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, Ontario2 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.
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.↩
"Trumble" is an interesting middle name. I wonder what its origins are?
ReplyDeleteSad he died so young.