The Case of the Cased Image...or...Mystery Man, Am I right? You be the judge!

 Who would have ever guessed that old photographs could be dated so precisely? Oh, yes, I get that fashion plays a role. Just look at the photo of me and my great-grandmother in a previous posting and you will see those stripes and wild colors. Clearly the 1970’s!

But take a look at this photo in its original case. For most people, it’s just really old…who knows exactly when? (And who cares?) It turns out that there are so many clues to dating one and I had absolutely no idea! 

Why do we need to date a photo, anyway? Well, if you have no clue who the person is in the photo, one of the first steps is dating a photo and the age of the person to figure out who it might be.

Background

My husband and I are beneficiaries of all things family history, especially photographs! Which means that I have all sorts of fun and interesting things to learn about passed down through the generations. This week, I thought I would revisit some old photographs to see if I could identify who they are. (Most are identified, thank you to Bertha DeBoer Breyfogle and Elizabeth Leach Tubbs!) 

But these old cased image photographs are difficult to write names on! So, I have 4 cased images that look like the photographs above (of course with different people in them!). I love the challenge and definitely learning something new.

My sister gave me the book Family Photo Detective: Learn how to find genealogy clues in old photos and solve family photo mysteries (2013) by Maureen A. Taylor Family Tree Books: Cincinnati, Ohio for Christmas and it’s the PERFECT jumping off point. I highly recommend it!

Steps toward identification:

The Photo Detective (Maureen Taylor) provides a great outline for dating a photo. The first thing to do is to identify the type of photograph. And pre-1900, there were four main types: daguerreotype, ambrotype, tintype, and cabinet cards.

 

The example to the above is a cabinet card of an unknown family member, someone wrote on the back “He is an Orcutt”--but I haven’t figured out who, yet. You’ve likely seen a cabinet card before. I’m not going to talk about the cabinet cards, but did you know that if you lay 6 regular (20#) sheets of paper in a stack, if the cabinet card is the same thickness or thinner than the stack, then it was created between 1858-1869? Cool, huh. There’s lots of other identifiers like that. 

But back to cased images. Photographers in the United States, beginning in 1840*, used the miniature cases for daguerreotypes (which are identified by their mirror-like reflection). These cases were also used for ambrotype and tintype photographs. 

What type of photograph is it?

My photograph is daguerreotype (1839-1860, most popular 1842-1858). In person, I can clearly see the mirror reflection that goes along with this type of photo. It’s not obvious in this photo of it, but you could instantaneously see what I mean if you held it yourself.

Who could it be?

Based on just this information, I can narrow it enough to begin thinking about who it is. This photo and case was inherited from the Tubbs-Leach side of the family. If it is a family member in my direct lineage, which I believe to be so, then we are looking at the great-great-great-grandfather generation (based on age/timing). I started with 8 possible candidates. We can discount several (William Croft, Rodman Stoddard, Timothy Randall, and George Bedell) because they were not the right age, already deceased, or we already have an identified photograph and it is clearly not the same man.

We are left with four possibilities:

1. George W. Tubbs (1802-1854)

2. Harvey Orcutt (1802-1858)

3. Henry Leach’s father (no idea)

4. George Dolan Bailey (1805-1849)

We need more information, so on to the next step.

Describe the case.

• The outside measurements of the case are 3.25” x 3.625”, which is close to what they call a “Sixth Plate”. It is the largest of the cases I have and is consistent with the cases made for daguerreotypes. 

• The case is made from wood covered in an embossed leather with a hook-and-eye clap (as opposed to a thermoplastic case which began in 1854). These are consistent with 1840s.

• The velvet cushion is a burnt orange color. Unfortunately, there are no photographer’s or maker’s marks on either the velvet or the brass mat.

•  The exterior case design of flowers is consistent with the 1840’s focus on nature motifs.

• The mat is what is called nonpareil which began being used in the mid 1840s.

• From the mat and case, it appears to be between 1845-1850.

• Existence of the “preserver”--the thin metal piece over the mat means it was after 1847. So, the date is 1847-1850!!

  
  
  

Men’s fashion.

• His clothing seems to be consistent with the 1840s:

• Extra-long, narrow sleeves of coat

• Tailored white cotton shirt with small collar turned up under a tie

• Necktie is tied in a horizontal bowknot, dark colored

• Hair & Beard: hair is ear-length, parte high at one side; clean shaven but fringe beards (he doesn’t have a beard so that is one thing not consistent)

Age of the Man

• This man appears to be in his 30’s or 40’s.

It still seems it could be any of these 4 men, given their ages and the timing of the photo in the case (1847-1850). 

Further knowledge

It turns out that a cased image of a photograph that opened like a book was pretty much a United States thing, and Henry Leach’s father, whoever he is (to my knowledge and research) never came to the US, so I think we can safely say it isn’t him.

Also, it turns out that I have two more “unidentified” photos that are dated into the 1850’s and appear to be this same man, so I think I can safely discount George Dolan Bailey, who died in 1849.

(Oh, and you should NEVER do what I did to the photo on the left and take the cases apart!! The cases are meant to preserve and protect the photos. This one on the left is an ambrotype, we can tell because of the black coating that is flecking off the back!)

We are down to 2: George W. Tubbs or Harvey Orcutt.

Last Clue: Family Resemblances

Fortunately I have photos for the sons of both George W. Tubbs and Harvey Orcutt. Samuel Obed Tubbs is on the left and Chauncey Gould Orcutt is on the right.

 

It’s also really hard to tell in these photos and a little more evident in the photos in real life, that the color of the eyes…they are Tubbs eyes. Jim is skeptical that I can see anything about the eyes, but I’m pretty convinced that our mystery man (above) is the father of the man to the left (Samuel Obed Tubbs), so I think I have identified 2 of my 4 cases and they are George W. Tubbs (1802-1854). 

Have I solved the case of the cased image? Do you agree???

Long Ago Friends!

Today’s story is not about long lost dead relatives, okay maybe there’s a little bit of that, but they aren’t mine (or my husband’s!). This blog is about using genealogical research skills to connect two long lost living friends, my dad and his elementary school best friend, Randy.

Dad and His Friends

My dad in front of his elementary school a few years ago on a trip with my sister back to Ridgewood, NJ

Dad visiting his childhood home

Anyone who has ever talked with my dad knows that he absolutely LOVED the years of his youth spent in Ridgewood, NJ. He loved everything about it. He loved his house. He loved dinner every Sunday with his Italian Nana and Pop and his cousins in Elmsford. He loved his Willard Elementary school, and his friends! My grandfather’s job relocated the family to the midwest when my dad was around 10 years old and he lost connection with all of his playmates and elementary school chums. (Not quite like now where it would be easy to stay connected, if you wanted to.)

My dad's Italian family in Elmsford, NY
My dad is the oldest boy in the front row.

He’s still connected with his first cousins who were about his age. But for years, dad has talked (and wondered) about “what ever happened to X friend?” He asked “Couldn’t the computer be used to help find my friends?” He would also wonder if THEY would even remember him or if they wondered about him. (Chances are that people would have a hard time tracking down my dad because around the same time that they moved, my grandfather changed their last name to a less Italian sounding one.) He was the kid that moved away and his friends' lives went on without him. Except one, who moved away before him…Randy Butler.

Finding a Friend

Just over a year ago, one of my daughters was visiting my dad when he asked, “I wonder whatever happened to Randy Butler? He was my best friend in elementary school and his family moved away to Alabama the year before my family moved. I think Randy’s dad was a lawyer.” Okay, what are the chances that you find a Randy Butler in the US? Pretty good, it’s a common name. What are the chances that you find THE Randy Butler? Hmm…not so much. And how do you know it is actually the one?

Being the dutiful granddaughter, she took him up on the challenge. Within minutes, my daughter Googled and came up with Charles R. Butler (the R stands for Randolph) in Alabama and a photograph. Okay, really? Could this be him? My daughter showed the photo to my dad and he said, “Yeah, that looks like him.” My daughter texted me and asked if I could help track down Randy’s address so my dad could reach out. Ooh, hold your horses. Let’s slow down.

My dad gets excited by things and I thought before we get too far down this path of reaching out to him that we might just want to verify that this Charles R. Butler is the Randy Butler of my dad’s youth. 

I noticed the birthdate of this man was the same as my dad’s.

         “Dad, did you know that you two had the same birthdate?” 

          “No.”

          “Dad, don’t you think you would have known if you and Randy had the same birthdate?”

          Shrug. 

Now, I think if my “best” friend had the same birthdate that I would know about it! Maybe elementary school boys didn’t care about things like matching birthdays?

So I hopped on to Ancestry.com and searched for a Randy Butler in Ridgewood, NJ with a birthdate around my dad’s. Whoop, up pops the 1940 Census in Ridgewood, NJ complete with Charles R. Butler Sr. (lawyer) and newborn Charles R. Butler, Jr. I asked Dad if this was the street that Randy lived on but he wasn’t sure. He knew how to get to Randy’s house, but didn’t really remember the street name.

Okay, but let’s do a little more research. Why Alabama? Did this Butler family really move to Alabama? In the 1950 Census they are still living in Ridgewood and the 1960 Census isn’t available yet. A little more searching of marriage certificates and other things available through Ancestry.com indicated that this man’s maternal grandmother was originally from Alabama and in 1962 (according to the Social Security Death Index) his mother was living in Alabama. 

Connecting Long-Lost Friends

I did lots more searching, but I was already convinced that Randy Butler, my dad’s friend, was this same man my daughter found. But how good of friends were they? Would Randy even remember my dad?

My dad said he has a photo of Randy. He shows me the photo and I am convinced of two things. One, given the pose Randy has in the photo with his arm draped around my dad, he did at least like my dad at the time, not sure if he’ll remember him 70 years later (!!) though, and two, Randy is DEFINITELY the same man in the Google photo. You know how some people are recognizable in photos throughout their entire lives?!

My dad is pretty old fashioned when it comes to communication. He doesn’t have a cell phone (unless you count the flip phone he keeps in the car for emergencies but doesn’t always remember how to use it), nor does he have an email address. He wants to write a letter, of course. So we need a US mailing address. Well, Ancestry.com comes through again with an address from 1995. Might be a little outdated, but a Googlesearch confirms we have the right address.

My dad sends a lovely letter “Dear Randy….” signed “Donny” and encloses a copy of the photo. Within one week (through US mail!), my dad has a letter back from Randy, saying “Dear Donny…of course I remember you!....Randy” (although no one else calls me Randy!) 

Amazing! 

Through birthday greetings, letters, email (Randy sends them to my mom's email!), and the phone, these two friends who haven’t seen or heard from one another in over 70 years have reconnected! Although they haven’t made an in person visit, they have caught each other up on their families and lives since 1950. It’s truly a beautiful thing. And it was all because of research skills developed from genealogy.

Fast Forward to Today

So why does this come to mind today? Well, when I was doing research on Randy’s family to verify he was really my dad’s friend, I learned a lot about his family. He had some knowledge and background but he didn’t know much about his grandmother’s family. I spent one evening searching and found that his grandmother was a member of the social organization, Daughters of the Revolution. So while I was on my family history road trip, I stopped in to the DAR Library.

DAR vs. D of R 

I knew at the DAR Library that while you are on their premises you can look up (free of charge) anyone’s DAR Application and look through their lineage. Since I was already going to be at the library, I put looking up Randy's grandmother's application on my list of things to do.

Her application wasn’t there. I couldn’t find it. I couldn’t even find reference to that DAR Chapter in Ridgewood, NJ!  I needed help.

After a concerted effort on the part of both me and the DAR Librarian, she offered a possible solution. Are you sure that this was a DAR Chapter and not in the Daughters of the Revolution of 1776 Organization? What? There’s a different one? Yep. Now defunct.

I looked to the newspaper article that I had about his grandmother and sure enough it said “Daughters of the Revolution”, but my mind had jumped straight to assuming it was DAR! Well, what do you know, there is another whole other organization that might be useful in research! FamilySearch knows all about it and have links to where you can look up members/applications. 

So, in a matter of seconds (once I made it to the right page), I had the Application/Membership number along with which patriot she was related to. The Suffolk County Historical Society Museum is the keeper of these records, so you can just fill out their application along with the copying/look up fee and a self addressed stamped envelope and they will send you the application. This was several weeks ago. 

Today was the reward! Four 8.5” x 14” copied sheets of paper that look much like a DAR application complete with names and dates back to the Revolutionary War Patriot! This application actually included two more generations beyond the Patriot.

I just love family history and the hours of fun it provides me! And the joy it brings to others, like Dad and Randy connecting again after 70 years!

From Brick Wall to Beautiful Mosaic….Pieces falling into place!

Alonzo Sedlock

 I have always heard about “breaking down brick walls” which sounds great, but then in reality if you break down a brick wall you have lots of pieces of brick and mortar strewn about. That seems like a big mess. And in my case, it has been! But then, I never thought beyond this image of a mess. What happens to all of the pieces? 

Well, after last night and today, I know what lays beyond this messy yard…it turns out that all of those little brick pieces get recombined into a beautiful mosaic!

A New Cousin

Yesterday, I began correspondence with a cousin that matched with my sister only 8 cM. For people not well-versed in DNA, this is barely connected, it could technically be as close as 3rd cousins, but it is more likely to be 7th cousins or farther (on average you will match 14 cM with a 7th cousin).

(From: https://pngtree.com/freepng/the-brick-wall-breaks-through_8413483.html)

Image from DNAPainter Shared cM Project by Blaine Bettinger, 2000

Why did he reach out to me? Well, it turns out that when I broke through my brick wall of Alonzo Sedlock and added two more generations to my tree three weeks ago in Salt Lake (remember the Slovakian baptisms, marriages, and deaths I found extending beyond my Alonzo Sedlock brick wall?), a name jumped out to him…Kerekes!

We talked for 2.5 hours (!!!) comparing notes and learning about his family tree and we could have talked for several more! His paternal grandparents were both Hungarian/Slovakian and he has a rich history of researching the area and could pronounce all of the town names and even knew how close they were to one another. He is also a professional researcher (not genealogy, but court/records), so he knows where to quickly look to find things. 

During the call, we were able to piece together how we are related, turns out that we are 5th cousins 1x removed (5C1R) through the common couple, Georgius Kerekes (1754-1810) and Maria Fedor (1759-?) and he helped me to find the connections for several other DNA matches that I hadn’t been able to figure out.

Let's go back to how I began chipping away at the brick wall.

Pieces of the Puzzle

Piece #1: My father knew that Alonzo Sedlock’s mother’s name was Elizabeth Kristof Barath. This has always been a stumbling block for me because where did the Sedlock come from? And why the Barath? And was Kristof a maiden name or another marriage? I had so many questions!

Piece #2: About 7 years ago, I came across Alonzo’s WW2 Draft Registration and he listed Stephen Leonard Barath as a brother! Okay, he had (presumably) a half-brother and Elizabeth married a man with the last name of Barath.

Piece #3: About 5 years ago, a genealogy angel posted on Elisabeth’s Find-a-grave site her obituary!! Imagine my surprise when I found out that Elisabeth had 3 children and Alonzo had a full-older sister, Eleanor Sedlock. It also said that she came to the US 30 years prior (~1889) and that she was the daughter of “Mr. and Mrs. John Kristoff”. Equipped with Elisabeth’s death date and location, I then found her will, which also named her estranged husband, Gabriel Barath. But still, where does the Sedlock come in?

Piece #4: Over the past 5 years, with DNA, I have found 10 people who are all related to a Frank Christoff in Clearfield County, PA and who share DNA with my dad ranging from 38 cM to 102 cM. The colorized photo is Frank’s family in around 1901. Frank and his wife had 10 children and I have identified descendants for 6 of these children that share DNA with my dad. 

Frank Christoff and Susanna Hajnal and children, ~1901

Piece #5: According to the Ancestry Trees out there, Frank was born in 1849 in Hungary to a Stephen Peter Kiss Christoff (1832-1902) and Maria Hajnal (1835-1913). They had no children identified that were born in 1855, so maybe Frank was Elizabeth’s brother and these were her parents? But if so, why didn’t she live in Clearfield with ALL of the other children? And if Frank is their son, why was the next child born in 1856 and every other child after was born in 2-3 year intervals? And was Maria really just 14 when Frank was born, that was young for them even at that time?

Piece #6: DNA is powerful and it is also tricky! There are so many possibilities and with “close” DNA there are still lots of possibilities. (I’ve shown here a wonderful tool from DNAPainter in which you input the cM match and it spits out the likelihood for the type of relationship.) 

Piece #7: DNAPainter also has another amazing tool called WATO (What are the odds?). For this tool, you enter in a family tree and include the cM for each relative you know in the tree. It produces various hypotheses and calculates the Odds for each. So, in this case, I entered in Frank and all of his children and the 10 people with their cM that match my dad. I then add in my great-great-grandmother through my grandmother on the tree somewhere and it spits out a tree with all of the possible locations for where my DAD would be placed. The most likely option isn’t always the best, but that’s where you use genealogy to discount some of the possibilities. You don’t need to actually read this graphic, I just wanted to show you the tree and the tan rectangles are the known cousins with their DNA fit into the tree. The blue rectangles are all of the possibilities for where my dad “could” fall and the little green bit has a number that shows the ODDS. The larger the number the more likely the outcome. I have put a rectangle around the 4 most likely outcomes with the red arrow pointing to it.  These 4 paths rely on Elisabeth being a full-sister with Frank.

Brick Wall Busters: In Salt Lake, 

• I managed to find Stephen Kiss Kristoff and Maria Hajnal’s marriage record. They were married Jan 15, 1855, six years after Frank was born and just over a year before their first child, Stephen. 

• I found the baptismal records for all but one of their children and for that child, I found her marriage record which names Stephen and Maria as her parents. 

• I found the baptismal record for “my” Elisabeth which names her parents, Janos Kristof and Theresia Kotsis. Her parents were married November 25, 1839 and their first of six children (I found) was born 1841. There were NO Frank’s (Ferenc)  among the children but there was a Istvan (Steven) who was baptized May 18, 1849.

• I wrote down every single Kristof baptism and marriage I could find at this church for about 50 years…this is a lot and a lot of little paper sheets (each sheet is a couple and their children) In all of the baptisms, I found ONE Ferencz and he was born in 1843.

The Mosaic..putting the pieces back together

My new cousin was intrigued and he was in agreement with my emerging theory…Frank’s given name was not Frank, it was Istvan and that he is the brother to my Elisabeth.

So what did he do? He found the death certificate for a Steven Christoff in Clearfield County, PA! The birth date lines up with BOTH Istvan (Elisabeth’s brother) and Frank Christoff. The death date mirror’s the death date that the Ancestry trees have for Frank. The parents listed are “J?o Christoff” and “Tressa Cortosaf”. Which seems consistent with Janos (John) Kristof and Theresia Kotsis.

This morning I did a search of all of the probates/wills/death certificates for Clearfield County in an around the 1919 date. I found NO Frank Christoff’s but I did find the index to Frank’s wife’s estate in 1920. It is not available on-line, so I guess a trip is in order to Clearfield County, PA. This death certificate doesn't prove my theory, I need to somehow show that Steven married Susanna or somewhere that indicates that Steven went by Frank. (Yes, I did look for an obituary and didn't find one for him in the newspapers.)

I did also write a note to Christoff cousin, who still lives in Clearfield who descends from Frank and asked if he or his father recalled if Frank was ever called Steven. He doesn’t know but suggested writing to the Christoff Facebook page. He has an 100 year old great-aunt who might remember something. He also invited me to look him up if I wanted to see where the Frank Christoff’s settled. I'm thinking April might be a good month to go to Clearfield. :)

Here's where the pieces come together. It’s really hard to tell in photos, but don’t you think  that Alonzo looks a lot like his “uncle”, Frank?

Frank is the man sitting

 

Young Alonzo and older Alonzo.

Location, Location, Location!!

 My dad has always told me about “location, location, location” being so important when considering buying a home. I never realized how this applied to family history before my week with Ancestor Seekers!

During my “dream genealogy vacation” with Ancestor Seekers, they helped me break through one of my massive brick walls, Alonzo Sedlock, but also flesh out some mysteries and open opportunities with two other lines. The resources available through FamilySearch.org are incredible, but you need to know where to look. The resource that became my friend was the Catalog Search by “Place”. They have all sorts of ways to get to the information, but I found searching by place was truly a gold mine.

Directories in the US

Directories of towns and counties popped up in the mid- to-late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States. If you have family in the US–and you know where they were–you can search through Directories to fill in gaps between censuses and also provide some insight. I searched for Directories in Houghton County, Michigan for my Leach family. Unfortunately the Directories available through Family Search only go back to 1895, so I wasn’t going to find H. E. Leach, but his son, Edward James and his wife, Florence Mary Stoddard Leach (my great-grandmother) located there in the 1910s and I found them!! 

There are a couple of things important to note. Much of the holdings are digitized, but if you see something that looks like a “reel” (an old fashioned movie reel) that means that it is ONLY available on microfilm in the Library. There are MILLIONS (truly) of films there that they are working on digitally providing. It is truly awe-inspiring to see how they are arranged in long-tall cabinets. They are arranged numerically in rows and rows of cabinets. It’s a good thing that I’m tall, because the reel I wanted would not have been accessible to someone under 5’7” without a stool!

In the 1912 Directory, I found out that my great-grandfather had started a business called Getchell & Leach, with a man named Morton C Getchell. I had never heard this name before, so I guess I have a little more research to do about the FAN Club. It was also interesting to see that they had their business in the storefront in the new Elks Building in Hancock, Michigan. What fascinating things you can learn and all of this helps to piece together a story about their lives! 

Church Records!!

So, my major breakthrough came about because of knowing the church that my brickwall’s mother (Alonzo’s mother) was from! In my last Blog entry, I shared the translation of a genealogy angel through the Austro-Hungarian Community on FamilySearch in which she identified that “received a dismissal from the parson of Felső-Novaj. It took some searching, but I figured out where this church was located and with it was able to identify Alonzo’s grandparents AND great-grandparents!!

How does this work? Well, using the same method as I applied to the Directories, you go to FamilySearch.org and choose the catalog. This time, I entered in “Hungary, Abauj-Torna” (which is like the county where the church is located). Then chose “places within” and you can plainly see the community! It was interesting to note that the church was outside the community they lived in, but I’m thinking it was because it was the Catholic Church closest.

Like I have been taught in my genealogy coursework, work backwards! That means you start with what you know about the current generations and work back. 

• In this case, once I found the marriage record for my great-grandmother  Erzsébet Szabó Kristof, I looked for her baptism. This will identify her parents. 

(There are other things to mine from these as well. Note that it gave their house number in Garadna and also the witnesses. These witnesses also often provide clues because they are family members or close friends.)

• Then look for sibling baptisms every year or so before her baptism. Once you go for several years without a birth, you can safely look for the marriage about 1 year before the earliest sibling. 

• Finding the marriage record often includes the age of the individuals at the time of the wedding, which provides you with an approximate window of time for their baptism.

• Then repeat with each parent.

• As long as the family stayed put in the same location, you can easily go back generations!!

The trick really is the location! And finding their place of worship. Prior to national records, the places of worship were the ones recording life events.