The Cabbagetown Photo - Then and Now

     Today I visited the location where an old family photo was taken.  The photo (see below) is of a young man standing by a car in front of a house.  My Grandmama said that this was her Uncle Milton Waters in Cabbagetown (a mill town in Atlanta, Georgia).

     In trying to find the location of the photo, I found myself with almost too many options.  Uncle Milton and his parents lived all over the neighborhood and never appear in the same home from one year to the next in city directories.  Luckily though, the addresses were confined to three streets, all in Cabbagetown.

     When I decided to go in search of the home, I did some advance research.  First, I made an assumption that if it really was Uncle Milton in the photo, he was around 15 years old.  That would place the photo around 1930.  I made a list of all of the addresses the family was listed at between 1926 and 1935 - then I looked them up on Google Maps.

     A lot of the old addresses are no more, or have been heavily redeveloped.  For example, I can pretty much disregard the address where the modern condos and high rises now sit.  Other homes are still there, but have obviously had some remodeling done.  Still, I held out hope that the house in the picture still existed.

     Next, I looked at the homes in detail on Google Maps.  There were a few key features in the photo that I used to try and identify it: the shape of the roof, the fact that it was a duplex (hard to see, but the door on the left is open), that it was built off the ground, and that it wasn't much longer than the length of the car.  I also noted that it was very close to the house on the right.

     One of the addresses, 196 Savannah Street, seemed like a possibility: it was obviously a former duplex (two chimneys and space for a second door), it was built off the ground and had the same type of roof design.  The problem was two fold: the house next door and the address.  The other house wasn't close enough, nor of the correct design.  Considering the ages of the homes, however, it was certainly possible that the other house had been renovated.  The street number was also off; this house was 193 Savannah Street.  But considering that it had been changed from a multi to a single home, it was possible that street numbers had changed.

     This could be the house - but I need proof!

    I decided to review the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Cabbagetown in 1912.  I had previously downloaded these to get an understanding of some of the homes in question and had created an overlay in Google Earth.

     I looked at the two houses in question.  The top house was clearly a duplex with basically the same design as today.  The bottom house though, the one that should have been closer, had obviously undergone serious renovation.  It had previously been a triplex, with the left/top most home pushed back.  Today, that space is a driveway, and that's what clinched it for me.  In the original photo, you can see that the porch is pushed back and that there is more siding along the right side.  Compare the original photo and the Sanborn map and you can see it.

     So today my sister and I went to visit the house and take some photos.  It really neat to walk through the neighborhood where my ancestors lived and visually connect the past and present.

Edit: I didn't mention this, but I left the photo behind on the house's doorstep, with a note saying that it was a photo of my Great-Great Uncle in front of their house.  The home owner actually blogged about finding the photo, and then found this blog post.  Read about it here: Oakdale Onward.

Identified!

Also, was this photo taken in a cemetery?

I've had this photo for years.  I know, based on a similar photo, that the girl in the middle is Ethel Waters, my Great-Great Aunt.  But I didn't know who the other two girls were... until now.      I was just looking through photos when it occurred to me, the girl on the left is Aunt Alma, Ethel's sister.  I don't know why I hadn't seen it before, but now it's so obvious.      So if this is a photo of sisters, it stands to reason that the third girl would be the third sister, my Great Grandmother, Ruby Waters.      I had to pull up some photos of Ruby to compare them, because I just didn't see it off the bat.  But after reviewing the photo below, I've decided that the girl on the right is indeed my Great-Grandmother! Yay!

     Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the girl on the right is my Great-Grandmother. A cousin says that it's a friend or maybe a cousin, and she's likely older than my Great-Grandmother would have been. I still think a lot of the features for the girl and my grandmother are similar, so I'm betting on a cousin. But, I did identify my GG-Aunt Alma, so there's still a plus side!

What You Find While Cleaning

     While cleaning out the garage, mom found this photo.  It's one I've never seen before, and is of my Grandaddy, Roy Albea Sr, with his fellow employees at Overnite Transportation off of Moreland Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia.  The photo is probably from the early or mid 1980s.

     So, can you spot Grandaddy?

A Few Amusing Christmas Photos

Dad in the middle

mom in the middle, front

Me on the right

Wiki Loves Monuments USA: A Photo Contest

    If you've logged into Wikipedia recently, you might have seen the banner across the top of the page announcing the Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 Contest. I assume that many other genealogists are like me and interested in history, so this contest is probably of interest to the geneabloggers community.

     The general gist of the contest is to upload a photo of a location on the National Register of Historic Places List. By doing this, you will be adding your photo into a database of freely licensed images of our nation's historic places. There aren't too many rules to the contest, but you can read them here.

     Having visited a number of locations on this list, I already had some eligible photos on my computer. For example, the photo below of the John Fox House in Lexington, SC.  When I uploaded the photo, only one other location in Lexington County had a photo.  Now most of the locations have a photo. It looks like the contest is accomplishing its mission!

 

A Day At The Cemetery (in photos)

     Atlanta's Historic Oakland Cemetery is having a contest using Instagram. It's a simple enough contest: take photos during September using Instagram and tag them with #OCATL. The photos should: "be taken of and inside Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, GA. Photographs should highlight distinctive elements that differentiate and identify Oakland Cemetery, featuring outstanding aspects of the art and architecture, gardens and landscape, and wildlife." Ten photos will be chosen and the winners will receive tickets to the 2012 Capturing the Spirit Halloween Tours.

     I visited Oakland today and here are my photos. My favorites are the one of the gate, the yellow flower and the gazebo.  You can click through to see larger versions of the smaller photos.

Who Were the Children?

     This is a photo from my maternal grandmother's collection. She wasn't sure who these children were, but had been told that the oldest child (in the middle holding the youngest) was her Aunt Alma Waters.

     So who are the other children? I'd guess that the child identified as Alma might be about 3 years old? If so, that would place the photo at about 1909. Alma's next youngest sibling, who lived beyond infancy, was five years younger than she was and was not yet born. Thus, if Alma is correctly identified, these cannot be her siblings.

     It's highly possible that the other children were Alma's cousins. The two youngest look too close in age to be siblings anyway. Alma's father, Leverett had some nieces and nephews the right age through his sister: Claude (abt 1907), Annie May (abt 1909). Alma's mother had some nieces and nephews the right age though here brother's and sister's: Maudie (abt 1908), Foster (abt 1907), Robert (abt 1908).  If the photo is a bit older, there are even more options.

     It's impossible to tell the gender of any of the children. I have another photo, dated late 1910, in which a male child is wearing an almost identical gowns and a three year old little girl has close cropped hair.

     It's pretty much a given that I'm never going to positively identify these children, but if anyone spots any clues, feel free to comment.

58 Years Ago

    This is Mom's first photo, which appears to be a hospital baby photo. If so, it was taken 58 years ago today (or maybe tomorrow?) at Crawford W Long Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Happy Birthday mom!

Wordless Wednesday

Uncles at War

Great-Great Uncle Claude Craft, World War I

Great-Great Uncles LC, Jack and Milton Waters, World War II



Great-Uncle Evoid Britt, Korea

 

Uncle T Wayne Craft, Vietnam                              Uncle Roy Albea, Vietnam

SNGF: Present Photo Challenge

     This week's Genea Musings' Saturday Night Genealogy Fun spotlights the photo challenge at the Family Curator blog (details here). The challenge is to take a photo in the "Dear Photograph" or "Looking into the Past" style.

     I've actually done this before and blogged about it here. The finished photo can be very striking, though it can take a while to find the right photo and to get the technique right. You want to do this with a photo that has people and is in a distinct location. All of the photos I've done so far happen to be of people posing in cemeteries.

     Here's another photo that I've done, but hadn't posted. This is my Grandfather and Great-Uncle Bill visiting my Great-Grandmother Auline's grave in Westview Cemetery in Atlanta, cir 1980.

     This photo is somewhat nostalgic, as my grandfather has now passed away.  He's buried in this plot now, but this photo makes it seem as if he's still here.

     This photo's composition is just about perfect, but the arm (my sister's) isn't in the best place, as it blocks most of the left side of the photo.  I do like how you can see my car in the background, which helps to show the modern timeframe.

Grandaddy Mack in Pictures

     The other week a new cousin found me online at wikitree and has been sending information to me about the Hyler / Huyler family. She sent me photos of the family Bible and confirmed that her side of the family remembered my Great-Grandfather, Vary "Mack" Huyler. A few days ago she emailed me a photo of Mack's mom, Ida. Today she snail-mailed me photos of Mack himself.

     These photos are very exciting! Mack didn't tell his daughter (my grandmother) about his family and we only know what we've found from research. Before, the only photos of him is from the late 1950s or later. Now I have two photos of him as a young man!

     I'm going to post one of the photos here to see if anyone can help me with it. Mack appears to be wearing some sort of ill-fitting military uniform. I'm estimating the photo is from the early/mid 1920s, so it's post WWI and pre CCC and WWII. Does anyone have any idea what this uniform is about? Perhaps a peace-time army uniform? National Guard? (BTW, he was from South Carolina)

Craft Family in 1901

     While away on a genealogy day trip, I received an email about the very family I was looking for. Actually, the email was about the very grave I was looking for. I have some clues about the grave, but no exact location just yet. However, thanks to the email, I still came out good in the end.

     The woman who emailed me is a previously unknown second cousin, once removed. She has a private family tree online at ancestry.com. Included in her tree was the following photo (shown with permission). It show my Great-Great Grandparents, George Robert and Effie V (Powell) Craft and their four oldest children: Lillie Mae, Maurice Lamar, Bennie England and Claud Frank.  I love the house in the background, the hat in the yard and Effie's dress.






    I can recognize my Great-Grandfather, Bennie, 
the little boy on the far left from this photo that my 
Aunt gave me. My mom also pointed out that 
Bennie does look a lot like my dad.

Wordless Wednesday - Not Anymore!

     I've previously posted this photo on Wordless Wednesday, which was fitting because I didn't know who the men in the photo were. I was 99.9% certain that they were the sons of William Barfield and S Frances Boatright, but I had no idea which man was which. Here's the photo:

     But now their identities have been revealed! Yesterday I was contacted by a distant cousin who is the daughter of one of the Barfield men in the photo. That makes her my 1st cousin, twice removed.  But it also turns out that she's related to me through my Evans family line, which also makes her my 2nd cousin, once removed. I had to sketch out the family tree to understand the connection.

     I think it's pretty neat that we're connected in two different ways.  She's going to mail me some additional information. I'm especially interested in what she knows about the John Evans and Leila Craft family, which is a different branch of the Craft family from my direct paternal line (though they do both go back to my 5x Great Grandfather, John Craft). Fingers crossed!

Wordless Wednesday

Whose Funeral Is This? Pt 2

     A little bit back, I posted some photos of a funeral. These photos belonged to my maternal grandparents, but no one knew who the deceased was. I thought that I'd take the photos apart and look for clues.

Clues

     Well, the first clue is what the type of photo these are. They were in with photos of similar size and physical compensation, such as one of my grandmother as a child, dated about 1937. They are also black and white. If I had to compare them to other photos in my collection, I'd say they are closest in composition to the postcard style of photos.


     Moving on the elements in the photos, you can partially see the deceased's face:





     So, this is a man, he has a full head of hair (side part?) and seems to be of slim or average build. It seems to me that this isn't an old man. If I had to guess, I might say he was anywhere from 30 to 50.  He was dressed in a suit, but from this angle it's hard to pick out any details about it.


     Next, I looked at the different elements in the room where the viewing is being held.

     First, looking at the walls, we can see some sort of circular wall moldings. This is not the sort of thing that you would find in a home, but looks like just about every funeral home that I've ever been to.


     Also in the room are a number of lamps. The tall floor lamp on the left is much like a lamp that we have in our home that had belonged to my Dad's Aunt Ollie. We had it refurbished and the repair guy said that it dated from the late 30s to 40s. So, I'd guess that this funeral took place no earlier than the 1930s, but could have been as late as the 1950s. Who knows when this funeral home might have updated their decor?


     Next, there seem to be a large number of flowers. It seems that this would be a large number of flowers today, and might have been considered an even larger number of flowers in the past. There are also a large number of wreaths, with can be rather expensive.


     I wonder if the coffin might give clues as well? I bet it would, but I'm at a loss as to uncover the information.


     Next, the final photo:






     This photo, taken at the cemetery, offers a number of clues as well. In looking at the trees lining the cemetery, it looks like there are leaves on the tree, so we can probably say that it's mid/late spring, summer, or early fall.


     Next, there is a recently dug grave next to the person being buried in the photo. Grass is growing on the grave, but the shape of the grave is still distinct from the other ground around it.  I'd guess that this grave could be between one month to one year old.  Could this be a spouse?


     You can also see a headstone behind the grave of the person being buried. It's possible that this might be a family marker, or a grave for another individual buried in the next plot. But if it were for a non-family member, why would the flower arrangements seem to frame the stone? I'm leaning toward this stone being a marker for the family plot.


     Finally, we have a strange, double canopy going on. I'm not sure what the lower canopy is - I've never seen this before.
    

Conclusion

     Well, even after evaluating these photos, I'm still not able to identify who the deceased is.  Looking through my database, I just can't find anyone who fits these clues. But, as my research continues, I can keep these photos in mind. Maybe one day I'll be able to say whose funeral this is.

Where Were You... 9/11

     Today is one of those days when you will probably hear the phrase, "where were you" a lot.  This is a phrase that gets used often to inquire about someone's memories of an historic or cultural event. Sadly, today the question will be a sad one: Where were you on September 11th? This is where I was:

     In the fall of 2001 I was a senior in high school. Many people say that senior year is the best year, and for me this was turning out to be true.  Senior year meant no more science class (!!!), easy math (or at least I found it to be so) and a bunch of slack classes. I also had a good circle of friends and, despite not being especially outgoing, was attending the occasional social event. But then, suddenly, everything changed.

     On September 11th at 9:30 am, I remember walking through the hallways from my English class in the 600 hallway to my period as an aide for my technology teacher, Mrs. Hill, in the 300 hallway. In other words, I was walking from one side of the school campus to the other. I noticed that something was going on when I was about halfway to my classroom. Teachers were clustered in groups and talking in the hallways, which was abnormal. A large amount of classrooms had their televisions on, which was even more strange.  There was also a strange feeling building - like a tension. The students were all recognizing that something was going on, but most of us hadn't yet figured it out. This classroom change, this shuffling of students and teachers throughout the school, would be the time that the news would spread of the tragic events unfolding in New York, DC and Pennsylvania. When I walked into my third period classroom the lights were off and the television was on. Mrs. Hill was standing in the middle of the room, simply watching the news. I asked her what was going on and she told me that airplanes had flown into buildings in New York. 

     I don't remember if she said that it was the World Trade Center or not, but at that moment it wouldn't have made a difference to me either way. I'd never heard of the World Trade Center. I'm from Georgia and, aside from being born neighboring county's hospital, I have lived in this county my entire life. I have never been on an airplane. I have never traveled any further north than North Carolina - and in 2001 I hadn't even traveled that far!  The tallest building that I have even been in is probably about 30 stories, so a building of 110 stories is an inconceivable height to me.  I did not immediately grasp the magnitude of the events occurring on 9/11. It wouldn't be until I heard about the pentagon that I had a landmark that I could relate to and could understand that the terrorists were attacking symbols of America.

     I spent the rest of the school day watching television. Moving from class to class, almost every teacher postponed their lessons. They wanted students to observe a moment in time that, they said, would impact our lives. With my classmates, I watches as the twin towers fell. News networks ran conflicting stories over what had occurred at the pentagon - was it bomb or another plane? Later in the day, another plane was discovered to have crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Immediately, this event was seen as a victory in a day of terror and loss.  All air traffic in the country had been halted. All local colleges and any high profile landmarks were being closed as well. 

     Before the day was over, it was being said that this would be "our Pearl Harbor." I think that the senior class as a group, out of the entire student body, felt the most impacted by the events. The teachers were looking at us and knew that, as we turned 18, we would be the generation that responded to these events. They knew that these events would lead to war and that some of their students would be the soldiers who fought. Some classmates had already decided to join the military, others declared that they would now be signing up. Everyone wanted to go give blood and do something to help. But in that moment we were helpless to do anything.

    School let out at 2:10 pm and students headed home where we would turn on our televisions and continued to follow the tv coverage. Seeing individual people, covered in dust, helping others, walking across bridges to escape a city under attack - these are the images that stick with me. Although I don't know anyone who was in NY, DC or PA that day, I saw the faces of strangers. I saw the signs with the photos of the missing and I stayed tuned to news coverage to see who would be found. But really, very few ever were.

     Shortly after 9/11, my sister, a few friends and I attended a memorial event at the local mall. Songs of hope and remembrance were sung, inspirational speeches were given, ribbons were worn, and thousands of balloons were released. Each year similar events are held throughout the country as we pause to remember these tragic events. I hope too, that we remember the small bits of goodness that came from those events. The country came together as one. I have never felt so much that I was an American, that we as citizens were united and that together, we could withstand anything. 

Wordless Wednesday

Whose Funeral Is This?

     My Grandmama had a large number of photos from her mother, Ruby Waters Huyler. She was also given a large number of photos and keepsakes from her aunts, who had no children themselves.  Most of those photos are of the Waters family, who lived in Atlanta, Georgia and Greenville, South Carolina. There are a lot of photos of unknown folks that I honestly don't know if I'll be able to ever identify most of them.

     Amongst the photos are three that I'm very interested in identifying: photos of a funeral. 

     As you can see, two of the photos were taken at a inside location, a funeral home or church perhaps, and the third was taken at the cemetery. There are a lot of clues in these photos that might help to identify the time period and location: a profile of the deceased, the large number and type of flower arrangements, the other burial in the cemetery, etc. I'm going to take a day to analyze the photos and then post about what I find. If you see anything in these photos that might be helpful, point it out!  

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday to my mom. She's celebrating her 56th today.