Two-year-old Edward T. Hay, Detroit, Michigan, Circa 1880

I had this carte de visite pegged as an extreme long shot when I purchased it online last year, and I still feel that way about it.  It does have an ID on the reverse:  "Edward T. Hay, 2 1/2 years old," and it does have a photographer's imprint which tells us where the photograph was taken, along with a negative index number 13107.  The J.E. Watson studio operated for a very short time, from 1879 to 1881 at 41 & 43 Monroe Avenue in Detroit.  Using those dates as a guideline, I searched for any Edward Hay in Michigan born between 1876-1881.  (Technically, I could have narrowed the search to 1876 to 1879, but for ease of searching on Ancestry I opted for the +/- 5 year search option).  I didn't hit any in the US Censuses.  I did, however, find a public family tree that had a match.

The tree indicated that "Edward Trumble Hay" was born 23 September 1878 in Detroit, to David and Burzina Hurd (Woodbridge) Hay¹.  As this was the only avenue available that seemed plausible, I decided to see what I could discover about this Edward Hay.  I could not find an online birth record for Edward.

The Hay family did not show up in any of the US censuses where I would normally have expected to find them.  I widened the search to Canada and found the family in the 1881, 1891, 1901 censuses, living in Warwick, Lambton County, Ontario^{2 3 4}

In addition to Edward T. Hay, parents David and Burzina had eight other children:  Leverett, b. 1877, Walter G., b. 1881, Stella, b. 1880, Andrew, b. 1885, Burzina, b. 1887, James, b. 1889, Harold B., b. 1891, and Grace L., b.1892.  The mother, Burzina, and three of the children appear to have been born in the US:  Leverett, Edward and Stella³.  I found an image of Burzina's gravestone and an obituary on Rootsweb.  According to her obituary, Burzina's father, William L. Woodbridge was a Governor of Michigan. 

Edward T.'s gravestone and obituary also appears on Rootsweb.  He died of typhoid at the age of 25.  He is buried in St. Paul's Cemetery in Wisbeach, Ontario.

We can't say for sure if Edward Trumbell/Trumble Hay is the child featured in our carte de visite photograph.  Without finding a similar image in the possession of a known relative, or being able to match the negative index number on the back of the photograph to an entry in the J.E. Watson record book, I don't think we can say more than it's possible.

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1 "Public Member Trees," database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com/ - accessed 23 Jun 2013), "Virginia Taylor Family" entry for Edward Trumble Hay (1878-1904); submitted by calamity72, no source citations.^↩
2 "Canada Census, 1881," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MVDP-HCH : accessed 23 Jun 2013), David Hay, Warwick, Lambton, Ontario, Canada.^↩
3 1891 census of Canada, Warwick, Lambton East, Ontario, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 81, subdistrict #2, p.51 (penned), family 245, David Hay household; digital image, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 23 Jun 2013); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm T-6290 to T-6427.^↩
4 "Canada Census, 1901," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KHLH-G9P : accessed 23 Jun 2013), David Hay, 1901.^↩

From the Chillingham Park Album, Miss Austin, Elliott and Fry Studios, London, 1882-1884

Miss Austin

This young girl is from my "mystery carte de visite album" (see previous post) and is simply identified as "Miss Austin."  The photograph was taken at the Elliott and Fry Photographers studio on Baker Street, London, around 1882-1884.  I came to settle on this approximate date range primarily from the negative number (120765) on the back, and by comparing it to known Elliott & Fry cartes de visite that were dated with an index number on the reverse.

Unfortunately, we are given no further information about Miss Austin. 

Mystery Manor House Carte de Visite Album, Northumberland, England & Scotland, 1860s-1880s

This is the cover of the lovely souvenir carte de visite album that my husband bought for me when he was in Calgary last month. I've seen all kinds of fabric and paper coverings on cdv albums, but this is the first one I've seen in wood. And not just any wood. This album touts the fact it was made from "wood grown in Chillingham Park."  Chillingham Park, located in Northumberland, is "famous for its breed of wild cattle."  

There are four images on the front cover:  Chillingham Church, Fowberry Tower, Lilburn Tower, and Coupland Castle. The back features an image of Chillingham Castle.  A small plaque appears to be missing from the centre. The album was probably produced in some quantity.  A photograph of another manor house was cut out in an oval shape and pasted on one of the inside pages. I haven't been able to identify it. 

Do you recognize this manor house?

Of the 64 carte de visites in the album, only two are identified by subject's name. There is also a loose cdv of "Royal Group, Drumlanrig Castle, October 1869," which identifies 13 prominent individuals, including Prince Christian, Princess Christian, Lady Constance Marsham, The Earl of Dalkeith, and other guests invited to the castle by The Duke of Buccleuch during the first week of October 1869. The album may have belonged to someone with connections to the upper class. The cdvs in the album feature well-to-do individuals. The clothes are elegant. Some of images are taken at high-end studios such as Elliot & Fry (London), Alexander Bassano (London), Camille Silvy (London), and O. G. Rejlander (London). Some of the photographs originated in Glasgow.

The image of "Miss Austin," a girl who looks to be about thirteen or fourteen years old, was taken at the Elliott & Fry Studio in London, circa 1870s. It is too much of long shot to tackle a search on her right now.  The other identified image is of a child, "Arthur William James Cecil, 15 weeks old" and his parents. The photographer's imprint on the reverse reads, "The Misses Carrick, 14 Grey Street, Newcastle on Tyne." I believe the women operated their studio in the 1870s.

Arthur William James Cecil, 15 weeks old

The interesting thing about this young boy's identification is that all four names provided could be forenames. "Cecil" could be a surname. I searched on Ancestry.com for the full name with Cecil as the surname. I had several exact hits, all for the same individual and many, many others if counting anyone with one or more of the forenames and a last name "Cecil," or any combination of abbreviations.

There were quite a few leads to follow when I looked into the exact hits for "Arthur William James Cecil." Of particular help was the Cambridge Alumni Directory, 1261-1900 on Ancestry.com which stated that Arthur was the son of Lord Arthur Cecil, and was born Apr. 4, 1875 at Newbiggin, Westmorland. Arthur William Cecil was the Aide-De-Camp to the Governor of Victoria, Australia, 1898-1900 and later served with the Grenadier Guards in the South African War and in WW1. He died Sept. 26, 1936 at Rudgwick, Horsham, Sussex. He was connected to several residences including Finchcox Park, Goudhurst, Kent; and Orchardmains, Tonbridge, Kent. 

I tried to find a good portrait of Lord Cecil for comparison with the father in the above photo.  There are surprisingly few images online of his family. Here's a link to the best portrait I could find of Lord Cecil from Bailey's Magazine. 

He does bear a good resemblance, I think.  If my image is actually Lord Cecil, then there is a wealth of information about his family, starting with Burke's Peerage.  Lord Arthur married Elizabeth Ann Wilson, whose lineage is as meticulously documented as Lord Arthur's. Even so, I didn't have any luck finding an online image of her.

At this point, I can't say who owned the album or even who is featured in the album.  But I'm generally tenacious about these things, and will keep trying to uncover clues as to its origins.  In the meantime, if you can help with identifying either the manor house or the trio in the above photograph, I'd be very happy if you'd leave a comment.


UPDATE: Our manor mystery has been solved! Read about the discovery here! 

Oscar Cash, 1845-1930's, From Kentucky to Missouri to Washington and Oregon

After having some success with the Edna Dalling image from last week's post, I thought I'd try revisiting a few other mystery photos from the Family Photo Reunion collection to see if I could uncover anything new about them, too.

This image was originally posted as one of three cabinet cards taken in Kittitas County, Washington (see original post here).  The photo was merely identified as "Oscar Cash, 1897" and was taken at the Pautze Studio in Ellensburg, Washington.

A new search for Oscar Cash in Kittitas County on Ancestry.com brought up several entries in a local history book, "An Illustrated History of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas Counties...."  If we have the correct Oscar Cash (and I must emphasize that this is not a certainty, but only a good possibility), he was the son of William and Elisabeth (Duncan) Cash¹.  Oscar was born October 13, 1845 in Harrison County, Kentucky.  He was one of eleven children born to William and Elisabeth; the other siblings were Thornton b. 1843, Mary b. 1846, Talitha, b. 1848, Milton, b. 1851, America, b. 1855, Ellen, b. 1858, John H., b. 1861 and Mollie.  I do not have information on the other children.   In 1856 the family moved on, settling in Lone Jack, Missouri.  There Oscar learned the blacksmith trade from his father.  Oscar's father had been doing quite well financially prior to the civil war, but lost nearly all of his property during the war².   Oscar left for the coal mining town of Cle-Elum, Washington sometime between 1880 and 1900.  Oscar's brother John H. Cash followed in 1900.

In 1903, Oscar sold a quarter section of land near Cle Elum to the town for the sum of $2000¹.  He then moved to Portland, Oregon where he lived with his wife, Emma³.  Oscar's last census appearance is in 1930, at the age of 83 living with Emma and two nephews with the surname Robenow in the happily-named town of Sunnyside, in Clackamas County, Oregon⁴.

As always, we would need a known and identified photograph to compare ours with, to verify that this is the same Oscar Cash.

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1 Interstate Publishing Company. An Illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas Counties : with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington. Unknown: Interstate Publishing Company, 1904; pp. 307-308, 919, digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed May 31, 2013). ^↩
2 Union Historical Company, The History of Jackson County, Missouri: Containing a History of the County, Its Cities, Towns, Etc., Biographical Sketches of Its Citizens, Jackson County in the Late War.... Jackson County, Missouri: Union Historical Company, 1881, p. 932, digital images, Google Books. http://google.com/books : accessed May 31 2013. ^↩
3 "United States Census, 1910," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MLYV-CCF : accessed 01 Jun 2013), Oscar Cash, 1910.^↩
4 "United States Census, 1930," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XC9C-K2C : accessed 04 Jun 2013), Oscar Cash, 1930.>^↩