Sepia Saturday: One Thing Leads to Another

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week Sepia Saturday’s challenge is to focus on a small detail in an old photograph. The photo in the header of Jollett Etc. is a favorite because so many family members are gathered at the annual Jollett Reunion and because most faces are clear enough to identify them. I thought I knew almost everyone until Sepia Saturday made me take a closer look.

Like this baby. Who is it? And who is holding it?

And here’s another baby. Who could it be?

Using my handy dandy Family Treemaker, I searched for people born in 1921 (since 1921 was the date written below the photo in the family photo album). To cover all possibilities, I also looked in 1920. I quickly discounted the 1920 babies because they were clearly older than these appear in 1921; furthermore, there should have been some two and three-year old siblings in the photo too. The best candidate for the baby on the back row is Janice Monger who might have been held by her grandmother Sallie Jollett Clift. There is a resemblance between this woman and her sister Mary Frances Jollett Davis, my great-grandmother. However, in no photo of Sallie that I have ever seen was her hair this light; besides, she parted her hair on the other side. So maybe not Sallie and Janice after all.

I turned my attention to the other woman with child. She looks much like Sadie Lam Jollett, wife of my great granduncle Ulysses Jollett. Her only grandchild was Andrew Jollett Steppe, born in 1923. Hmm.

4 generations
seated: Emma Jollett Coleman, James Franklin Jollett,
 Virginia Maiden
standing: Minnie Coleman Maiden 

So there is the possibility that the photo was taken in 1923 because Minnie Coleman Maiden and her daughter Virginia were in a photo dated 1923 wearing the same dresses and sporting the same hair style. Undoubtedly the picture was taken at this particular reunion, and someone dated one photo incorrectly, whether it was 1921 or 1923.

 

So what is it – 1921 or 1923? I see my grandfather but no grandmother, so that is one argument for 1921. In 1923, barring stomach flu, Grandma would have been at the reunion.

 

Grandfather Orvin Davis
and his sister Velma Davis

Also Virginia Maiden would have been 10 in 1921 and 12 in 1923. She looks more like a 10-year old here. Another argument for 1921.

Which then makes me notice my grandaunt Velma. In 1921, she was 13. Hmm, she does NOT look 13 (good grief, she looks 31). If the photo is from 1923, she looks the part of a 15-year old, for that time period anyway. Why did everyone look older back then? No Mary Kay?

My attention then went to all those old people hoping one of them at least would have been dead before 1923 to clinch the deal. Wait – who was this ol’ gal sitting next to my 2X great-grandfather James Franklin Jollett? 

James Franklin Jollett and Diannah Coleman

It was not his wife Eliza Jane. For years I did not pay attention to her, assuming that man and wife would be sitting together, but there is Eliza standing behind her.

 

Eliza Jane standing
Diannah sitting

Could it be Eliza Jane’s mother Diannah Shiflett Coleman? Some time ago I was given this photo of Eliza Jane, her mother and brother.

The Colemans
photo courtesy Elaine Via

While Diannah’s face looks softer in this very-worn photo than in the reunion photo, that is the same dress and apron. Note the collar and cuffs. Eliza’s dress is the same too. Those pickets are from the Jolletts’ fence hidden by all the people in the header photo. And look – there is Eliza Jane’s brother at the reunion too.

John Coleman

But fortunately for them – and UNfortunately for me – they were all living in 1923.

2 in front: Leanna Jollett Knight
and Clementine Shiflett Morris
3 in the back unknown

There is another old woman that I had not previously identified although she seemed familiar somehow. It turns out to be Clementine Morris, sister of James Franklin Jollett’s first wife Lucy Ann. Clem must have been wearing her “reunion dress” because it looks like the same one she wore to the Morris Reunion.

Clementine and George Austin Morris,
James Franklin Jollett, Ambrose Vernon

 Clem was still alive and kicking in 1923 too.

So after all that, I still don’t know if this was 1921 or 1923. And who are those babies?

Please take a closer look at Sepia Saturday.

Wendy

© 2017, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Tombstone Tuesday: Ulysses F. Jollette

Tombstone Tuesday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers that asks bloggers to include an image of a gravestone of one or more ancestors along with a brief description of the image or the ancestor.

Ulysses Finks Jollette
Jan 26, 1883 - Jan 30, 1931
Janeiro S. Lamb Jollette
July 7, 1880 - Feb 5, 1961

Even though Ulysses F. Jollette had lived in Baltimore for several years, his family chose to bury him in Shenandoah, Virginia where he and Sadie began their married life. Sadie joined him 30 years later. Forty years later, daughter Vessie Steppe completed the picture of this little Jollette family all buried in the Coverstone Cemetery (formerly the EUB Church Cemetery).

Vessie Jollette Steppe
Aug 21, 1904 - Jan 28, 2001

Wendy

© 2016, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

James Franklin Jollett's Kids: Ulysses Finks Jollett

As part of my “Genealogy Do-Over” efforts AND to force myself to get crackin’ on my James Franklin Jollett book, Jollett Reunion, I will be researching and writing brief biographies of James Franklin, his wives, and his children.

The last child born to James Franklin Jollett and Lucy Ann Shiflett was a boy whom they named Ulysses Finks. He never got to know his mother because she died soon after he was born.

Like his brothers and sisters, Ulysses grew up on the family farm in Greene County, Virginia, and he attended school where he learned to read and write.

from the Richmond Times Dispatch Nov 28, 1903

On November 23, 1903, he married Sadie Janiero Lamb in her parents’ home near Nortonsville. The two set up housekeeping in Harriston, Virginia, where James Franklin Jollett lived. The next year, they welcomed their only child Vessie Bernice.

 

Ulysses and Sadie Jollett
Vessie Jollett

By 1910, Ulysses, Sadie, and Vessie had moved to Shenandoah where most of his sisters and their families lived. He went to work for the Norfolk & Western Railroad, first as a laborer in the shops repairing wrecked train cars, and then later as a fireman. Eventually he became an engineer. The Jolletts were particularly close to Ulysses’ sister Vic and her husband Decatur Breeden, maybe because they were close in age and maybe also because Decatur was a railroad employee too.

 

Standing: Sadie Lamb Jollett and Vic Jollett Breeden
Seated: Ulysses Jollett and Decatur Breeden

Sometime before 1930, Ulysses moved his family to Baltimore, Maryland. He worked as a stationary engineer, another term for power engineer. Apparently he operated industrial machinery and equipment that produced energy.

While by all accounts, Ulysses was successful in his work, something was not right. On January 30, 1931, Ulysses died from a gunshot wound. According to the Coroner’s inquest, it was self-inflicted. Ulysses’ doctor claimed he suffered from “melancholia.”

However, Sadie and some others believe he was murdered by a lover’s jealous husband. According to family lore, he had an eye for the women and was known to take leftovers from Sadie’s good cooking to his lady companion. Apparently there was no investigation into the family’s theory about murder.

Ulysses Finks JOLLETT (26 Jan 1883 Greene Co, VA – 30 Jan 1931 Baltimore, MD) and Sadie Janiero LAMB (7 Jul 1880 Greene Co, VA – 5 Feb 1961 Fredericksburg, VA) married 23 Nov 1903 Greene Co, VA

1. Vessie Bernice JOLLETT (21 Aug 1904 Greene Co, VA – 28 Jan 2001 Dahlgren, VA) and Gilbert A. STEPPE (1 Mar 1895 Page Co, VA – 12 Jul 1975 Fredericksburg, VA) married 26 Dec 1922 Harrisonburg, VA

Wendy

© 2016, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.