The Short Life of Sylvia Ann McKee

Sylvia Ann McKee, the favorite sister of my great-great-grandfather Albert Finley McKee Sr., lived only twenty-four years. She was born in Ohio on the 24th of January 1840, and died of diphtheria on the 24th of March 1864 in Watervliet, Michigan. I have recently discovered four photographs of her.

Around 1850, with her brother Albert:

She is on the left here, with one of her sisters:

This appears to be from the same negative as the tintype above:

I love her dress here:

Four Generations of Girls

Ladies of the Family, a photo by nameless.ship on Flickr.

The baby there is my aunt Mary Margaret Gammon. Holding her is her father's mother Carrie (McKee) Gammon. Left to right the others are her mother's mother "Poppy" (Overington) Jones, her mother Claudia (Newman) Gammon, and her great-grandmother Claudia (Fries) Overington.

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!