Once again, I'm going to play along with Chuck's Family Friday. I don't think I'll be doing this every week. However, on my recent visit to Chuck & Sylvia's I asked him to show me how his genealogy notebook was organized. He introduced me to the Ahnentafel numbering system for tracing a family tree backwards.
I can't afford to get hooked just yet. Why, you ask? Because when I start, I'm going to want to really be serious about this. I already know quite a bit about some of my ancestors, but I'd like to learn more, and get all the pictures and memorabilia I have organized.
Meanwhile, I share a picture with you that I treasure, even though I only have a small digital scan of the original. It was sent to me by the daughter of one of my mother's cousins. I have no idea what that is called. I just Googled it and of the top ten answers, I got three choices: second cousin, second cousin once removed, and third cousin. So, she's one of those! I haven't seen her since we were children. (This is not the even more distant cousin that I am in touch with.)
Anyway, here's the picture.
It was taken in 1907. I can figure that out because the woman standing is my grandmother (Granny), Emily Marguerite Fisher Rowe, and the baby she is holding is my uncle Jacques. We have lots of pictures of those people. However, the rest of the picture is quite remarkable.
First of all, notice that it's quite a casual pose. Snapshots that were less than formal occasions were just coming into vogue.
The seated man with the newspaper is Granny's father, Charles Alfred Fisher, and his wife (also seated) is Catherine Louisa Hall Fisher. She was an amazing woman. If I get hooked on this, I'll share more about her. The boy at the table is Lewis A. Fisher. My grandmother was the oldest of four children. She was born in 1882, and Lew in 1886. That would make him about 21 here. Ben, next born, is not in the picture because he ran away from home when he was 14. The youngest is Charlie, Charles Henry Fisher, born 1888, so he's 19.
I don't know for sure, but I think the picture might have been taken in a house in Spencer, New York that is still standing. I'm guessing it's Charles and Catherine's home, since they look as if they belong there, and because the boys are also there.
Lew is the grandfather of the cousin who sent me the picture.
Charles Alfred would have been 56, and Catherine 49 when this was taken. I have some unlabeled family pictures, and I'm hoping maybe this photo will help me ID this couple in some of the others.
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