I haven't posted in awhile. The Thomas West story has taken a back seat it seems. But such is life and dealing with real family issues and things that need full attention spans. Nothing personal, readers. Though at this early stage of my blog, it doesn't look like I have ANY readers, come to think of it.
Prompting me to write today is the desire to have the phrase "Courtesy of the Kevin Thomas West Family Collection" put on the internet. Something searchable, hopefully. I gave some family photos to THIS site recently and they are now asking how I want them credited. The photos are not mine specifically, belonging to both me and my aunt, but I wanted my full name used so that I will be the one who is contacted, in case someone wants to do so. I've seen some amazing finds happen by just putting direct information out there on the internet. And that's what I want to do and have happen.
The website I gave to, LangdonRoad.com, catalogs photos and their photographers. Some people will give a photo that is already identified and dated. That bit of information can help others, if a photograph of a relative is found, but the date it was taken is in question. As one who likes to identify old photographs, I find the date a photograph was taken to be a huge piece of information about a persons life. It not only says what they were doing on the particular day, or year, but what they may have been doing in that town, or on that trip. And then sometimes it just confirms previous information that one thought might be true, but had yet been able to confirm.
And then, much of the interest in giving to LangdonRoad.com came after trying to identify a series of photos from the Marcia S. Lewis album. Marcia S. Lewis (1849-1936) was married to Calvin Patterson (1847-1902), and they lived in Brooklyn, New York. Calvin was my great grand uncle, the brother of my 2nd great grandfather, Marion Patterson of Blue Rapids, Kansas. Calvin was much beloved in the family. He died suddenly, as he sat down to the dinner table one night in 1902. The family had been having a good laugh about something (so the story goes) and he just dropped to the ground, never again gaining consciousness. It was a tragic loss. Felt for years. As he is mentioned countless times in old letters.
Prompting me to write today is the desire to have the phrase "Courtesy of the Kevin Thomas West Family Collection" put on the internet. Something searchable, hopefully. I gave some family photos to THIS site recently and they are now asking how I want them credited. The photos are not mine specifically, belonging to both me and my aunt, but I wanted my full name used so that I will be the one who is contacted, in case someone wants to do so. I've seen some amazing finds happen by just putting direct information out there on the internet. And that's what I want to do and have happen.
The website I gave to, LangdonRoad.com, catalogs photos and their photographers. Some people will give a photo that is already identified and dated. That bit of information can help others, if a photograph of a relative is found, but the date it was taken is in question. As one who likes to identify old photographs, I find the date a photograph was taken to be a huge piece of information about a persons life. It not only says what they were doing on the particular day, or year, but what they may have been doing in that town, or on that trip. And then sometimes it just confirms previous information that one thought might be true, but had yet been able to confirm.
And then, much of the interest in giving to LangdonRoad.com came after trying to identify a series of photos from the Marcia S. Lewis album. Marcia S. Lewis (1849-1936) was married to Calvin Patterson (1847-1902), and they lived in Brooklyn, New York. Calvin was my great grand uncle, the brother of my 2nd great grandfather, Marion Patterson of Blue Rapids, Kansas. Calvin was much beloved in the family. He died suddenly, as he sat down to the dinner table one night in 1902. The family had been having a good laugh about something (so the story goes) and he just dropped to the ground, never again gaining consciousness. It was a tragic loss. Felt for years. As he is mentioned countless times in old letters.
This photo, from about 1872, is one of many in an album sent to my aunt. The album has weaved its way down from Marcia to and through a series of people. I am still trying to figure out who held/owned/cared for it all its life (the album has been dated to the early 1860's), because knowing who had it can help identify the people inside. And that it did. Here's the album by the way...
It's still a work in progress, but I've identified a good 18 out of the 43 people inside. Though honestly, I had a little help from the person who sent the album, who knew several of the ladies on later pages. But I'm ahead of myself. Here's what I've done. I first carefully scanned each photo in the album, marking them as to what page they were on. I next looked up the various photographers and gave the photo a general year of production. Which tended to be the early/mid 1860's early on in the album, and then later as she grew up and started a family. One of the main clues was that the album is entitled "Marcia S. Lewis." That would be her unmarried name, as she becomes Marcia Lewis Patterson in 1870. And then it makes sense for the album, and a girl inserting photos of her family. And then it follows that she later inserted photos of her husband and young children. Though I wonder later if her daughter, Mabel Patterson (1872-1962), doesn't "take care of" the album, as I don't think there's a photo of her in it. I envisioned her taking them out, being embarrassed or some such notion. After Mabel, or maybe even while Mabel is alive, the album gets passed to Marcia Lewis Patterson (1911-1991), the granddaughter of Marcia and the niece of Mabel. Marcia is the daughter Edward Calvin Patterson (1877-1932) and Elizabeth Fisher (1881-1976). And it's probably Marcia that inserts photos of her aunts, the sisters of mother Elizabeth. They are all from Syracuse, NY and rather easy to identify. Though I did get some help from cousin Beth Zehnder who included notes with the album. I think you have to cheat sometimes in this old photo identification business.
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