Five photographs. What can I find out about the people?

The first has no studio mark. On the back in pen are six lines of text:

Dec. 31st 1888.
Age 25 yrs., 6 mos., 14 days.
Height 5 ft. 11 1/2 in.
Weight 152 lbs.
Alva Cole.
Alva Cole.

I used a tombstone calculator to determine what his birthdate was- it came out to 17 June 1863. Then I search Public Member Trees on Ancestry.com and the very first entry for an Alva Cole was an individual born on 17 June 1863 in Fairfield, Ohio, the son of Thomas Cole and Mary Jane Courtright. He was married in 1901 to Laura Belle Koontz. He died on 10 March 1942 in St. Louisville, Licking County, Ohio. He was buried in the Evans Cemetery in Saint Louisville.

Alva Cole, 1863-1942.

The second photograph is from the Frank Walz studio of Cawker City, Kansas. Cawker City is in Mitchell County, Kansas. On the back in pen is "For Andrew Walton." Crossed out, is blue ink, is "Dads Mother." Below that in pencil is "Aunt Betsy." Below that in blue ink, crossed out, is "Lucinda Walton, Andrew Walton's mother."

I could not find a Betsey Walton in the census records for Mitchell County. In the Public Member Trees however I found Betsey Olive Walton, born 23 August 1817 in Batavia, Genesee County, New York. She was married to Hector Almon Higley,. Sr. She died on 12 January 1903 in Cawker City and was buried in Woodland Cemetery in Iowa Center, Story County, Iowa.

Betsey Olive (Walton) Higley.

The third photograph is from the Andrew Horne studio of Plainville, Kansas. Plainville is in Rooks County, Kansas. Written in pencil on the front was "Hannah Shores" and "Aunt Maria's daughter."  On the back in pencil was written "This is for Frank" and "Hannah & Dessie, Silvanus's oldest child."

This was a little difficult. So I searched for a Hannah with a mother named Maria and a spouse named Shores. Only one person showed up, Hannah Carrie Porter, born on 8 December 1869 in Sinking Spring, Highland County, Ohio. She was married to William E. Shores. She died in 1944 in Burr Oak, Jewell County, Kansas. She is buried in Burr Oak Cemetery. As it turned out, a different version of the photograph appeared on one of the family trees, as well as several other photos of the same woman. Hannah was the mother of two children- Harold and Belva. It is unclear which child is in the photo.


Hannah Carrie (Porter) Shores.

The next photo was taken by the Johnson Bros studios of Cazenovia and Watertown, New York. Cazenovia is in Madison County while Watertown is in Jefferson County. On the back in ink is "Jessie E. Martin, Cazenovia Seminary, Class '85."

Cazenovia Seminary opened as the Genesee Seminary in 1824 (today it is the Cazenovia College). I have sent an email to the campus archivist asking if they were interested in obtaining it.

Jessie E. Martin.

The fifth photograph was taken by the Fowzer Artist Photographer of 337 Hayes Street, Between Franklin & Hough, S.F. Jacob Fowzer (1848-1920) was a photographer and artist who lived in San Francisco, California. On the back of the photo in ink is "May Bennett[,] Marshfield Or, Age 4 years." Marshfield is in Coos County, Oregon (today the town is called Coos Bay).

There are Bennett families who lived in Coos County. I have not been able to identify May as being a member of one of them.

May Bennett.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
A photo with minimal information. Can I identify the family? I purchased a lot of photos from an estate sale auction. This one was in a modern frame. I could see the photographer's studio mark- E. J. STONE, DEXTER, MICH. When I removed the photo from the frame, I found TODD FAMILY on its back. Who were these people? I went to the Directory of Early Michigan Photographers available online here . Edmund J. Stone operated his studio in Dexter, Washtenaw County, Michigan between 1898 and 1907. Todd Family, front of photo. Back of photo. Examining the photograph, the family appears to have been, arranged by age: 1). Adult male (father) 2). Adult female (mother) 3). Oldest child- male 4). Second oldest child- male 5). Third oldest child- female 6). Fourth oldest child- female 7). Fifth oldest child- male 8). Infant, unknown sex  On Ancestry.com I then searched the 1900 census for Dexter, Washtenaw County, Michigan for the surname Todd. No results. I broadened the search to the entire Was
Read more
Image
I purchased a box of photos at an estate sale here in Tucson for $20. Very few of the photos had names on them, but luckily there were a set of letters written in 1927 that identified them as belonging to the Henry Colt family. The letters were written by a teenaged girl to the son of the family. She was at a summer camp in Maine. They didn't provide much useful information other than a name and address. Letter to Henry Colt, Olivetas Street, La Jolla, California. The photos were of a variety of people. The oldest three are of a child, a pair of young women, and a group of men posed in front of a log cabin. Unidentified child. Two unidentified women. On the back: Eatons. I researched the Henry Colt family and was able to identify the people in most of the photographs. Henry Orne Colt was born on 29 July 1881 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, son of William Francis Colt and Alice Orne. [1] The family has not been located on the 1880 census. On 6 June 1900, Henry lived with his mother,
Read more
Image
I purchased a set of photographs of University of Michigan students from the late 1890s. Three of them were the same individual, Edgar P. O'Leary.  The first is from the Gibson and Clark studio of Ann Arbor, Michigan. On the back in pencil is "Edgar O'Leary." Edgar O'Leary. The second photo does not have a studio name. It is quite small, 3.5 inches by 3 inches. On the back in black ink is "Mr. O'Leary May 24 1898" and the letter L. Mr. O'Leary. The third photo, also quite small, does not have a studio name. On the back in black ink is "Edgar P. O'Leary July 10-99 After" The word After is in quotation marks. Edgar P. O'Leary.  What can I learned about him? I searched Newspapers.com  and Genealogybank.com for "Edgar O'Leary."  I quickly discovered he had moved from Michigan to Colorado. I located census records in Kansas and Colorado. Below is a time line of his life. 1875 (March)- Edgar lived with his parents and s
Read more