Mystery Monday is a
daily prompt at Geneabloggers that asks us to share mystery ancestors or
mystery records – anything in our family history research which is currently
unsolved. With any luck fellow genealogy
bloggers will lend their eyes to what has been found so far and possibly help
solve the mystery.
Each March, I like to focus on my Irish ancestors. While
I have been successful in identifying the names of my great-grandmother’s
sisters in New York and their children, the photos taken during trips to New
York go unidentified for the most part. Since the women in the photos bear some
resemblance to each other, it is likely they are her sisters Johanna,
Elizabeth, Margaret, and Delia, but I cannot determine which is which.
Last week, I presented a photo of one sister that I THINK
I have identified as Johanna Sheehan Hederman. The most prominent clue in the
photo was the wide gap between the ages of the two children.
Today’s photo just might be Johanna’s daughter Catherine
all grown up, a married lady. What is the prominent clue? An only child.
 |
| Is this Catherine Hederman Fraundorf and Gertrude? |
Catherine Hederman married Charles Fraundorf in 1908, and
they made their home in the Bronx until shortly after 1930 when they moved to
Long Beach in Nassau County. They were childless until 1916 when Catherine gave
birth to little Gertrude. Gertrude remained an only child.
 |
| Is this Catherine Hederman? |
Admittedly, this could be any woman and any child. If the
woman were looking up instead of down and so proudly at the young girl, I might
be able to compare her to this child to see if they were the same person.
The features of the young girl at the beach look similar
to those of the girl that I think was her mother. Or am I imagining it? Is this
just wishful thinking?
Wendy
© 2017, Wendy Mathias.
All rights reserved.
It's so difficult to tell - good luck.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteWhat struck me about the picture was how the mom looked down at her child rather than looking at the camera for the picture being taken (assuming she knew it was being taken). Such love! Clueless if they could be one in the same, but great picture!
ReplyDeletebetty
I love everything about this picture - the clothes, the pose, the bond. But I sure wish I could say once and for all that I identified them.
DeleteIt's hard to know whether the features are the same or not - it's hard when we want it SO badly to be true.
ReplyDeleteIt IS hard! I have to keep reminding myself that this is all theory so that I don't start believing it's true.
DeleteI don't think I could say either way. I'm really curious about what the people behind the woman/child are sitting on. Interesting!
ReplyDeleteI keep looking at it too. It looks like the roof of a collapsed building, but I'm probably wrong.
DeleteOh, so hard to tell. At first I thought definitely not, but when I keep looking I think it could be. I have this same frustration with a few of my photos and I go back and forth. But I do believe that the people in the back of the first photo are sitting on the bow of a boat.
ReplyDelete