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Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Mystery Mother and Children

Photograph from Personal Collection

Look Closely!
Do You Know Mom and Kids?

Have you ever seen a waist that tiny? Did you notice the hands supporting the baby? The girls are adorable. Their shoes are a little dusty—perhaps this picture was taken outside.

I love this photo but have no idea who this could be. Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective, has featured my photograph in her books “Uncovering Your Ancestry through Family Photographs” and “Best of the Photo Detective” and was very helpful in her analysis dating my picture to sometime between 1900 and 1910. She used clues from Mother’s clothing to aid her. As you can see, no studio imprint is on the frame or any writing on the back.

The photo was handed down to me from my Great Aunt Ella. Aunt Ella inherited the family photos from her Aunt Lillian (Clark) Hewitt (1873-1955). This collection was a combination of Aunt Lillie’s photographs as well as Aunt Lillie’s mother, Harriet (Ogden) Clark (1842-1912). Aunt Lillian lived at 24 Grand Ave., Middletown, Orange Co., New York and Grandmother Harriet (Ogden) Clark lived with Aunt Lillie when she was widowed.

Even though I have acquired much information about the Clark and Ogden families, I haven’t been able to match mother and children with anyone in my database.

Readers, please share your thoughts or ideas. I would love to solve this mystery.

2 comments:

  1. What a neat photo! And, thanks for pointing out the tiny waist (wow!) & the hands holding up the baby. To identify, my only thought would be to find a family with children that would match those ages. But, I guess many of our ancestors had a child every two years or so! Best wishes as you try to identify it!

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  2. Thanks for your thoughts Dana. I'll keep trying!

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