Photographs

Upon discovering that I have a Flickr account, I decided it would be a great place to upload all my old photos! Many are on Ancestry.com but it's not the kind of place where you upload hundreds of pictures. I have begun uploading photographs but it will be a long process, mostly because of the time it takes to go through my scrapbooks looking for dates. For convenience, I have sorted them into family sets based on marriages with a Miscellaneous set for people I don't have many pictures of. There are a ton of tags already, probably more than is necessary, but I hope that it will help me stay organized.

Enjoy looking through the photos if you like.

Elizabeth Caroline Wetherill Earl Riddle (1825-1859),
my 4x-great-grandmother.

Going to Iowa

As I've mentioned a few times, the Gammon family moved to Iowa around 1850. After that, the family spent a couple of generations there. Some branches still live there to this day. Around the time that I started compiling a map of all the graveyards containing my ancestors, I developed an interest in traveling to Iowa myself and I am finally making the trip!

The Iowa map above consists of twenty graveyards in eleven counties, containing nearly a hundred of my relatives. That cluster to the south there is Decatur County. It may seem a little macabre to be planning a graveyard tour, but I can think of no better way to connect with the people who have come before me. My mother and I have always had an affection for cemeteries and I look forward to sharing the experience with her. It is amazing that she is willing to do this with me even though she is only related to these people by marriage. I am so lucky to have a family that supports my interests.

We plan to drive out there from our home in New Jersey early in July. If you have any tips on traveling in Iowa or going grave hunting, let me know!

Victorian Era Photographs

A lot of people, when they think of old photos, think of people standing or sitting stiffly in uncomfortable clothes with severe, bored expressions on their faces. This is evident in many very old photographs, it's true. This began to change as people bought their own personal cameras instead of having to hire a photographer to take a professional portrait. One of my favorite parts of researching my family history has been finding these old but expressive and sometimes intentionally comedic photographs.

The following photographs are all from my great-grandmother Poppy's family, as represented below. The individuals in blue are in the photos.

Claudia Wetherill Fries & husband William Overington II

Claudia Wetherill Fries & her sister, probably Helen Earl Fries

"Grandmother's wedding gown"

Claudia's daughters Peggy and Poppy

Claudia Wetherill Fries and her daughter Peggy

Leroy H Gammon and Nellie M Cain

I got a message on Ancestry.com today from a man who asked me how I was related to his great-great-grandfather William Henry Cain, who is in my family tree. I honestly had no idea, so I looked it up. As it turns out, Williams's daughter Nellie Cain (pink)  married my great-great-grandfather's cousin Leroy Gammon (blue):

I couldn't give the man who contacted me any new information about his family because I only know about Leroy and Nellie through my research. However, I came across an interesting question.

Nellie, from what I can tell, lived in Illinois her whole life until the 1910 census when she is listed as Leroy's wife of six years in Eden, Iowa. Leroy lived in Eden his entire life. So, how did they meet? I went back to the 1900 census record I had saved to Leroy and discovered the answer.

That's the 1900 Census from Eden Township, Iowa. First is William E. Gammon and his wife Caroline as well as their son Leroy H - the Leroy in question. The next family is the one of interest. The household consists of Watson and Julia Cain as well as a great-nephew and great-niece. I recognized the Cain name and looked up Watson in the family tree of the man who contacted me. Watson, it turns out, is Nellie's grandfather, who lived next door to Leroy and his parents in 1900. He's in green in the tree above.

It's not often that we know how two people met, especially not if they are from different places. It is really amazing to find that connection for someone in my tree.