The Future Mrs. Beaulieu - Nellie May Shepard, Class of 1899, Michigan

The lovely young woman in the flouncy, high-necked, chiffon-laced dress is Nellie May Shepard, from "the Class of '99."  From which class, we don't exactly know, but we should have enough clues to figure out who Miss Shepard is.  This image was found in a Vancouver antique shop alongside three other Shepard family images, and Nellie should fit into this family somewhere.  Two of the photos, including the above image were taken in Ovid, Michigan.  The others were photographed in Seattle and St. Johns, Michigan.

The other photographs are of

1)  "Barton M. Shepard, son of D.B & Ella Barton." 
2)  "Ella Doe Shepard, mother of Nellie Beaulieu," 
3)  "Mrs. James Doe - ??? Doe, mother of Ella M. Shepard."

With the information on the photographs I've linked Nellie to the family of Barton Shepard, who appears in the 1880 US Census ¹.   The family consisted of:

Barton Shepard, 29, Drover, born Pennsylvania
Mary H. Shepard (I believe she went by the name Ella), 22, born Canada
Mary E. Shepard (I believe she went by the name Nellie), 5 months, born Michigan
Marshall E. Doe, 24, farm lab.

One of the photographs tell us that Nellie married someone with the surname Beaulieu.  I did not find a marriage record online for Nellie, but I did locate a Nellie Beaulieu, born 1880 in Michigan, in the 1910 census, married to Richard L. Beaulieu, 40, with son, Charlies, 3 months². The family lived in Seattle, and later moved to Everett, Washington³.

I can't say with certainty this is the correct Nellie Shepard Beaulieu.  A marriage record would be required to make the connection properly.  

This Nellie Beaulieu passed away in Washington State on the 19th of November 1950⁴.

UPDATE:  July 15, 2012:  I went back to the antique shop and found another photo belonging to this family.  This one is a baby portrait of Charles Beaulieu, son of Nellie and Richard Beaulieu. 

UPDATE: July 27, 2012:  While this photo hasn't yet been reunited, the three other photos I mentioned in the above post have been returned to a descendant.   They arrived at their new home today and here is what the recipient had to say:

“I just got the pictures today. The Mrs. James Doe picture is especially invaluable.  Her name, by the way, was Mary Ann Knuckey, a miner's daughter from Cornwall, whose father died a few months after she was born in 1837 (he died of a fever on a return trip from mining in Cuba). Mary Ann's mother remarried, moved her family to Canada, remarried again, and moved to Ovid, in mid-Michigan.  Mary Ann married James Doe in Canada, then moved with her mother and lived in Ovid the rest of her life (aside from visiting grandchildren in Seattle!) and died there in 1928.  Mary Ann and James had only one son, Marshall (who opened a drug store in Philipsburg, Montana -- the M.E. Doe house is a historical monument there), and eight daughters, including Ella (Doe) Shepard and Edith (Doe) Baker (my gg-grandmother).   Not that you really needed that info, but I liked sharing.   :) "

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1 "United States Census, 1880," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MWSS-QFR : accessed 5 July 2012), Mary E. Shepard in household of Barton Shepard, Ovid, Clinton, Michigan.^↩
2 "United States Census, 1910," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MGJS-JYH : accessed 5 July 2012), Nellie S Beaulieu in household of Richard L Bealieu, Seattle Ward 7, King, Washington.^↩
3 "United States Census, 1940," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/K9S8-YN1 : accessed 5 July 2012), Nellie S Beaulien in household of R Lawrence Beaulien, Everett, Everett Election Precinct 14, Snohomish, Washington, United States.^↩
4 Ancestry.com. Washington Death Index, 1940-1996 [database on-line]. Record for Nellie S. Beaulieu, Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com.^↩