Who is Aunt Mae?

This photograph is a tin type, labeled only “Aunt Mae”.

Given that I think the photograph might have been labeled by Amanda H Davis (1861-1902), daughter of Emily Jane Melton (1835-1910) and William T Davis (1831-1863), stepdaughter of William T Olive (b 1838), of Fayette County, Alabama, that makes sisters and sisters-in-law of her parents good candidates.

Sisters of Emily Jane Melton:

• Mary H Melton m. William Threet Poe
• Louise H Melton m. Joseph B Barnett
• Helen E Melton
• Amelia Franklin Melton m. Frank M Black
• Martha Ellen Melton m. James Hillard Olive

Brothers of Emily Jane Melton, with their wives:

• Jefferson Melton
• Meedy White Melton m. Mary F Cannon
• William Melton
• Melton Melton
• Willis B Melton m. Flora Hastletine South

Sisters of William T Davis:

• Sarah E Davis m. M C Davis
• Martha Davis m. Joel Gibson
• Maranda Saphira Davis m. Thomas H Angle
• Matilda F Davis m. Green R Gibson
• Mary E Davis

Brothers of William T Davis, with their wives:

• John Minor Davis
• James M Davis
• Willis  Davis

Sisters of William T Olive:

• Sarah J Olive m. William J Campbell
• Mary E Olive m. Michael Richard Tierce
• Samantha Ann Olive m. Thomas Jefferson Davis
• Permelia F Olive m. Rufus H Davis
• Matilda Olive m. William E Kuykendall

Brothers of William T Olive, with their wives:

• Lewis J Olive
• James Hillard Olive m. Martha Ellen Melton
• Wyatt J Olive
• Robert C Olive
• Julus Olive
• John C Olive m. Neoma E Stocks
• Richard Monroe Olive m. Rosa Best

None of these people make an obvious “Aunt Mae”, but Mae could be a nickname, and many of the sisters-in-law are not yet identified.

Parker Grandkids

The adults in this photograph are Kemp Hawkins Parker and his wife Amanda Bell McKinnon Parker of Alice, Texas.

The boy on the left is Lester Loyd Edmonds Jr, and the boy on the right is Lee O Edmonds.  They are grandsons of Kemp and Amanda Parker, and brothers.  Based  on known dates for those two boys, I would estimate that the photograph was taken in the mid-to-late 1920s.

I presume that the other four children are also grandchildren of Kemp and Amanda, but I don’t know who they are.

[(Adults) Kemp Hawkins Parker, Amanda Bell McKinnon Parker; (children, left to right) Lester Loyd Edmonds Jr, Unknown boy #1, Unknown boy #2, Unknown girl #1, Unknown toddler #1, Lee O Edmonds]

Help and comments appreciated!

Taken in San Antonio

This photograph, a cabinet card, was taken in San Antonio, Texas, by D. P. Barr according to the photographer’s markings.

While following “shaking leaf” hints on ancestry.com, I found another copy of the photograph attached to a member tree.  The date was noted as 1887.

The people in the photograph are:

[(adults) Jessie Mercer Alldredge, Margaret Melvina Melton Alldredge (children, oldest to youngest) Oscar Alldredge, John Mills Alldredge, Lillian Alldredge)]

I contacted the person who had uploaded the photograph to her Ancestry Member Tree and made a connection to a distant cousin.

Margaret Melvina Melton Alldredge was a first cousin of Amanda H Davis Edmonds, the “original” owner of this photograph.

Two photos, same family

These two photographs are clearly of the same family, but until a few years ago they were unidentified.  They almost look like they were taken at the same sitting.  The parents and the baby seem to be dressed identically, but the children are dressed differently and look a little taller in the second photo.  .

In the summer of 2011, I noticed that the family profile (father, mother, son, 3 daughters, baby) fit the profile of a family in my family tree.  Interestingly, I had made contact via Find A Grave with a descendant of the parents in the family. Although she had no other photographs of the couple, the older boy bears a resemblance to her grandfather.  Together, we felt assured that we had identified the family in the photograph.

[Photograph #1: (left to right) Charles William Edmonds, Leon Curtis Edmonds, Hestra Edmonds, Abba Gertrude Edmonds, Celestial Urline Edmonds, Minerva Josephine Davis Edmonds, Augustus Hill Edmonds]

[Photograph #2: (left to right)  Leon Curtis Edmonds, Charles William Edmonds, Hestra Edmonds, Celestial Urline Edmonds, Minerva Josephine Davis Edmonds, Augustus Hill Edmonds, Abba Gertrude Edmonds]

Unfortunately, not my great-grandmother

For many years, I wondered who the lovely young lady in this photograph was.

I had long wondered if this might be a photograph of Amanda H Davis: born in Fayette County, Alabama, in 1861; married to Augustus Newell Edmonds in 1892; mother of Lester Loyd and Blanche Belle Edmonds; died in 1902.

I even posted a question on genealogy.stackexchange.com for help in dating the photo, which I thought would help me identify her.

Eventually, I found an identical photograph on ancestry.com.  This copy of the photograph had the name written on it: Della May Poe.

Della May Poe Wright was a first cousin of Amanda H Davis Edmonds.  Della was born in Arkansas in 1880, married Arthur Stanton wright in 1907, and died in 1951 in Oklahoma.

Why this blog?

As my family's not-to-reluctant family historian, I have acquired many photographs.  Some of these photographs provide awesome insight about my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.  

Others, however, are just photos. They are unlabeled and a mystery to me.  Nevertheless, I want to put names and stories with those faces.

Fortunately, I’ve had a little success!  In my first few blog posts, I intend to share those successes, along with how I identified the photo.

After that, I plan to share more not-yet-identified photographs with the hope that someone out there will recognize them and give them a name and a story.

The provenance of many of these photographs is confusing:

• My mother got them from my father's sisters
• They had been in the possession of my father's stepmother before her death in 1980
• They had reportedly belonged to my father's father's mother, who died in 1902, long before my father was born

Most of these photographs have ties to Alabama (mostly Fayette and Tuscaloosa counties) and Texas (mostly Hill, Jim Wells, and McLennan County).

If just a few of these photographs get names and stories, it will have been worth it!

Comments are encouraged -- whether actual names, or just observations that may help with identification.