Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 340

By Sheetar 23 July 2016 20 July 2016

For this week’s Sepia Saturday, something a little silly! These photos were in a group of photos that appear to have been taken during my paternal grandpa’s senior class trip in High School in about 1951. The senior class of the Beccaria Coalport Irvona High school (commonly known as BCI) went on a trip to Washington, D.C. in 1951 just before they graduated. We even have the class photo taken in DC as well as a newspaper clipping that mentions that says, “Seniors returned home Thursday night from a three-day sightseeing tour of Washington, D. C.,” in an article dated Saturday, 2 Jun 1951.

Boys will be boys, right? I can be pretty sure my grandfather took both of these photos since he’s not in either of them, but the painting of flowers on the wall confirms they were taken in the same room, probably a hotel in Washington, D.C. They’re all likely classmates, though I’m not sure exactly the names of the boys since the photos aren’t labelled. I could probably figure it out by going through his yearbook, but it would be hard to be completely sure. Either way, it’s a nice fit for the prompt image, and what I’m sure was a fun night far from home for these kids who had probably never left their small coal mining town before. Looking forward to next week!

Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 339

By Sheetar 17 July 2016 17 July 2016

A day late, but I still made it during the weekend for this week’s Sepia Saturday! Our prompt image featured a photo of a cinema, but not having a photo of a cinema in my collection, I went with a photo of a town hall in Philipsburg, PA. We’d probably driven past this town hall a number of times, but once I looked through the trunk of photos found when grandpa passed away, I found this and I KNEW it looked familiar but couldn’t place it. Wouldn’t you know, the next time we drove through that small town, there it was! The building has changed a little since 1951 when my photo was taken, and you can see the current view on Google Maps in Street View. The building was originally the home of the Hope Fire Company, built in 1889, which would explain the big garage doors on the front of the building. In 1960, the Fire Department moved out of the building pictured above and today it serves as the town hall. I’m not quite sure why my grandpa took photos of the building other than that he happened to be thre with a camera. We have tons of photos that he saved and he seemingly always had a camera of some sort or another with him. It’s great though, because even in the somewhat mundane photos that don’t have people in them, you can still find something interesting.

Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 338

By Sheetar 9 July 2016 7 July 2016

For this week’s Sepia Saturday, our prompt image featured a man walking down a street. My photo here is instead of a man standing, but wearing about the same clothes and holding the same sort of hat as the man in our photo! This is clearly taken in the winter and likely near his childhood home – there are no leaves on the trees and it looks like there’s snow or ice on the ground. If I had to guess on a date for the photo, I’d say probably mid to late 1920s. The man in the photo is Waldo Orvis Powis, born 5 April 1906 in Beccaria, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania and died on 3 Jul 1981 in Flushing, Queens, New York. My great grandmother was this man’s sister and wrote on the back of the photo with the handwriting indicative of her later years, “Waldo, Jack the Duke.” I’ve seen Waldo referred to as Jack a number of times, and while I’m not sure how he came across that nickname, I can only imagine he preferred it to Waldo!

Waldo married Irma Catherine McGarvey on 10 April 1926. He later divorced her on 1 October 1934 and married not even a year later on 3 August 1935 to Anna Josephine Capko. He spent two years in the Navy from 1942 to 1944. At some point before 1950, but after his Navy service, he moved to Queens and lived there with Anna till his death in 1981. He had two children with Irma, Shirley and Kenneth, though it looks like the kids went with their mother to Minnesota.

It’s not necessarily a super special photo this week, but a nice one nonetheless, probably taken by his sister, Olga. I’m glad Olga went back and pencilled on a label, though I’m fairly sure I could’ve identified this as Waldo without the label at this point. Looking forward to next week!

Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 337

By Sheetar 2 July 2016 28 June 2016

Another Sepia Saturday rolls on by! When I saw the prompt image this week, I was completely at a loss. I had no groups of “Merrymakers” as the photo featured, so as I sat down to go through my collection of photos, this one finally sprang to mind. This photo was in a set of photos taken while my husband’s grandmother, Hilje Dijkema, was at the Sanatorium Sonnevanck for Tuberculosis treatment in the late 1930s. I have to imagine this was taken at the Sanatorium since it shows many of the same unidentified faces that show up in other photos. Men and women, even when married, were housed separately, so that would explain why the individuals in the photo are all women. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here. They’re holding up a sign in the back row, but it’s partially obscured and I can’t quite read what it says. The last line looks like “Os Paar” which would translate to “Ox Pair” but that makes me even more confused! I have to imagine this was some kind of play or show as entertainment during the long days in the Sanatorium since there appears to be a bride and groom at center with mothers opposite and attendants at the very back and front. I don’t think Hilje is in this photo – none of the women look like her, so they were probably friends she made during her stay. It’s an incredibly amusing photo, and one that I’m glad survived the passage of time, even if I don’t exactly know who the women are, it’s a wonderful little glimpse into her time spent at Sonnevanck.

Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 336

By Sheetar 25 June 2016 25 June 2016

Another Sepia Saturday and another chance to use one of the MANY baby photos from the family photo collection. That giggly little baby is Elizabeth “Betsy” Dijkema, daughter of Albert Dijkema, brother to my husband’s grandmother, and Jantje Oosting. She’s sitting in a buggy, holding on to what looks like a teddy bear hanging over the side while laundry dries on a line behind her. This was likely taken in Holland in about the 1930s. Pretty short and sweet this week! I’ve actually been in contact with a daughter of Betsy’s, so it’s pretty neat to be able to connect this to a living relative in Holland.

Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 335

By Sheetar 18 June 2016 18 June 2016

When I sat down to write this today, I had selected a photo weeks ago and popped it into #335’s folder. It’s no yawning koala bear like the prompt image for Sepia Saturday, but for whatever reason, the drowsy look on the faces of this couple was the first thing in my mind when I saw the prompt photo. Sometimes you just go with the feeling of a photo instead of going deep into the finer details. So, I opened up my WordPress new post editor and got to work, thinking I should probably do some research on who these folks were before putting up another, “Hey it’s a great photo, but I have no idea about the people!” sort of post.

Yet again, Sepia Saturday leads me to filling in some gaps on the family tree. Extended, adopted family tree, but I now have a clear connection to these folks that I didn’t know about before!

As you can see on the back of the photo postcard is written, “Mr & Mrs Bob Chilton.” It doesn’t look like Olga’s writing, so I’m guessing this is the handwriting of Jessie (Battin) Powis, my 2x great-grandmother. This photo has been on my radar for a while since the name isn’t familiar in the family or from the area in general. I had tried to do a little research a while back, but came up kind of empty since Bob Chilton is a common enough name and I had other photos with more of a lead to work on. I logged into Ancestry.com and tried to see if I could find a death certificate for a Bob or Robert Chilton since I have to assume he lived near my 2x great grandparents in Clearfield County, PA. BINGO! I found a death certificate (Ancestry.com link) for Thomas Robert Chilton who died in Ginter, Clearfield County, PA on 18 September 1938. His parents are listed as Benjamin Chilton and Sarah Ann Powis. Sarah Ann Powis. And he was born in England.. Hannng on a minute!

My 2x great-grandfather is Alfred Powis who was born Alfred Jackson on 26 April 1859 in Walsall, Staffordshire, England, and came to the USA in 1872. Alfred’s biological mother didn’t list his father’s name on his birth certificate and Alfred shows up on the 1861 census as a “Visitor” with Thomas Powis and Margaret Collings who apparently adopted him and brought him over to the USA. Thomas Powis’ parents were Thomas Powis and Sarah Ferriday.

Getting back to our dear Mr. Bob Chilton. Bob Chilton’s parents, as listed on his death certificate, were Benjamin Chilton and Sarah Ann Powis. I managed to find a marriage record for Sarah and Benjamin for 26 Mar 1849 at Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England listing Sarah Ann’s father as Thomas Powis (Ancestry.com link). Well, that’s good enough for me. I already knew from a census rcord for Thomas Powis the younger (Alfred’s adoptive father) that he had a sister named Sarah Ann, so the pieces fell neatly into place. To seal the deal, there was even a passport application online (Ancestry.com link) with a photo of Thomas Robert Chilton which absolutely without a doubt matched my photo.

As for Mrs. Bob Chilton, her name is Hannah Elizabeth Fry. Once Bob’s story fell into place, I found her Find A Grave entry giving us her birth/death dates and parents’ names.

If that left you with your head spinning, here’s a screenshot from Ancestry.com to show the relationship. Remember that Alfred J Powis is my 2x great-grandfather and while his parents are not his biological parents, they adopted him and cared for him, so his adoptive family factored into his life likely more than his biological family ever did.

Whew! So how’s that for a long post?! In poking around on Ancestry.com, it looks like lots of other members have Bob as having died in 1913, but I don’t think that’s correct at all. All it takes is one person to post an erroneous fact, then it slowly cascades through other trees as people save it to theirs without fact-checking. I have a pretty high degree of certainty that I have everything correct here since all my pieces fit together well, plus, it would make sense for Alfred to have a photo of his (adoptive) cousin who lived nearby. Anyway, that’s that, and I’m feeling rather pleased with myself for having sorted out this mystery today!

EDIT 9:04 pm EDT: Turns out, I have even more evidence this is the right guy! I found this (ancestry.com link) 1871 England census showing Thomas R Chilton living with Thomas Powis, Margaret Collings and Alfred Powis. So, there you have it! The boys definitely spent some time living together and probably had a closer connection than I thought at first!

Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 334

By Sheetar 12 June 2016 12 June 2016

Only a day late which isn’t too bad for Sepia Saturday given how busy this week was! Our prompt image this week featured a man jumping over a towel held by two women. I went with the jumping part of the photo and found these ladies in my stash of family photos.

Going Left to Right, we have…

Laura Esther Johnson, born 7 March 1905, died 25 June 2006. First wife of Harry Oscar “Fritz” Powis, married 12 March 1926.
Olga Mary Louise Powis (my great grandmother), born 27 August 1900, died 29 July 1987. Sister-in-Law to the other girls in the photo.
Goldie Patchin, born 19 March 1893, died 13 March 1975. Wife of Alfred Herbert Powis who died 6 July 1926.
Irma Catherine McGarvey, born 2 December 1910, died 4 November 1976. First wife of Waldo Orvis “Jack” Powis, married 10 April 1926. I’m pretty sure that’s her – I only have one other photo of her to compare to, but the timing is just right for her to be included in this photo.

The back of the photo reads, “What you can see so much of us bloomers. Har Ha.” Then there’s an errant “One” or “On ‘E'” at the bottom – it’s hard to tell which it is. With two weddings and a funeral in one year, the family was together often, so I have to imagine this was taken sometime during 1926 or possibly a year before or after. The smile on Olga’s face is just delightful, and it’s pretty amazing given the cameras of the time that they were able to capture the girls in midair. The photographer was likely one of Olga’s brothers or possibly a parent. You can see Olga’s bloomers peeking out of the bottom of her dress, and Goldie’s dress appears to be an olive print which I’m rather smitten with. It’s just such a joyful photo, and I’m glad the girls stopped to take that photo and that it survived about 90 years at this point!

Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 333

By Sheetar 4 June 2016 31 May 2016

Another Sepia Saturday, this week featuring a prompt image of a water mill taken 136 years ago. I didn’t have any mills in my family photographs, but I do have lots and lots of buildings. Here, we even have two of the same building, taken at slightly different times and from different angles. I know I’ve posted about Nellie Eimer before, a woman who shows up in lots of photos, but I don’t quite know the specifics of her relationship with my family. I suspect she was a family friend, but the circumstances of how they met aren’t clear. Anyway, this was Nellie’s home where she lived with her father and later, her husband, until her death in 1930. The address is 3 Dixon Ave, Carbondale, PA, and as far as I can tell, the house still exists, though it’s a smaller street that Google Street View seems to have skipped, so I can’t tell if the house still looks like this or not! The photo on the left was likely taken between 1914 when her mother (Elizabeth “Lizzie” Smith) died and 1920 when her father (William Howell) died since that’s Nellie and her father sitting on the porch. The label on the back of this reads, “Nellie Eimer and her father, home in Carbondale, PA.” The one on the right may have been taken between 1920 and 1930 since the man seated on the porch has darker hair and was likely her husband, Frank Eimer. The label on the back reads, “This is our home,” with, “Aunt Nellie Eimer, Carbondale, PA” written below in a different hand and different ink. If the photos were taken 10-20 years apart, it appears not much changed during that time between the flower boxess out front, paint and whatnot. It’s really rather neat to see them side by side like this and I’m really rather curious to see if the house still looks the same or not. It’s possible to sneak in a side trip some time since it’s only 2.5 hours away, if we ever happen to be driving past that area. I’ll have to report back if that happens!