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I reunite identified family photos that I find in antique shops and second hand stores with genealogists and family historians. If you see one of your ancestors here and would like to obtain the original, feel free to contact me at familyphotoreunion [ at ] yahoo [ dot ] com. I also accept donations of pre-1927 images to be reunited. I hope you enjoy your visit!
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Thursday, March 8, 2012

Two Names, Same Daughter: Eve/Ethel Ealey, Brazil, IN, 1901



This photograph is simply labelled, "Aunt Ethel" on the back, but the identification of the subject may not be as impossible as it might seem at first glance.  I purchased this portrait with a grouping of photos once belonging to a child of Ora Ealey Kolcheck.   I've posted about this collection in four previous posts (click on "Ealey" in the sidebar to see these) and so I have looked into this family's family history a bit already.  Since the inscriber of the photograph is likely Ora's offspring, it would make sense that I would be looking for a sibling of her mother or father.  Ora's parents were George and Melissa Ealey.  George married a second time after Melissa died, to Phebe Loveall.  I started with Ora's siblings and found that she did, in fact, have a half-sister named Ethel.

Ethel Ealey appears in the 1910 US Federal census for Jackson, Clay County, Indiana, daughter of George and Phebe Ealey.  Her birth date is listed as abt. 1899.  She also appears in the 1920 census, living on her own at age 21.  You may notice that this photo was taken at a Street Fair in Brazil, Indiana in 1901.  That would mean that this little girl would be two years old.  Does she look that young to you?  Maybe, but she seems slightly older to me.    

I noticed that Ethel doesn't appear in the 1900 census with her parents.  Why?  Either she wasn't born yet, or she is there and we just don't recognize her.  There is an Eve Ealey, daughter of George and Phebe Ealey, born 1898 in that census, who, coincidentally, doesn't appear in the later censuses.  Could Eve be Ethel?  If so, I think I would be more comfortable with the age of the child in the photograph as being three years old.

One of the documents I found with the photographs was Ora Ealey's marriage certificate.  She married William Henry Kolcheck on October 6, 1909.  One of the witnesses who signed the certificate was Ora's grandmother, Wealthy Ealey.

I searched for information about the family of William Henry Kolcheck in the US Censuses.  His parents were George (b.1840) and Addie Kolcheck (b.1854) of Indianapolis.  The family appears as Kolachek and Kolanchek in the 1880 census.  George and Addie only appear to have had three daughters, Katie (b.1866),  Rosa (b.1879), and Louisa (b.1863) and one son, William (b.1875).  Addie had a child from a previous marriage named George Holb (b.1862).  So no Ethels there.

Have we successfully identified this little girl?  It's hard to say.  I think it's a good guess and quite probable, but without other photographs to compare this one to, we can't say for sure. 

Update November 2012: This item has been reunited with a descendant in Missouri

4 comments:

  1. ..or perhaps she is the wife of a sibling and therefore the "aunt-in-law".

    I used to live just outside of Brazil, Indiana while attending college in Terre Haute. Small world we live in. Jackson is "around the corner" from Brazil (less than 5-6 miles away). Given the US Census birthdates are "estimated" they could be off by almost a year - so the age of the girl could be as much as 3 (or even slightly more). I think the girl in the picture could be that young. :)

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  2. Yes, that's a possibility, too. While I do think she's more likely to be a blood relative, all is speculation. I wasn't able to find any of the siblings with a wife named Ethel, but there could be other marriages I haven't found. I just wish the photo had been labelled a little more effectively with a surname at least.

    I don't know if Little Ethel was very impressed with the whole picture-taking project, she looks a wee bit apprehensive.

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  3. Maybe one is a middle-name that she decided to go by instead?

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  4. That would be my guess, too, K.S.H. While I haven't found a document with both names on it, I would bet there's one out there.

    Thanks for stopping by!

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