Who is the woman in this photo? Part 2

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment

This blog post is Part 2 of “Who is the woman in this photo?” Click here to read Part 1.

For starters, I’ve re-posted the photos discussed in Part 1 which I will continue to discuss in Part 2.

The next two steps involve my attempt to identify the type of photography and clothing style in order to place the photos in a particular time period.

STEP #1 – Identify and date photo type

With the help of this great website, PhotoTree.com, it was fairly easy to determine that all three photos are “carte de visite”, otherwise known as “CDV”. First appearing in 1859, CDV was the first process to use a glass negative – which meant that customers could afford to purchase several copies for sharing with family and friends.

Some hallmarks of CDVs are –

  • Size:  Typically 2 3/8″ x 4 1/4″, although the size may vary up to 1/4″.
  • Corners: Square corners until 1870, then rounded corners.
  • Image size: The more the image fills the card, the later the date. By 1874, the image completely filled the card.
  • Thickness: Early cards were very thin but became thicker by 1870 and even thicker by 1880.

Conclusion: Since all three photos measure roughly 2 3/8″ x 4 1/4″, have rounded corners, large images, and the cards are very thick (although Photo #2 is thicker than the other two), it’s likely that Photos #1 and #3 are dated sometime after 1874 and Photo #2 after 1880.

STEP #2 – Identify and date clothing style

Next, I did some research regarding women’s fashion styles of the 19th century and came across this interesting article on the history of fashion, 1840-1900. The description of clothing in the 1880s seemed to be the closest match – tightly fitted bodice with narrow sleeves and high necklines.

Dresses in the prior decade (1870s) had more “flounces” and “ruching”, and low necklines were fashionable. By contrast, dresses in the next decade (1890s) were similar to the 1880s, except that the sleeve shape began changing in about 1893 – tight at the lower arm and puffed out at the upper arm.

Conclusion: Based on women’s clothing styles, Photos #1 and #3 are likely dated anywhere from the early 1880s through the early 1890s.

And then it happened – The “Ah Hah Moment!” when I realized that placing Photo #1 in the early 1880s through the early 1890s time frame meant that the woman in Photo #1 could be Brita. And if the woman was Brita, the small boy could be her son John. And perhaps John is also the boy in Photo #2?1

STEP #3 – Locate a record for “John”

I decided it was time to try and find some type of record for John. And I really lucked out here. It turned out Ancestry had recently acquired some Swedish records, so I easily located a birth record which I wrote about here – showing there was a baby boy named “Johan”, born to an “Andrew Dalin” and “Brita Johansdotter” in Hudiksvall, Sweden in 1887.2

Finally, everything seemed to be falling into place. My father’s story about the little boy named John appeared to be validated – and as a bonus, assuming the birth record is valid, I had possibly located a record indicating that Brita’s maiden name was “Johansdotter”.

STEP #4 – Now what?

I wasn’t sure what to do next – but as luck would have it, I came across the name of a woman who specializes in helping people analyze their family photos. Her web site is The Photo Detective and her name is Maureen Taylor. I scheduled a phone appointment and then emailed the following three photos:

All the information I had about Photo #1 has been previously stated. Here’s some information about the other two photos:

 Photo #2:

  • The boy in the front row, Walter Dalin, was the son of Andrew and Brita Dalin.
  • At least one of the other two girls, and possibly both, are daughters of Andrew and Brita.
  • The man second from the left in the back row is probably Andrew and the woman standing next to him is probably Brita.

Photo #3:

  • Several family members have identified this woman as Brita Dalin.
  • The handwriting on that photo appears to be Brita’s handwriting (based on a few other examples of her handwriting).

This is the end of Part 2. Part 3 includes a report on my phone call with Maureen. Stay tuned!

Copyright (c) 2016, Lark M. Dalin Robart

FOOTNOTES

  1. As for Photo #3, I decided for the time being to set it aside because I am unable to place this family – presumably a family consisting of a wife and husband with two children (girls, boys or one of each??) – in any scenario, given the information I currently have for Brita and Andrew. Assuming this photo was taken during the same time period as Photo #1, the only scenario of which I can currently conceive is that the adult female or adult male is a sibling of either Brita or Andrew. Another research project for another day. ↩
  2. Sweden, Indexed Birth Records, 1860-1941, digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 04 April 2016), “Swedish Church Records Archive; Johanneshov, Sweden; Sweden, Indexed Birth Records, 1880-1920; GID Number: 100021.2.24500; Roll/Fiche Number: SC-1110; Volume: :937; Year Range: 1888, Johan Lars Anders Dahlin entry. ↩

My Birthplace Pedigree Charts

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment

Thanks to J. Paul Hawthorne, author of the GeneaSpy blog, many of us out here in the genealogy-blogging world spent some time this last week creating these fun birthplace pedigree charts.

Birthplace Pedigree Chart (1)

As a brief explanation, the first cell represents my birthplace, the next two are my father and mother, then their parents, and so on. I used colors that “sorta” reflect the flags of the particular states and countries. And it was interesting to have a visual showing just how much German ancestry I have on both sides of my family. It certainly explains my DNA results – 54% Europe West!

And then I thought it would be fun to do another chart that shows the birthplaces by continent only (blue = North America and yellow = Europe). So I created this one.

Birthplace Pedigree Chart (2)

This chart is interesting because it reminds me – and should remind most all of us – that we are immigrants. And in my case, fairly recent – except for my great great grandmother (in the 5th generation) who was born in Pennsylvania in 1829. Her line dates back to my 8th great grandfather who ended up in Rhode Island in about 1638. But even he was an immigrant from England.

Thanks Paul for the fun BSO!1

Copyright (c) 2016, Lark M. Dalin Robart
  1. “Bright Shiny Object” ↩

100th Anniversary of the Easter Rising

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment

IRELAND (EIRE) - CIRCA 1966: A stamp printed in Ireland shows Patrick Henry Pearse (1879-1916), 50th anniversary of the Easter Week Rebellion, and to honor the signers of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, circa 1966.

Monday of this week marked the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising1. So I’ve been wondering what my Irish-born great grandfather Joseph Kieron might have been thinking as the events unfolded that week in 1916.

Joseph J. Kieron (1874-1939)
Joseph J. Kieron born 1874 in Drumgoosat Townland, County Monaghan, Ireland

Joseph had immigrated to the United States from Ireland in about 1895 and made his way immediately to Butte, Montana. With its large Irish population, stories of the rebellion must have been big news in Butte.

So of course I got right on the computer to see what more I could learn.

According to this recent article from the Montana Standard, the impact on Butte was “huge”. Both the Anaconda Standard and the Butte Miner ran nearly identical stories but the headlines of each paper were quite different – the Standard being the more “restrained” of the two. And among the group of activists eventually tried and shot for treason was James Connolly who had visited Butte in 1910.

On April 30th, the day most of the Irish nationalists surrendered in Dublin, at least 1,000 Butte Irish met at the Hibernia Hall to establish the Butte chapter of The Friends of Irish Freedom – a group founded to support the goal of national independence of Ireland.

Quite accidentally, I also learned that the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives has a CD which contains “scans of documents pertaining to the Friends of Irish Freedom from 1910 to 1936”, including membership rosters. I’ve ordered a copy of the CD – it should arrive any day.

Do you suppose Joseph attended that meeting in a show of support for his countrymen? I’m hoping to find out.

Copyright (c) 2016, Lark M. Dalin Robart
  1. The Easter Rising was an armed rebellion by a group of Irish nationalists determined to end British rule in Ireland and establish an independent Irish Republic. ↩

Thatcher vs. Blacker et al; United States Supreme Court Case No. 851

~ Lark Dalin Robart ~ Leave a comment

On this date in 1966, my Aunt Kate passed away. And the opportunity for any of us to ask her how she ended up being the Respondent in a U.S. Supreme Court Case died that day, too. (Although my mother lovingly says that she probably would never have told us anyway.)

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1956 photo_Katherine Helen Blacker_photo taken by Cid Dalin JrThis is a photo of my grandfather’s sister, Katherine Rebecca Blacker – known in our family as “Aunt Kate”.

She was about 74 years old when my father took this photo. And this is exactly how I remember her.

Very small – about 5′ nothing. Formal. And always neatly dressed, with a few pieces of carefully selected jewelry.

All my cousins of a certain age remember going to visit Aunt Kate and her older sister Aunt Zetta. Were were given very specific instructions by our parents before arriving at the front door. “Only speak when you are spoken to. Be polite and sit quietly. And no fidgeting!” Or something like that. You get the idea.

They were both very sweet and polite – but seemed a little “stuffy” to all of us kids.

But as they say, be careful not to judge a book by its cover. Continue reading →