Philetus Sawyer Family Photo Album

8. May Eugenia Ellsworth
taken circa 1864-1866

The Philetus Sawyer Family Photo Album from the Civil War era is now online on my Lost Faces website. I rescued this album several years ago and am delighted to present it today for all to enjoy freely.

It consists of 50 gorgeous cartes de visite (CDVs) in the 1860s such as the beautiful child on the left.

Be sure to check out all the photos I have rescued at Lost Faces.

Preservation of a Lost Faces Album Part 4

Please see Part 1 , Part 2 and Part 3 for the start of this process of how I rescue, archive, and publish on Lost Faces antique photo albums I save from disappearing.

After I remove all the photos from the album, and notate on the verso (back) of each photo in pencil, it's time to scan and store them in acid-free containers.

My husband scans the front of each image. If he has time he also scans the verso so that I have a record of the photographers' logos and addresses. He works with a flatbed scanner in jpg format at a resolution suitable for publishing online. Resolution and format are important and the better quality image you require means you need higher resolution and a better file format. jpg is used when small file size is more important than maximum image quality such as my use on the Lost Faces website.

Here is a good explanation of types of file formats you can use when scanning, and the pros and cons of each. 

My storage boxes from pfile.com

Once my husband has scanned all the photos, I place them in acid-free "sleeves" and store them as a unit (an entire photo album) in acid-free boxes. I used to store them in acid-free binders for ease of looking through the photos but as my collection of rescued photographs grew, that system became too cumbersome. 

Using the boxes instead of binders has other positive effects. I can easily open a box and sort photos by years or fashion choices or hair styles or genres. Because I have the photo album number and photo number notated on the verso I will never lose the place where any particular photo belongs.

Last item is uploading and publishing these gorgeous rescued ancestral photographs online on Lost Faces.

 

Update: New Photos on Lost Faces

From the Pratt Morse Photo Album

On the weekend I added more photos to my new website Lost Faces. The Pratt Morse photo album is an amazing rescue - not only was I able to purchase two of the three Civil War era albums from this family, I was also able to save several individual cased daguerreotypes. I wish I could have purchased the third album but they were very expensive. 

Two male members of the Pratt family, Franklin Amos Pratt and Charles Pratt, were both in the 1st Regiment, Connecticut Heavy Artillery and R.S. Morse Sr may have also been in this regiment.

So far we have scanned 7 of the over 100 photos and these are online where they can be freely viewed and saved for your own personal use. I hope to have many more from this album completed and online over the next two weeks.  

Photos still in the beautiful Pratt Morse Family album

Surnames: Pratt, Morse, Morgan, Wilcox, Johnson, Pond, Stephen, Brach, Andrews, Steele, Lisdale, Wooster, Blakesly, Stevens
Locations: Connecticut, New York 

I also re-scanned several CDVs from the Kelley Family Photo album and replaced the poor quality scans with better ones.

So Many Goodies Coming to Lost Faces Photo Albums!

Look what arrived yesterday! Yep, another rescued antique photo album! Number 81.....and yes, it will be going online on my Lost Faces website ASAP.

I can't resist these beautiful albums with identified photos inside. They're never my ancestors but I still am driven to save them from being lost and forgotten.

I finally had a chance to unpack this album today and believe me, it was hard to wait. I'm like a kid at Christmas with these gorgeous albums chock full of family memories and treasures.

It's easy to picture what the album looked like when new. It would have been gleaming, clean and shiny. Imagine the family's excitement (or more likely the wife's excitement) when she bought it to put her treasured photos in.

Just look at this beauty! I am always so anxious to get going on the photgraphs - the CDVs, cabinet cards and tintypes, but I force myself to go slow. My first step is always to document the album and the order of photos inside, with camera pictures. That can help identify any photos that do not have names on them.

So I had a sneak peek and took a few camera photos to start the process. Let me share those with you.

 first page. It is empty but the name of the person whose photo was originally there is intact. That helps put together family groups and identify the family who may have originally owned the photo album. This empty page has the inscription  And the hunt is on! I'm so curious - who was Aunt Mariah? And was her husband's name really Whittier? It is difficult to read and I'm hoping that getting further into the album will reveal if I've managed to decipher it correctly.

The next page was just as intriguing. The photo slot was empty but written on the album page was "Aunt Hattie White's child" When oh when will I get to that ingriguing photo peeking out on the right? That was all I had time for today but tomorrow I will be back at the puzzle and continue with taking my camera photos and carefully documenting the album.

Please see Part 1 and Part 2 for the start of this process of how I rescue, archive, and publish on Lost Faces antique photo albums I save from disappearing.

How an antique Illinois Family Photo Album came to Canada via New Jersey

My good friend Illya of LiveRoots.com sent me a gift several years ago of an antique photo album. The Album has had a rough life, and needed a good home, so Illya bid on it at a New Jersey auction, won the album and shipped it to me here in Canada.

Bertha Timmerman Fichter

The album has slots for 64 cabinet cards, and one tintype. 2 Cabinet Cards are missing, for a total of 63 ancestor family photos in this album. 15 of the Cabinet Card photographs were identified with writing on the album pages.

With the identification of those 15 photos and the clues from the photographers who took the photographs, I was able to find the family in the census for Chicago Illinois and determine that this album belonged to the Timmerman Family.

The Timmerman Family Photo Album is full of beautiful photographs, most taken in the period 1890 - 1910. Most of the photos were taken by photographers in Chicago Illinois - Morrison, Jaeger, Hoffman Studios, Vahlteich and others. A few were taken in Omaha Nebraska.

I wondered how a Chicago Photo Album over 100 years old ended up at a New Jersey auction, but research found that one of the Timmerman daughters (Bertha Timmerman) married a man named George Fichtner and moved from Chicago to Boontown New Jersey sometime between 1910 and 1920. No doubt the album was cared for by this daughter and her descendants for many years.

Olive Tree Genealogy has scanned several of the photos and published them online for all descendants and interested researchers to enjoy. I will be scanning all the photos and placing them all online in hopes that genealogists will recognize an ancestor. I've also written up the genealogy research I did on the Timmerman family and published it online as well. Hopefully interested descendants will enjoy this look into the family photographs of more than 100 years ago.

There are 63 other antique family photo albums (mostly from the Civil War era) online on Lost Faces on Olive Tree Genealogy website. More are being added as I scan them.

Is Your Ancestor on Lost Faces?

Have you ever wished you had a photo of a long ago ancestor? Wouldn't it be great to find out what great-grandpa Bert or great-grandma Olive looked like?

Lost Faces is a section of Olive Tree Genealogy website where I post photos from mid 1800s photo albums I rescue.

I choose albums with identified photographs so most photos have names attached. Civil War albums are gorgeous and here is a photo of a typical one.

Currently I have  70 antique photo albums online and each has from 30 to 50 photographs, so there are lots of photos and names. One might be your ancestor!

Here are a couple of examples to show you what might be found. This is a Carte de Visite taken during the Civil War

A small head and shoulders of a young man, identified by his initials.

A Cabinet Card of a young child, identified

Some albums have a great deal of information written on the album pages

If you have a few extra minutes, check out my YouTube video Five Types of Early 19th Century Photographs 

Bridgeport Connecticut Photos Rescued

Recently I purchased 35 loose Cabinet Cards and CDVs (Cartes de Visite) that had been removed from an old photo album and were up for sale. Every photo except one was clearly identified and I had a bit of fun yesterday scanning the photos and researching the family.

 This is one of the photos. It's a really lovely photograph of two children, almost certainly brother and sister. They are labelled in period handwriting "Edmon & Fannie". This is the only identified photo that does not include a surname.

Because little Edmon is wearing a dress, we know he is a toddler and not toilet-trained, so probably around 2 years of age. 

The photo is a CDV with rounded corners and this can help date it. Rounded corners on CDVs did not begin until 1872.

Studying the photographer's mark on the verso of this CDV and finding out when M. Smith was in business, as well as studying the clothing styles, children's hair and other clues would allow this photo to be dated with some precision.

From my research yesterday it appears the photos may all connected through family relationships. For example there are 5 photos of brothers and sisters of the Williams family of Bridgeport Connecticut. This became evident as I searched census records on Ancestry.com . I believe, but have not yet proven. that 2 other Williams photos are of wives of two of the brothers.

The Williams family consisted of Benjamin Williams and his wife Elizabeth Goss. Benjamin was born in Maine and Elizabeth in New Brunswick Canada. All the children were born in New Brunswick. The photos I have are of the siblings Simeon, Orlo, Hartley, Eva and Samuel. 

There are photos of the Deniger family, also of Bridgeport. Joseph Henry Deniger and his sister Gertrude are two that I have found so far. Interestingly, their father Joseph Deniger Sr. was born in Canada and their mother Harriet was a Chatfield before her marriage. In the group of photos is one labelled "Uncle Lew Chatfield" and I found 21 year old Lewis Chatfield living with Joseph Deniger Sr in 1860 in Bridgeport.

I hope to have these lovely photos scanned, researched and online on Lost Faces soon. Meantime here is a list of the surnames written on the photos:

Williams, Jackson, Henderson, Morgan, Wells, Deniger, Night, Curtis, Dumbull, Marley, Carpenter, Ferry, Chatfield, Rider, Bowen, Smith, Diott, Polk

Locations of photographic studios were: New York, Bridgeport Conneticut, Danbury Connecticut, Boston Massachusetts, Norwalk Connecticut, Kingston Ontario, Gananoque Ontario, Davis New York, Poughkeepsie New York, Chicago Illinois, Detroit Michigan, and Lynn (Massachusetts?)

Sixteen of the photos were taken in Bridgeport Connecticut.

Lost Faces Photo Album - Is one your ancestor?

This is another album in my collection of Civil War era photo albums. It appears to be mostly of the Chidester family and most of the photos are mid to late 1860s

Below is the list of names which were written on the album pages in period handwriting.

Most of the photos are CDVs (Cartes de Visite) but there are several early tintypes.

As I scan these photos front and back I will be putting them online on Lost Faces on my Olive Tree Genealogy website. They will join 63 other antique photo albums I have there.

1. blank
2. Uncle McKay and Aunt Lib
3. Grandma Chedister
4. Uncle Leander Chedister
5. Sadoc? Chidester
6. Aunt Jennie Pittenger
7. Uncle Frank Chidester
8. Uncle Grant Chidester
9. Uncle Earna Chidester
10. Lat? McKay
11. Unlce Vint and Aunt Huldah Deyo
12. blank
13. Uncle Elliot Chidester
14. Vinnie Larua Chidester Uncle Floyd
15. blank
16. Uncle Smith Thorp
17. Aunt Mandy Tharp
18. Fanny and Harvey Tharp
19. Uncle Grant
20. Aunt Almira Law
21. x Daughter Clara
22. Uncle Adam Law
23. blank
24. blank
25. Violet and Chas Strong
26. blank
27. Illinois Soldiers Indiana 1861
28. Cousin Leander Chidester
29. Lille Wiley McFadden
30. Hettie Pittenger (right) Daisy and Aunt Deyo
31. Daisy Perrin
32. Grandma Deyo
33. Frank Deyo
34. Alvira and Deyo
35. blank
36. Sadie McKay Duncan
37. May McKay Perry
38. Cousin Lurns grandchildren
39. blank
40. Uncle and Aunt Bissh who Pa staid [sic] with after he was 12 

Hooper-Squires Photo Archives Treasure No. 8

This is the 8th photo in our collection of rescued photographs of the Hooper and Squires families of St. Mary's Ontario Canada.

I'm sure this is 3 sisters but am not positive who they are. Perhaps a reader familiar with the family can help. 


To view all the photos in this collection as they are published here on Olive Tree Genealogy blog, click on Hooper-Squires Photo Archives link.

Hooper-Squires Photo Archives Treasure No. 7: 5 Gals

This is the 7th photo in our collection of rescued photographs of the Hooper and Squires families of St. Mary's Ontario Canada. To view all the photos in this collection as they are published here on Olive Tree Genealogy blog, click on Hooper-Squires Photo Archives link.

On the reverse of this photo of these five lovely ladies is written:

 Reberta [sic] Parker, Marg Carter, Gladys Parker, Josephine McCabe, Isabel Laurie

I do not know who these women are and how they connect to the Hooper or Squires family.

The photo looks like 1940s to me. If you recognize any of the faces or names, please do leave a comment on this blog post

Hooper-Squires Photo Archives Treasure No. 6

This is the 6th photo in our collection of rescued photographs of the Hooper and Squires families of St. Mary's Ontario Canada. To view all the photos in this collection as they are published here on Olive Tree Genealogy blog, click on Hooper-Squires Photo Archives link.

 

This lovely photo taken at Niagara Falls has writing on the back as it was a postcard sent to Mr. Edgar Hooper from his sister who was on her honeymoon at the time. I assume this Edith Hooper and her new husband Joseph Camm, as they married on September 10, 1910

 

Sept. 19/10

Hello Edgar, How is Ettie? Hope she is better by this time. We are well and having a pretty nice honeymoon.   Will soon be home. Your loving sister

Hooper-Squires Photo Archives Treasure No. 5

This is the 5th photo in our collection of rescued photographs of the Hooper and Squires families of St. Mary's Ontario Canada. To view all the photos in this collection as they are published here on Olive Tree Genealogy blog, click on Hooper-Squires Photo Archives link.

The Currah Family 1921

Handwritten text back of photo

 I did some research and found the family of Arthur Leo Currah, the son of William Currah and Rebecca Hutcinson. Arthur was born in 1878 and died in 1958. In 1899 he married Ida Bullock. Their children were:

Louise May, Ada, Eve, Dorah, Beatrice, Nellie and Lawrence.Notice that there are 7 girls which corresponds with the girls in this photo with their mother.

I believe this is the family in the photo as Ada married Llloyd Poulton on the lawn of "The Oaks" in Bright Ontario in 1927. You can see that A. L. Currah (no doubt Arthur Leo) mentions that they live at The Oaks in his remark "...we raise more than Herefords at the Oaks..."

Hooper-Squires Photo Archives Treasure No. 4

This is the 4th photo in our collection of rescued photographs of the Hooper and Squires families of St. Mary's Ontario Canada. To view all the photos in this collection as they are published here on Olive Tree Genealogy blog, click on Hooper-Squires Photo Archives link.

 This Cabinet Card photo is faded but still adorable. Eight young children in their Sunday best in St. Mary's Perth County Ontario.

The photography studio, J. Leary and Co., was in operation in St. Marys between 1891 and 1896. This helps date this photograph and aids in identifying the family.

I believe these are the following children of George Squires and Louisa Augusta Gunning:

Ettie born 1879
Bertha Louise born 1879
Ida Maud born 1882
Harry Russell born 1884
Lottie May born 1887
Francis Chester born 1889
Verda Pearl born 1891
Edgar Victor born 1892

If I am correct this photo was taken circa 1892-1893.

Hooper-Squires Photo Archives Treasure No. 3: The Squires House ca 1900

This is the third photo in our collection of rescued photographs of the Hooper and Squires families of St. Mary's Ontario Canada.

To view all the photos in this collection as they are published here on Olive Tree Genealogy blog, click on Hooper-Squires Photo Archives link.

We think these are three Squires (or Squire) sisters (possibly Ettie, Bertha & Ida) and their mother Louisa in front of the Squires house, circa early 1900s. They lived in the country outside of St. Mary's Ontario but sadly we don't know the exact location.

The Squire(s) family is found in the 1901 census for Blanshard Twp, Perth County Ontario. The family consisted of parents George & Louisa (nee Gunning) Squires both aged 43 and ten children: Ettie Eliza 21, Bertha Louise 21, Ida Maud 18, Harry (Harvey) Russell 17, Lottie May 14, Francis Chester 12,  Verda Pearl 10, Edgar Victor 8, Martha I. 4, Nelson Wilbert 2

It was Ettie Eliza who later married Edgar John Hooper and the photos were in the possession of their son Wilbert aka Wib Hooper.

George Squires son of William and Mary Ann Squires, married Louisa Augusta Gunning daughter of William & Sarah Gunning, in St. Mary's on 23 October 1878.

A WW1 Photo Album is Discovered

Large tub of photo albums

In 1998 my mother's cousin passed away. She was a 90 year old single woman who still lived in the house where she was born in Toronto Ontario. All her photo albums and papers were given to me. I was thrilled but there were quite a few albums to go through and I confess I never finished the job!

At the time I'd been so thrilled at finding a photo album from the late 1800s which was full of lovely Cabinet Cards of my ancestors, that I'd only glanced quickly through all the other albums. Then I set them aside to go through more carefully at a later date.

In 2009 my aunt Lily passed away. She was 89 and had been a widow since WW2. I was given all her photo albums too. After a cursory look through the lot, I felt so overwhelmed that I added them to Doris' tub.

This past weekend I finally started going through that large tub of photo albums. I confess I'm still feeling overwhelmed at the task ahead of me but I'm trying to  focus on one album at a time.

The first thing I did was to take all the albums and miscellaneous items out of the tub and do a quick sort. That allowed me to easily determine which albums belonged to Doris and were the earliest, and which had come from Lily's home.

Here is the first album from Doris. It's in amazing condition and is 7 1/2x9 1/2 inches, bound with brown cord.

There are 22 double-sided pages and photos have been glued or placed on each, including the inside front and back covers.

It was easy to determine the dates for this album as the pages have many WW1 soldiers' pictures and also photos of my aunt Lily as a baby. She was born in 1915. Sadly most of these photos are glued directly on the album pages so I'm going to have to think about how to handle this problem.

Meantime my plan is to take camera photos of each page, and each photo on each page, then scan the photos on my large flatbed scanner. Using that scanner allows me to leave the glued photos undisturbed on the pages and zoom in on one at a time. Any photos that I can remove easily I'll scan using my Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner as that is quick and easy and does a very nice job.

Doris' WW1 Album

Here is page 2 in the album. I can see where a fifth photo was originally glued in but it is missing.

A close look at the bottom three photos reveals that my Uncle Ern (my grandmother's brother) is in the middle photo. Uncle Ern was Doris' father and he was a soldier in the British Army and then the Canadian Army during WW1.

My grandmother is in the photo on the right. It was taken ca 1916. Grandma is the woman on the left holding the toddler who I can see is my Aunt Lily.  I am not sure about the other people in the photos.

I'm quite sure a military historian would be fascinated by the military photos within and I'll be posting them as I go through the album. There are other items of general interest - the cars, the clothing, and so on. And who knows, perhaps a reader will recognize a face!

The soldier standing to the left in front of the tent with four other soldiers is my Uncle Ern. He, and the soldier on the far right, are both in a Cavalry unit.

This appears to be a training area (the tents in the photo were never used on the battlefield), possibly Base Borden near Barrie Ontario. More research is required and my husband is happy to tackle that task. He's a Canadian WW1 historian and collector and has many resources he can use to determine locations, units and more precise dates. Luckily I also have Ern's military records and all his paybooks etc so I may be able to determine where he was each year.

I'm not sure who the three Canadian soldiers are in the photo on the left. It's possible the soldier in the middle is Ern, in fact I think it is, but I need to scan and enlarge the photo for a better look. The man in the middle is in the Cavalry which is where my Uncle Ern was at one point. The man on the right is also in a Cavalry unit. It's the pants that are wider in the hips that give the clue for the Cavalry determination.

I can hardly wait to put the rest of the photos in this lovely album online. But I have to remind myself to go slow, take my time and don't get overwhelmed by the task at hand.

Hooper-Squires Photo Archives Treasure No. 2

This is the second photo in our collection of rescued photographs of the Hooper and Squires families of St. Mary's Ontario Canada.

This was in the Hooper-Squires musty box which I wrote about in Rescued - the Hooper & Squires Photograph Archive


To view all the photos in this collection as they are published here on Olive Tree Genealogy blog, click on Hooper-Squires Photo Archives link.

Webster & Co, Photographer

 The photographer was Webster & Co, St. Mary's (Perth Co., Ontario Canada)

We know that the young boy standing is Edgar Hooper and seated are his father John Hooper and mother Kezia Perkins. Given Edgar's birth year we estimate the photo was taken no later than 1907.

Edgar had a sister Edith born in 1889 so perhaps this is the young woman standing behind John and Keziah. Ella, another sister, was born in 1898 so it is possible she is the younger girl. However we are missing other children - Eva born 1895 and Milton born 1892.

The family group consists of children:

• Edgar John Hooper 1884 – 1932
• Edith Kezia Hooper 1889 – 1960
• Milton Edward Hooper 1892 – 
• Eva Alberta Hooper 1894 – 1967
• Ella Elizabeth Hooper 1898 – 1981

Lost Faces: The John H. McKim Photo Album Rescued!

Recently I spotted a forlorn little photo album in an antique store in Ontario. The album had seen better days and was in shambles. A faded turquoise cover was torn from the interior pages which had slots for 30 cabinet cards.

Many of my readers know that I rescue Civil War Era CDVs (Cartes de Visite) and tintypes but rarely do I buy cabinet cards. There are just too many of them! But this album cried out for some loving attention.

Many of the slots for cabinet cards were missing. There were a few names scribbled here and there. It's normally the type of album I'd walk by without giving it too much thought. But for some reason I felt compelled to purchase it.

Album Cover

My first step when I save an old album is to photograph the album and its interior photos exactly as they are. This documents my find and the order of the photos.

Then I remove the photos and carefully record all information on the photos themselves and on the album pages.

A page with ID

Lastly I do some research to see if I can figure out who the family is and what the family groups are.


This album was a challenge but inside the front cover was the inscription "John H. McKim, Londonderry Station, Colchester County Nova Scotia" I assumed (incorrectly as it turned out!) that the photos inside would be Nova Scotia photographers. But when I removed the surviving 13 cabinet cards, all but one were Ontario photographers.

However the only IDs in the photo album were

Ethel Willis
May Emery, Grandma's daughter (photo missing)
Ann and John and Libbie
Erie and Elmo

View the McKim Photo Album Pictures on Olive Tree Genealogy YouTube Channel

The photographers were from Hamilton Ontario, Aylmer Ontario, Tilsonburg Ontario, St. Thomas Ontario and one from Seattle Washington

Not much to go on! After I removed the cabinet cards the only extra inscription found on the verso (back) of one of the photos was "Mrs. Jas McKim, Byron Ontario" with "Jas." crossed out.  Under that, in the same handwriting as on the inside first page of the album was written "Mrs. J. H. McKim"

One photo was of a creek and on the verso was a note signed "J. H. McKim" The note gave an explanation of the creek but wasn't much help in figuring out the family groups.


Please see my next blog post on Finding John H. McKim.