Zimmermans, Sheffers, Pike, Baldwins and Haneys

I'm going to preface this by noting that this post is a very, VERY old draft that has been sitting out here since 2016. It's now August 2025. I never finished it (as I was gonna include the Weimer photos who are also tangentially related), but seeing as how I sent some of the Zimmermans and Sheffers home last week, figured may as well post it!

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OKAY. I've been researching this batch of photos I purchased last June and they are all one gigantic family. So I'm going to try and fit them all into one blog post, and hope that I don't confuse the crap out of anybody who stumbles upon this.

Let's start with the Zimmerman children, because I think that it's the oldest photo. Or at the very least highest up on the tree?



Zimmermans!
Back L to R: Catherine Elizabeth, Lucinda Jane, Naomi.
Front L to R: Rose Elva, William Ross, Mary Olive

John Jacob Zimmerman (born September 12, 1825) and Mary Ann Miller (born April 20, 1828) had 6 children: Catherine Elizabeth, Lucinda Jane, William Ross, Rose Elva, Mary Olive and Naomi. I haven't had much luck finding birth dates for Mary Olive or Naomi. I found Mary Olive's marriage record, but so far the only record of Naomi I have is this photo and the hand written note on the back that says she married a man with the surname Tiley or Tilley? 

Anywho, of those 6, I have the most photos going down Catherine Elizabeth's line. Catherine married Banner R Sheffer and they had 5 children: Ida May, Guy Z, Bertha Alice, Ora Nina and Roy Ross.

Banner had 3 brothers - William, Barton and Dennis. One of the photos I purchased was Banner & Catherine with some of their children as well as his brother's Barton & William along with their wives and children. Yay in-laws! :)

Back row: Craig, Ray & Lina Sheffer (children of Barton Sheffer), Guy, Ora &
Roy Sheffer (children of Banner Sheffer), Waldo Sheffer (son of William Sheffer).
Seated: Barton Sheffer & wife Eva, Banner Sheffer & wife Catherine,
William Sheffer & wife Eliza with daughter Ethel

Guy Sheffer

Guy Sheffer & wife Gertrude Giles
wedding photo

Okay, so of Banner & Catherine's kids I really only have extra photos of two. Guy Sheffer (born December 1873) married Gertrude Iva Giles (born April 25, 1889). They had a son Lee G Sheffer who was born around 1908. I can't find much on Lee, unfortunately. I know he married Margaret Link in 1932, but I can't find a death record or any newspaper clippings about them so I don't know if there are any living descendants. Guy Sheffer died in 1910 and Gertrude didn't die until 1940 so it's possible she remarried, but also can't find any documentation to back that up.



Back Row: Mrs & Mr Baldwin, Stephen Pike, Ida (Sheffer) Pike
Front Row: Mr Baldwin's mother, Eva Baldwin Pike holding Marguerite,
Basil Pike holding Edwin, Catherine Elizabeth Sheffer (mother of Ida Pike)

Banner & Catherine's daughter Ida May (born March 1870) married Stephen A Pike (born January 1855) in 1888. They had 3 children together: Glen Haven Pike, Basil A Pike & Stephen A Pike Jr. Their son Basil married Mary Eva Baldwin and they had 2 children together  (pictured above!) Edwin Richard Pike and Mary Marguerite Pike. I know Marguerite married Paul Riley Staats who died in 2002, and I think Edwin died a bachelor in 2001, but again no documentation to back that up.

Oh! And even though their names weren't recorded on the back on the above photograph, the people identified as Eva Baldwin's parents in the back row would be Freda & Scott Baldwin (haven't found Freda's maiden name), and the elderly woman in the front row identified as Scott Baldwin's mother would be Catherine Baldwin (nee Butcher).

Aunt Ida (Sheffer) Pike, baby Dale Pike, Glen Pike (Dale's father) Grandma Sheffer

I also have this great picture of Ida May Sheffer with her mother Catherine Elizabeth (seated), her son Glen Haven Pike and grandson Dale Thornbury Pike. I'm pretty sure I can track down living descendants through Dale Pike. :)

Banner Pierce Haney, Bertha Blanch Zimmerman, Walter Jack Castator

Next up! Adorable triple baby picture. Okay... so using the Zimmerman siblings as our starting point... Banner Pierce Haney is the grandson of Banner Sheffer & Catherine Zimmerman (parents are Allen Haney & Bertha Alice Sheffer), Bertha Blanch Zimmerman is the daughter of William Ross Zimmerman & Christina (no maiden name found yet) and Walter Jack Castator is the youngest son of Oscar Castator & Rose Elva Zimmerman. I'm pretty sure I have tracked down Banner Pierce Haney and Walter Castator to potentially alive descendants... but I haven't had much luck tracking Bertha Zimmerman down.

Also related to this tree - though not quite so directly to the Zimmermans which I started this post with -



Grandma Zimmerman, mother, Ida, Glen

UNSURE on this one, but fairly sure it goes along with this family. The back is labeled Grandma Zimmerman, but it looks NOTHING like Catherine Elizabeth to me (and she should be Grandma Sheffer, not Zimmerman). While I can believe that little boy could be Glen Haven Pike... neither of the standing women look like Ida May to me based off previous photos. And logically the only this could be Grandma Zimmerman was if this was either Christina (William Ross Zimmeran's wife)... or... his mother Mary Ann Zimmerman (nee Miller)? But then who are Ida & Glen? And who is "mother"? Mystery!

Bertha Sheffer
Carl 9 years
Glen 11 years
Fay 1 year

Again, entirely plausible that the oldest boy there is Glen Haven Pike. But I have yet to find a Carl or a Fay in the tree.... so.... ???

And the biggest mystery of all. I actually bought this one on accident - I had so many photos in my "to buy" pile that I failed to recognize that the back of the photo only read "Property of B A Sheffer". So I have no idea who this girl is. Or where she fits on the tree. Possibly a Haney? She's kinda got Natalie Haney's eye shape.

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

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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?