Old Photos

Sepia Saturday
this week invites us to submit old photos of trials, lawyers, and/or writing on photos.

I don't have the first 2, but have the last in abundance.  And sometimes the writing was applied many years later than the event, so is sometimes wrong at to people's names, misleading, or dated incorrectly.  I'm glad when there's a question admitted.  Unfortunately sometimes the answers are still wrong.  But it does show the appreciation of having some names given to old pictures, which came about at the times they were passed from one hand to another, most often.

And that hand off is strangely never documented.

A batch of letters/ perhaps a box.  Another box of photos.  And later an album of photos. They would have been given to interested relatives usually at the death of the collector.  The interested relative might have been the one most friendly to the elder who died, or perhaps just the first one on the scene who wanted those documents.  Maybe several others were also interested, so it would be part of that conversation..of whom is this a photo?  Some of the owners would have no more interest than to be possessors of something that someone else might want.  Seldom were these memorabilia mentioned in a will.

Thus through the generations would old items be passed, until sometime they would go to an auction, a library, or a trash bin, or perhaps be scanned for adding to listings on the ancestry site.

My great great Uncle Chauncey Sweet's friend and benefactor, Henry Rosenberg of Galveston, was the subject of my blog a while ago.  Both of them are characters of high regard.  Look here if you have a chance.

This photo has a dedication from Mr. Rosenberg to Chauncey G. Sweet.

His wife, Mollie, also dedicated a photo to Chauncey, a bit more intimate I'd say...

Here's one where the surviving owner of the photo changed her mind about who this lovely lady might be.  She is Ada Pulsifer Phillips Sweet, Chauncey Sweet's wife.  She was called Auntie, and was also Chauncey's first cousin with whom he was raised after she had been orphaned following the Civil War.  She was the younger sister of my grandmother's mother, Zulieka Granger Phillips Swasey.

 A photo of (Mrs. Alexander John) Zulieka Swasey.  It's easy to see how my grandmother got confused in the photo of Ada Sweet in comparing it to this one of Ada's sister, Zulieka.

A 1917 postcard of Zulieka Phillips Swasey with her granddaughter Ada Mary Rogers (1917-1919)  As shown, she was known as Dear Nan by her daughter's (my grandmother's) family.

My grandmother's father, Alexander John Swasey.

I remember when I first got married in 1963 having long talks with my elder relatives about our family history, and my grandmother never mentioned these photos.  Did one of my older cousins, or one of my uncles (brothers of my father) have them? It is possible they were in the collection of her sister, Stella Zulieka Swasey Winslow, who died in 1960, (the same year as my grandfather, George Rogers). There are many possibilities. And at some time someone added these photos to our Ancestry DOT com pages, which is the first place I ever saw them.

I am so blessed to live in an age when digital means are available to share these old photos.

The July 30 birthdays

Zulieka Granger Phillips Swasey b. July 30, 1858 near Atlanta. GA on plantation, called Dear Nan (She died 4.21.1935 near Rosenberg, TX.)   I've already given tribute to "Dear Nan" my great grandmother on my father's side, HERE.

When she was celebrating her 33rd birthday in 1891, when probably living in Galveston, Texas, my grandfather on my mother's side, Albert "Bud" Joe Webb, was being born in Weesatche, Goliad County, Texas.  (His died in 1919 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, so I never met him).  I have given some information about him Here.

Albert "Bud" Webb 1924

 Is there anything I can add about these two ancestors?  Thanks to Ancestry where other relatives are posting pictures of our ancestors, I do have this new one to add to my collection.

 The home of Alexander and Zulie Swasey where Ada Swasey married George Rogers in 1906, Galveston, Texas. Picture much more recent.

Grandpa "Bud" Webb's draft card for WW I, filled out June 5, 1917.

And here is George Rogers draft card for WW I, filled out Sept 12, 1918.

Neither of them served in the war.

There are some really different questions on the forms they have filled out.  In 1917, Bud answered 12 questions...not claiming any cause for exemption....but he did show he had wife and child.  And the questions including asking if he was support for anyone under 12 years of age.  I don't know if there's a typo or if he gave his birthdate wrong, but he was born in 1861, and the draft form says 1862.

It is strange that Grandfather Rogers "Poppy" gave his next of kin as his mother in Galveston, while he was living with wife and children in Fort Worth.  However, I'm so glad he did, because that one piece of information told me his mother was still alive at that time, and then I went through records to find out more about her life.

Poppy also has a wrong birthdate on his draft card of 1918.  He was born August 28, 1877, and the form says Aug. 20.   By the 1918 form, there are 20 questions asked, but none about his marital status at all, nor if he had children dependent upon him.  Instead there are 5 questions about his race.

I am so glad that neither of them were in the war.  Though Bud died in September, 1919, Poppy lived until February, 1960. 

So a happy anniversary of your birth, Dear Nan, and Grandpa Bud.

Great Grandmother birthday

On July 30, 1858, Zulieka Granger Phillips Swasey was born.  Her mother Mary Phillips, had been a Granger before marriage.  Her father was raised by a stepfather, Samuel Gainer in Georgia.  Her mother went from Texas back to Georgia to give birth, and I'm not clear whether she was with her own mother or her mother-in-law.  Baby Zulie was given a slave girl at her birth, with the papers written by hand by her father's mother, Mary Phillips Gainer.  I wonder if any of them knew that the Civil War would be starting in just a few years.

She returned with her parents to Sabine Pass,Texas or Beaumont, Texas, at a time when there were cotton plantations where now oil wells drill, and cities stand.

Front and back of Zulie G. Swasey portrait, mother of Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers

Zulie's mother, Mary, had another child two years later, and Mary died within the first year of that daughter's life.  Her father William Phillips may have been sick, may have been grieving, or some other reason had him leaving the homestead, and sending his daughters to relatives in Galveston.  Within 6 months of his wife's death, he joined the Confederate forces, fighting early in the war for Alabama, and dying.

Zulieka was raised by Granger relatives, as well as her younger sister, Ada.

When Zulieka married at age 24 to Alexander John Swasey, also of Galveston, she then had her own two girls, naming her first Ada Phillips Swasey, and her second Stella Zulieka Swasey.  Ada Phillips Swasey became my grandmother on my father's side.

Zulieka Swasey (Dear Nan) and daughter Ada's daughter, Ada Mary Rogers. (Ada Mary Rogers died as a child)

And how do I know more than is available by census and city directory documents?  My relatives somehow kept copies of letters written by Zulieka's mother, her father, her grandmother Gainer, her grandfather Granger, and her uncle Marion Granger.  I've transcribed them into records for these people on Ancestry.com, which kind of makes these people more real.

The letters just before and during the Civil War are the most precious, because of the lack of true information that was available to people, and the privations they endured.  Letters were written on both sides of folded paper, then across the original writing at a 90 degree angle, as well as in the margins.

Did they have important things to say?  Sometimes.  Many times a whole paragraph seemed to be speaking of unimportant things by my current standards of communication.

But they shared their lives, their language, and the writting of their actual pens down through the years.