Threads Of History

I found the above inside a photo album I inherited from my mother.  Most of the contents of the photo album are just that...photos.  But this item, a playing card sized advertisement, copied here front and back, was inside the album as well. It is what's called a "Victorian Trade Card" that was a popular means of advertising in the late 1800's.  If you went shopping at your local general store in 1892 the odds were pretty good you would return with your purchases and a few Victorian trade cards as well, produced and distributed by various product manufacturers to keep their products on your mind. Advertising in the Victorian age no less!  According to Google, many people put the attractive lithograph cards into scrapbooks and eventually, after they faded from use in the early 1900's, the collection of Victorian trade cards became a popular hobby. I've only seen this one so I'd have a long way to go if I wanted to get serious about building a scrapbook.

And besides, I already have a hobby...surfing through old photo albums and trying to identify my ancestors. Nevertheless, it seemed appropriate that this particular card would be amongst three photo albums from my late mother's files. Willimantic Thread probably didn't anticipate their card having a link to my research of family history.  But if nothing else, the card reminds me of the fact that a lot of history is tied together with various sources of information...and some of those sources are connected by very thin threads of documentation. Inside the three albums the strongest threads of evidence are those photos that my ancestors (exactly who is unknown) graciously identified by noting the names of those pictured. Some of them, at least. Many but not all of the photographs noted with identification are from the Currier family. Which makes sense because my mother's maiden name was Currier. I should say extended Currier family to be accurate. Unfortunately, for my research purposes there are many more unidentified photos with no notations at all as well as some that are noted that I haven't been able to link to anyone in my family tree.

Of the four photos above, only one, the bottom left, was identified. The writing just below Eva Smith's photo was made by me. The original notation was on the back of the photograph but the album pages are brittle with age. So I wanted to avoid having to remove and replace the photos more than necessary to identify who is pictured in order to preserve the album pages. Eva May Smith (1882 - 1964) was my 1st cousin 2 x removed. I had to cheat to figure that out...Ancestry.com has an app on it's website that enables me to see what "relationship to you" is. All I know is that Eva was the daughter of the brother of my great grandfather's wife. Got that?  She was born in Walpole, NH and died at the age of 82 in Bellows Falls, VT.  I'm guessing she was between 3 and 5 years old when this photo was taken, probably around 1888. All of the photos appear to me to have been taken around 1890 give or take a few years.

This photograph was identified by pencil notations written directly on the album page. The "annotator" even indicated where the photo was made, in this case, Topeka, Kansas. Most of the photographs in the albums bear the photography studios' names and locations. So whoever noted this one is repeating information I could have obtained easily enough but I just think it makes the threads of documentation a little bit stronger. And with that, I'll get off the threads of history theme before I wear it any more threadbare than it already is. The subject of this full page album photo is Mary E Morrison. Mary was the second wife of my great great grandfather, John Currier.  She had been previously married to a man named, Wallace. Hence the notation showing her maiden name, Morrison, and her first married name, Wallace, and her final married name, Currier. Mary Currier's history is interesting to me because I have her diary from 1883 which includes her entries ranging from her 59th birthday in January through the accidental death of her husband John in August and continuing on into the Fall when she relocated to Topeka, KS. I'm planning to publish a more complete history of Mary in a separate post.     

The photographs below each appeared on separate pages within the albums.  Their grouping here is my creation.  I wanted to show most of the portrait photos that were identified. The unfortunate thing is that there are many more photos not identified. And some of them are from studios not only in Vermont and New Hampshire but Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Illinois.  I was hoping there would be more from Topeka because I've got a few more besides Mary I'd like to connect with photos but so far, no such luck. On this page my grandfather, Marshall Currier, is the distinguished young gentleman pictured in the top right corner. I've had a mustache for forty years now and never got mine to look that good.  Marshall's father is the photo immediately below him. He's Austin Currier, my great grandfather, center right.  My beard can't compete with his either, but I'm not certain I really want it to. Austin's sister, Francis E Currier is pictured center left.  She was my great grand aunt.  Bottom left is Mary (Morrison) Currier again while bottom right is John Morrison Currier. John was Mary's son with John Currier and was a half brother of Austin. Confused? Welcome to my world. But I still love this stuff!                                             

John Morrison Currier also relocated to Topeka, KS with his mother Mary in 1883. There were still family connections in Topeka in the 1920's and 1930 that afforded my mother and her sister the opportunity to attend school in Topeka at Washburn College. I'll try to put together the details when I publish the post on Mary. In the meantime I'm still searching through the albums as my search goes on.