Two Brothers from Barlow, Washington County, Ohio

Even if these next two cabinet card portraits from the mid-1880s didn't provide names, you'd probably still guess that the subjects of these photos were brothers.      

Luckily for us, the photos are identified and we can safely say that these two young men are Everett and Morrison Laflin.  For the longest time,  I read the writing of  their surname as "Laplin."  One day, after yet another fruitless census search for I thought I would try substituting the "p" for an "f."  And there they were, in the 1800 Census for Barlow, Washington County, Ohio, sons of Charles S. and Caroline M. Laflin, along with their younger sister, Lizzie, aged three.  Morrison is actually the middle name of James T. M. Laflin, born 9 June 1874 in Washington County.  Everett was listed as Charles E. Laflin, in the 1880 census, but in 1900 census appears as "Everet" Laflin.  In 1900, Everett, who was born January 1871, can be found living with his parents in Watertown, Washington County, Ohio.

I noticed that the transcribers of the 1910 Census had some difficulty deciphering the Laflin name, as I did.  It appears as "Saflin" on Ancestry.com.   At this time, Everett and his parents are still living in Watertown.

Everett's brother James Morrison is living in Seattle, Washington in 1910 with his wife of three years, Dorothy.  He registered for the WW1 draft on September 12, 1918 in Cochise, Arizona.  His occupation is listed as "credit man & bookkeeper" and his nearest relative was Caroline M. Laflin.  I believe Caroline Laflin's maiden name may have been Cooksey, but a marriage record search would have to be done to confirm this.

Laflin isn't that common a name, but hopefully there are Laflin researchers out there who will enjoy seeing these photos.

UPDATE Feb 26, 2020 A weird thing happened two nights ago when I was watching an episode of "Antiques Roadshow" from Sacramento, Ca. There was a short segment that featured a cabinet card photo album. The album was opened to a page...and I immediately recognized the young boy in one of the photographs as the above Everett Laflin! I paused the show so I could walk up to the screen and read the inscription on the photograph. Sure enough. It read, "Everett Laflin." I'm not sure what to do with this odd case of serendipty. I just found it extremely strange, don't you?