Friday, November 18, 2011

Picture This

It's Friday and Mom and I have been having some genealogy fun. Aunt Betty too! And Cousin Debby has sent a "mystery photo" of a family gathering and I'm hanging in the air waiting to find out who's who! So here's my picture album for this week and a little story about each:)


Above you see my Grandfather Kelly's family. That's him in the top row: John Lee Kelly. No one called him John. He was Lee to one and all. Peg, Frank, and Gene were known as such by the family. I never heard of Dad's Uncle Eugene, it was always Uncle Gene. Funny, that. Where's the line on the family tree programs where we put our commonly used names? I guess we can stick it in somewhere. But in looking at this photo, probably taken about 1913, I thought it a good idea for myself to put names and commonly used names with the usual dates near the image. Yup, there's my GGF and GGM in the center of the front row. It's really sweet that I can look at this picture, close to 100 years old, and see Grandpop Kelly's family! Don't you think he was good looking?!

Next up are the photos of Aunt Betty's table, which is a whole story unto itself, which I'll save for a later time. But look at this beauty! I know next to nothing about antiques but I'd really like to find out where it was made and maybe that will give us a clue as to its origins. So there's some sleuthing to do about this beautiful table:) If you have any tips that will point me in the right direction, please share! Or will Aunt Betty and I have to end up on Antiques Roadshow in order to find out? Does anyone know how to get to those Keno brothers??


 
Now here's Cousin Debby's photo. She's asked if Mom and I can recognize anyone. Not off hand, we can't. But Mom and I looked real hard at it yesterday during our marathon morning phone calls and here's what we noticed... which I'll list under the photo.


OK, so here's what Mom and I came up with.
See in the front row? The woman with the corsage and the man standing to her left and behind. Mom thinks thats Mary Helen Gormer, or Nellie as Mom knew her and Uncle Gene. Mom looked at the photo and immediately guessed that it was Uncle Gene in that bow tie!

So we went on to guess what kind of occasion this was. Our bet is that it was a milestone wedding anniversary. Gene and Nellie were married 3 Jan 1910. This looks like a photo taken in the late 1950s... look at those fancy clothes! Don't they just scream late 1950s?! We think so. If this was taken about January 3rd 1960, it would have been their 50th wedding anniversary! And look in the upper right corner: you can see a stair rail with, what, Christmas cards?! Could be.
Mom thinks that's Nellie's sister seated to her left. Mom said "That looks like Nellie's sister." And I trust Mom on this unless we get facts otherwise;)

So who are the rest? Mom and I can't identify them. None of my aunts and uncles on the Kelly side, because we'd recognize them. So we're guessing that the people are mostly on the Gormer side and friends of the happy couple.
Cousin Debby? Do you have any more information for us? We're about to bust to know!!

1 comment:

  1. Re: Aunt Betty's Table, search for "Victorian Eastlake Marble Top Side Table." It looks a lot like that style. Incised carvings and design typical of the Eastlake era of the late 19th century.
    Check out some history of Eastlake at http://www.buffaloah.com/a/archsty/east/index.html and follow some of the links there for similar tables.

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