I am on the right and Jonathan Rowe is on the left. He's 11 months older than I am. I believe I am about 8 months old in this picture, which would make Jon 17 months. I've always loved his deer-in-the headlights look!
Well, we did get over ourselves and start looking more like happy babies.
So who is this guy? I've never blogged about him before. I've barely mentioned that side of the family. The connection is my grandfather, Howard Meade Rowe, whose picture you can see in the link below. I'll cover his family more another time. For right now, I'll just tell you that Howard (Granny's husband), and Casper Cuthbert Rowe (Jonathan's grandfather) are brothers. Which makes my mom and Cuthbert first cousins.
Cuthert was a Methodist minister, and he lived in Schenectedy, NY when I was growing up. We occasionally went to visit, but not often. I'm not sure why. I know Mom went to visit them fairly often after Cuthbert retired. He did come and speak at Mom's funeral. But that's maybe also for another post.
Anyway, this is the last time I ever saw Jon. You can see the photo date, April 1957. So I was just turning 9 and Jonathan would have been 10 in a month. Back left to right is Granny (Emily M. Rowe), Mom (Catherine R. Leary), Eloise Rowe (Cuthbert's wife), Rev. Cuthbert Rowe, and...??? I think perhaps this a sister of Eloise. In my nine-year-old mind, she was a non-entity. I barely remember her presence.
In front are Sally (real name Sarah) and Jonathan. This is the last time I saw either of them. They were both adopted. Jon grew to be 6'5" (I believe the family legend goes) and wore size 16 shoes. He did go to VietNam in the Army, and lived to tell
I actually had a camera that summer, and took these pictures. We kids were much more interested in bikes and scooters than we were in "old" adults who just wanted to visit.
So, I got curious to try to find Jonathan. Of course... I learned that he is already dead. He actually died quite young. He was only 59. So he's been gone and I didn't even know it. I have no idea how to find Sally. I have one other second cousin from another branch of the family.
In other news: I spent a lot of time working on the Bondo on the trailer. Maybe I'll show you that tomorrow. I edited, I did some yard work. And I have another author meeting tonight. Another nice weather day!
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4 comments:
I am a fan of family stories and old pictures. Thanks. btw, you don't look a thing like your mother. Yeah, right. (Read that with the correct inflection.)
I have first cousins that I barely know due to age difference. I wouldn't have the slightest idea about second cousins. Always fun looking back at old photos.
I recently got in touch with a second cousin on my dad's side. It is good to connect with her to learn about that side of the family, especially for health histories and insight to family relations after my dad died. Sad that you didn't connect with your cousin while he was alive.
HI Vanilla- Glad you liked it. I have her eyes.
Ann- Since I have no close relatives, I'm sort of trying to find the ones I at least knew as a child.
Lin- One more second cousin to find. I do have a huge collection of 3rd cousins because there was a large family back there. But I only know 3 of the descendants of that line.
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