Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Wordless Wednesday: Strangers among us

Wordless Wednesday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that asks family historians to create a post in which the main focus is a photograph or image.


Unknown family possibly New York about 1920
Unknown family from album of Helen Killeen Parker
about 1920

This photo in Aunt Helen's album intrigues me.  I am guessing these are relatives in New York.  The woman COULD be my great-grandmother Mary Theresa Sheehan Killeen Walsh, or maybe it's one of her sisters.  Is the older man her brother John?  Or none of the above?


12 comments:

  1. If you never find out anything else about this photo, it's my guess that you could safely assume the two men are closely related. Father and son?

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  2. How intriguing. Is the younger man wearing a uniform?

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    1. It is, but I don't know what kind. But it looks to be World War I era, but I'm the worst at identifying uniforms. I thought one was a fireman, but someone else said it was Navy. This guy could be a taxi driver or a soldier, who knows.

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  3. I vote no to it being Mary Theresa. I think a sister, but who am I and how will we ever know if I am right?! LOL

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    1. I don't really think it's MT either. But it's impossible to know.

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  4. Oh Boy, another mystery to solve. I do think the three adults favor each other and more than likely are mother, father, and son. Interesting time frame clue with the son in uniform...maybe WWI (?) Such wonderful photos in your collections.
    Sue at CollectInTexas Gal

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    1. Yeah, I need some Sheehan descendants to stumble into my blog and provide an answer. Where are they, anyway????

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  5. I agree, I think the men look a lot alike and you do have such wonderful photos.

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    1. I do have some interesting photos with snippets of clues but not enough to solve the mystery very quickly.

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  6. Wendy, are there other photos in the album with the same background, and if so, are they identified in any way? The house could be a clue -- maybe. Do you have identified photographs of Mary Theresa at about the same age? And the little girl.... She's so hard to see. Identifying people in old photographs is always such a challenge. I hope you can figure it out somehow.

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    1. I have a few of young girls sitting on steps, but the steps don't seem to go as high as these. I think this is New York because of the basement -- basements are VERY rare in Portsmouth, Virginia where my great-grandmother lived. And I have some names of her sisters, although now I'm second-guessing my aunt's report about their married names. I have a couple photos identifying some young girls but I'm not convinced this one was one of the ones I know. Like you said, she's hard to see.

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