of influence, but, instead, happened to meet Jessa and Ben, who introduced him to Jinger.

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    2. You make it out as if it's only the Duggars and their circle who marry childhood friends of the family, which is far from true. Marrying the "girl next door" is a cliche, though certainly not as common now as it was, say, 100 years ago when many people did not move around as much as now. And it's also not that ALL Duggars did that. Josh didn't, neither did Jessa, Jill or Jinger.

      Now you may argue "yeah but they all met their significant others through Jim Bob or another relative". But most married people I know were introduced to their spouse by mutual friends or family. I can think of very few people who even have long term relationships with people they met as total strangers, and even fewer who actually marry them.

      I can also imagine that with the increased fame surrounding the Duggars there would be a concern "strangers" are just after fame and money. While knowing someone since childhood isn't a guarantee they don't have ulterior motives, it hopefully makes it less likely.

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    3. That's not a true test either. One can meet "the one" anywhere, planned or not planned.

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  14. So nice to see these relationships develop with people they have known for so long.

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  15. My guess, is that Lauren, is on the left, in the blue shirt, with her hands, on the stroller handles.

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  16. The girl who's holding the stroller with Mackynzie (the baby up front) on it

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