Edwin Jonas Kosier

I have 2 binders stuffed full of photos I bought from antique stores. Some which I've started research on, but most that I haven't.

Do you think I spent a solid 3 hours on any of them last night?

NOPE!

Because my very good friend who knows I love this stuff sent me these two screengrabs from a local Chandler, AZ Facebook group she's part of and I absolutely could not resist. Look at this AMAZING photo!!!

And honestly, bless whichever child labeled the back of the photo with his birthday. With no photographer's mark denoting a location I could zero in on and with the last name being questionable (I was convinced at first it was Kosell, but also tried Kosiec), I finally gave up and just searched for an Edwin Jonas born on that date.

The 3rd result was a VA index for an Edwin Jonas Kosier. 

Lykens Register, 21 Dec 1967, Thu  •  Page 17

Edwin Jonas Kosier, born July 31st to George & Elizabeth Kosier (nee Williard). Oldest of two (younger sister Emily Catherine, born February 4th, 1901). He worked as an architect from at least the late 1920s-1940s per census records & his obituary, as well as a WWI vetran. In January 1928 he  married Mary Jane Speraw and they had 6 children (Edwin Jonas Jr, Robert Charles, Howard Whitmoyer, Patricia A, James F C and Mary Katherine). At some point he and Mary Jane separated, because his obituary states that he's married to Dorthea Emma Kosier (nee Dockey). He died December 11, 1967. 

I found one of his granddaughters on Facebook and messaged her through her business page, and now this amazing photo is heading home!

Will Aunt Rena please stand up?

Aunt Rena & Eleanor Cannan

Me a year ago when I bought this photo: Even though this photo doesn't have a photographer's mark with a location, I bet I can find an Eleanor Cannan with an Aunt Rena! I'll buy it!

Me today: WHY DID I BUY THIS PHOTO?!?!

Needless to say, my search is not going well. So I figure this photo is probably from 1920-1930 based off Aunt Rena's dress? That narrows down when baby Eleanor could have been born. Since my initial FamilySearch peek gave me Eleanor Cannan b. 1930 in NJ, Eleanor Cannan b. 1903 in Pennsylvania and Eleanor Cannan b. 1819 on the Isle of Man.... I decided to just go for NJ Eleanor.

Eleanor Cannan was born February 11, 1930 to Charles Henry Cannan and Hazel A Irwin in Camden, New Jersey. She married Robert B Morris April of 1952 and died May of 1995.

Click me to make me legible.

And as you can see from what I've thrown together on Ancestry, she had no shortage of aunts.... but none of them were named Rena. Unless it was a nickname that I have no documentation of. Seemed like her aunt Emily Catherine went by Catherine for a while.... and I can see that maybe be shortened to Rena. Or Elnora?

OOOOOR....

I have the completely wrong family and this Eleanor Cannan is not my Eleanor Cannan. I'm kind of at a loss. Not sure where I'm going to go from here.

Beulah Althea Peckman

I typed this up in March, and then never published it. Personal fail.

So 2018 has been crazy between work and my dad getting a heart & kidney transplant that it took me until yesterday to realize that it was already March and I hadn't done any research on antique store photos this year and hadn't made a blog post since November. Work was slow-ish this week, so I occupied some spare time by picking out a photo and vowing to research it.

And then I had a moment of ADD and totally ignored that photo, and worked on research for Beulah Althea Peckman's baby photo instead.

Beulah Althea Peckman
Age 7 1/2 mo. Weight 18 lbs.

It's probably more frustrating than the original pic I planned to work on would have been, because I'm just not sure if the info I'm finding is the right person. As you can see, the photographer's mark on the photo is from Bradford, Pennsylvania. The name on the back is very clearly Beulah Althea Peckham. That is a very specific name, so she should be easy to find, right?

Well, I have been record stalking a Beulah Althea Peckham. She was born in New York in June 1892 to Frank Leroy Peckham & Myrta Althia Seely. She went to University of Missouri - Columbia and got her Bachelor of Arts & Bachelor of Science and then went onto Columbia University to get a Masters in Modern History.

I can track her through various school yearbooks both while she was at University of Missouri and later to a high school in New Jersey where he was a teacher.

But I can't for the life of me figure out why she has a baby photo from a photographer in Pennsylvania. :\

The closest I've gotten is finding a 1939 yearbook for a Troy, Pennsylvania where she taught. But that's later in life.... sooooo....

Troy High School, 1939

West Orange High School, 1943

Even though I think the odds are slim, it is entirely possible that there was another Beulah Althea Peckham out there and she is not this baby I bought from an antique store but a completely unrelated woman.

But assuming this isn't an unrelated woman...... I also can't find any siblings, spouses, children.... nada. I can't even find a death date. Beulah is a frustrating woman to research.

JUNE ADDENDUM: So there is a social security record for Beulah Peckham... born October 15, 1892, died June 1977. It seems highly probable this is her. I got the June 1892 from the 1900 census record, buuuuuuut, uh, well census records have been wrong before. But this also means that she likely died unmarried. So I guess her baby photo stays in my photo hoard collection.

A Small Burst of Research! [Wanker Sisters/Jennie Berglin]

My friend talked me into joining Mastodon last week. So I did because why not. I've actually been having a lot of fun on it... it's like a much chiller Twitter full of really talented, artistic people. I don't really have any artistic ability... but I do have genealogy! I thought maybe somebody else on the site might find it vaguely interesting - and it's been a slow week at work - so I "livetweeted" (livetooted, per Mastodon vernacular) some genealogy research as I was doing it.

Not sure how many people actually DID find it interesting, but... I've gotten some things accomplished!

Last Tuesday I found myself returning to the Wanker sisters. I've tried contacting a few descendants of Mary Ann to no avail... and damn it I really want to send this photo home because I love it so much.

Wanker Sisters: Mary, Emma, Lesta, Ella, Nellie Pearl

After lots of scrounging around newspapers I finally found the name of Ella's (the 2nd youngest sister) son. Using my work's Spokeo account I found an address for him - and who knows if it's actually correct - or if he's still alive since he'll be turning 70 next month. But I sent off a notecard to the address I found. FINGERS CROSSED.

Friday I researched a lady I hadn't done ANY research on. She was part of my big Cokato, Minnesota haul back in April. 

Jennie L Berglin, born November 16th, 1882 in Cokato, Minnesota to Swedish immigrant farmers Nels & Mary Berglin (nee Johnson). She married John Nelson and they had 3 children. She died April 9th, 1977.

No interesting stories/newspaper clippings about her that I could find, but the backs of the photos mention that she worked for whoever owned these photos originally as a cook... and somebody named Margaret visited her in an elder care home back in 1970. None of the census records show her having a job. Her husband John was a butcher, so maybe she worked in the butcher shop with him? I honestly don't know.

I did manage to trace her line down to some living grandchildren and great grandchildren so hopefully I'll be able to send the photos off before Thanksgiving. :)

Organization! (+a mighty haul!)

I have accumulated a lot of photos. Last year I decided to upload them all to a Tumblr account (here) so I could research them even if I wasn't near the image files. Well, I went through the entire Tumblr account and added tags to organize things better for my sanity. If you're interested, you can see what photos I've started research on and which ones I haven't (haha, stop buying new things Toni). There's a tag for what I have available to return and for extra feel good, you can see everything I've reunited with family members (my fave tag). I also tagged them with surnames. Or names I think are the surnames.

With that done, I had a HUGE haul on Sunday. The lovely gentleman I returned all the Goettling/Gateman photos to was super sweet and sent me reimbursement. It was generous (more than what I spent on photos & shipping), so I went on a spree at Call It New, Call It Antique.

I'm really excited about the teaching certificate. It's from 1870 and is something a little different. I just hope I can find somebody who wants it. I have done a little research on it, and the woman never married. Anywho, you can see proper scans of all these things over on the Tumblr while I work on researching some of them!

Libbie Sherman

.

Libbie E Sherman was born September 2, 1886 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The only child of Elliot H Sherman & Clara E Kelly. She married William Guy Waters on June 5, 1915. She died February 1970 in Grand Rapids.

With only a 20 minute throw together of Libbie Sherman's family tree, I have a feeling this one is going to sit in my binder for a while. :( No kids, no siblings, no 1st cousins.... but it's such a cute photo, I don't regret buying it. Not sure where that leaves me research-wise though. Maybe a 2nd or 3rd cousin would want Libbie's photo? 

Gatemans & Goettlings

I've previously made smaller posts about this batch of photos (Ernest Goettling & Susanna Gateman and Sophia Goettling)... and had a draft of a post sitting in my Blogger since January where I was going to post more.

But as fate would have it, Sophia's great grandson found me and reached out! So today the 11 photos I bought of the Gateman/Goettling families were sent off! I'm delighted to be able to send them off - not just because it clears 11 spaces in my overstuffed binder - but because I've had these photos for almost 2 years and was starting to hit that "maybe nobody wants these" point.

So yay! On to the next!