Thousands of Newspaper Clippings to Sort!

Continuing on with our large genealogy research collection, we are now on Stage 3. We've triaged all the boxes into various topics as mentioned in my last blog post.

Yesterday we had a good look at the newspaper clippings. It's overwhelming. The image on the left shows some, but not all of the binders and boxes of clippings! There is another large plastic tub full of loose clippings.

Many are in binders but a very large number are loose and in plastic sleeves in boxes.

I pulled out one of the binders and took a photo to illustrate how they were originally organized . It is obvious by looking through the binders that she organized the clippings by surname, then glued the clippings to blank paper, attempting to keep family groups together. This is a wonderful resource of births, marriages, deaths, obituaries, graduations and so on. However there are hundreds, if not thousands, of loose clippings that are not sorted so we will have to think about how best to treat those.

I have not gotten a good sense of the time span for the clippings as we aren't taking the time right now to delve into each collection. For now we are focusing on sorting and finding space in our home to house all the books and binders so we can begin a more serious in-depth assessment and inventory.

The newer clippings may be available online so we have to decide if it is worth house space to devote to them. I did note some clippings from the early 1900s and late 1800s, and those may be worth preserving. We have some tough decisions ahead.

 

We found room in the basement for the binders of newspaper clippings which were labelled A through to Z , although we are missing some of the alphabet! I suspect those are some of the loose clippings as we know that the Heritage Assocation began removing clippings from the binders in order to inventory them before realizing the collection was too large for them to handle. 

We have saved binders to replace the missing letters and hopefully in the future we will be able to at least organize the loose clippings to insert in binders. But we won't use glue! 

Of course the question still remains - what do we do with the clippings once organized? We're mulling on that question.

Receiving a Large Collection of Genealogy Documents!

Genealogy Boxes Arrive

A few months back  Olive Tree Genealogy was offered some newspaper clippings from a donation a historical society had received. I was very excited to be asked and of course I agreed. A very large package soon arrived by mail consisting of hundreds of loose obituaries from newspapers.

As I was planning on how best to organize and inventory the clippings, another surprise came my way. I was told there were about a dozen large filing boxes full of miscellaneous genealogy items from the same donated materials.

This was too good an opportunity to save important historical records to pass up even though the thought of dealing with so many boxes was somewhat overwhelming.

My husband kindly offered to drive to the Society, some 3 hours distance from our home, to pick up the boxes. To my astonishment, there were over 15 large boxes full of genealogy binders, genealogy books, loose newspaper clippings, and more.  Here they are arriving at our home.

What To Do with So Many Boxes?

My husband and I are planners. We like to be organized. So we took a breath and decided we needed to sort the collection. First we needed a place to put the boxes where they would not be in the way but would be accessible. Then we could slowly and methodically "triage" the contents into organized groups of items.

Step One - Move & Triage!

So we moved to step one - moving the incoming boxes into our living room. Some had gotten wet in the journey in the rain to our home so removing the contents from wet boxes was our first priority.

My dogs helping me start the process

We took a break at this point but we plan to triage the contents ASAP. We saw at a glance that there are various items - hardcover genealogy books, genealogy booklets, binders of newspaper clippings, binders of research notes, family genealogies, and more. This next step will be a fun sort to organize into groups that we can either move to our basement until we have time to work on the contents, or keep in my office for starting an inventory.

The Journey Begins

Please follow along on our journey to inventory and preserve these documents. We aren't archivists but we plan to do our best. We also hope to figure out a way to make the documents accessible to genealogists and historians. If you have ideas or suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments on this blog post.

So Many Goodies Coming to Lost Faces Photo Albums!

Look what arrived yesterday! Yep, another rescued antique photo album! Number 81.....and yes, it will be going online on my Lost Faces website ASAP.

I can't resist these beautiful albums with identified photos inside. They're never my ancestors but I still am driven to save them from being lost and forgotten.

I finally had a chance to unpack this album today and believe me, it was hard to wait. I'm like a kid at Christmas with these gorgeous albums chock full of family memories and treasures.

It's easy to picture what the album looked like when new. It would have been gleaming, clean and shiny. Imagine the family's excitement (or more likely the wife's excitement) when she bought it to put her treasured photos in.

Just look at this beauty! I am always so anxious to get going on the photgraphs - the CDVs, cabinet cards and tintypes, but I force myself to go slow. My first step is always to document the album and the order of photos inside, with camera pictures. That can help identify any photos that do not have names on them.

So I had a sneak peek and took a few camera photos to start the process. Let me share those with you.

 first page. It is empty but the name of the person whose photo was originally there is intact. That helps put together family groups and identify the family who may have originally owned the photo album. This empty page has the inscription  And the hunt is on! I'm so curious - who was Aunt Mariah? And was her husband's name really Whittier? It is difficult to read and I'm hoping that getting further into the album will reveal if I've managed to decipher it correctly.

The next page was just as intriguing. The photo slot was empty but written on the album page was "Aunt Hattie White's child" When oh when will I get to that ingriguing photo peeking out on the right? That was all I had time for today but tomorrow I will be back at the puzzle and continue with taking my camera photos and carefully documenting the album.

Please see Part 1 and Part 2 for the start of this process of how I rescue, archive, and publish on Lost Faces antique photo albums I save from disappearing.

Finding Ancestors: A Beautiful 1862 Cartes de Visite

This beautiful photo is labelled "Mrs. Joseph Curtis ​1862". It is one of the Cartes de Visite in my Civil War Era Photo Album which is now online at my new Lost Faces website.

Her full sleeves and full skirt are typical of the Civil War era fashions for women, as is her center-parted hair. 

Mrs. Curtis' husband's photo is also in the album and I suspect it was taken the same day as hers - July 2, 1862.

As many of my readers know, I rescue antique photo albums that have the names of the people in the photos. My dream of one day putting them all online to be freely viewed has finally come true and I now have over 80 albums published on my new Lost Faces site.

I've also added vintage postcards, and individual group photos of sports teams, school classes, and military. There's much more to come but I wanted to share this photo today since it is one of my favourites.  Below you can see the front and back of the Cartes de Visite of Joseph Curtis.

  
Surnames in the album include: Fobes, Tucker, Curtis, Gilbert, Peabody, Spear, Blake, Mansfield, Bassett, Botton, Williston, Nilliston, Kimbal, Daniels, Sutherland, Schaffner, Keith, Towne, Low, Wilder, Holden, and Whitemore. Locations of photographers include Massachusetts, New York, Illinois

Could one of your ancestors be featured? 

Mary Facey Elgie Photo Album p 15

 

This photo was taken circa 1920-1921 and shows Annie, Florence and Luella Elgie and their pet lamb at the Elgie Farm.

Mary Facey Elgie Photo Album p 14

 

The handwriting on this photo is not Florence Elgie's writing. I suspect it is her mother Mary Louise Facey Elgie's handwriting. 

Here we have a lovely candid photo of Edith Wilford Day, Annie Edythe Elgie (1912-1979), Florence Marian Elgie (1914-1996) and Verda Luella Elgie (1917-2009 and husband's grandmother) 

Edith Wilford Day was the daughter of James Walter Wilford (1872-1942) and Annie Kilpatrick. James was the son of William Wilford and Anne MacKay and the brother of Margaret Wilford who married Samuel Facey

Mary Facey Elgie Photo Album p 13

 

 

This photo is labelled "Ernie Elgie, Grandma Elgie (Susan Baker Elgie), Irene Elgie"

 

Susan Baker was my husband's 2nd great-grandmother. She was born in 1845 in Ontario and died in 1931 in W. Nissouri Township Ontario. She married William Elgie in 1869.

I do not know how Ernie Elgie fits into the Elgie family tree but I'm sure some of our Elgie cousins will let me know!

Mary Facey Elgie Photo Album p 12

Grace Burrel and Warren Haves. This photo looks like it was taken in the 1920s.

I believe Warren was the son of Robert Haves and Redigon Facey. Redigon was the daughter of Samuel Facey and Margaret Wilford.

Mary Facey Elgie Photo Album p 11

Four Generations!

My mother-in-law Helena being held by her mother Luella Elgie. Woman on right with white bow is  Helena's 2nd great grandmother Margaret Wilford Facey and the other woman is Helena's grandmother Mary Louise Facey Elgie.

Mary Facey Elgie Photo Album p 10

 

Another great candid shot! These photos were taken in the 1920s and I love how often family members got together. It looks like they had a lot of fun too.

Here we have Sarah Trucksell, Margaret Facey, Mary Elgie (mother, meaning Mary Louise Facey Elgie, the mother of Florence Elgie who owned this album), and Aunt Edith Facey

Mary Facey Elgie Photo Album p 9

 

What a great candid photo! It looks like these two are having fun doing the dishes. The woman, identified as Ethel Finch, is no doubt having quite a chuckle over the man, Roy Facey, wearing an apron and doing "woman's work"!

Roy Facey was born in 1890 and was the brother of my husband's great-grandmother Mary Louise Facey Elgie. I believe that Ethel is the 27 year old daughter of Hugh and Mary Finch found in the 1921 census for St. Mary's Ontario. 

Mary Facey Elgie Photo Album p 8

 

What a great photo! You can see what it says on the reverse (image below) but I'll list the people left to right starting with the front row:

On grass: Donna Bragg, Helena Massey (my mother-in-law), Luella Conn (Helena's mother) 

Middle row seated: William Elgie  holding Roberta Bragg, Joan Elgie, Mary Louise Facey Elgie, Margaret Wilford Facey

Back row standing: Florence Elgie Hooper, Harry Elgie, Annie Elgie

Mary Facey Elgie Photo Album p 7

This photo taken in 1916 shows William Elgie and his wife Mary Louise Facey with their children Harry (b. 1907), Anne (b. 1912) and baby Florence (b. 1914).


This photo is labelled "Miss Bradbury (Ingersoll) & Annie Edythe Elgie Mitchell"

Unfortunately we have Annie Edythe Elgie married to Robert Bragg so we cannot explain the reference to her as Mitchell.

There was one more tiny photo, which looked like it had been torn from a larger one, tucked into the plastic sleeve with the photo dated 1916.


This photo is labelled "Grandma Facey, Annie Edythe Elgie Mitchell". Grandma Facey is Margaret Wilford, wife of Samuel Facey. Annie Edythe was her granddaughter and daughter of William Elgie and Mary Louise Facey.

Mary Facey Elgie Photo Album p 6

"Harry Elgie at Lot 24, Concession 7, East Nissouri. the Will Elgie Farm, now Harry Elgie Farm"

As near as I can tell, the Harry Elgie in this photo is Harry the son of William Elgie and Mary Louise Facey. Harry was born in E. Nissouri in 1907, and married Madge Brown in 1936.



On back of photo is this notation: "Sam and Margaret Facey. Grandpa & Grandma Facey." Underneath is a notation that seems to read "Of Anne Elgie Mitchell"

I am not sure what the second notation refers to, because I only know of two Anne Elgie women - one married Alexander Pelton, the other married Robert Bragg and was the mother of Roberta who inherited these photos from her Aunt Florence.

Mary Facey Elgie Photo Album p 5

 

A nice photo identified as "Grandpa Facey (Samuel Facey), Mrs. Henry Haves, Mrs Haves (Granny) and Grandma Facey (Margaret Wilford)" 

Redigon Facey, a daughter of Samuel Facey and Margaret Wilford, married Robert Haves and this could be the connection.

This photo is labelled as Jennie Mary (Rennie?) and Margaret Wilford Facey

Mary Facey Elgie Photo Album p 4

This photo is labelled "taken 1914" and the individuals are identified as "Fred & Annie (Facey) Rogers at Grandpa Facey's Farm"  The reference to Grandpa Facey refers to Samuel Facey (1857-1930), my mother-in-law's grandfather.

This photo is of my husband's great-grandparents Mary and William Elgie, and their daughters Florence (1914-1996), Annie (1912-1979) and Luella (1917-2009). Luella was my husband's grandmother. Annie married Robert Bragg and she was the mother of Roberta who passed this family treasure trove on to my husband's mother. The box was found in Florence's home after she died in 1996.

Mary Facey Elgie Photo Album p 3

 

On this album page we have a photo identified as the silo on William Elgie's farm which was Lot 24, Concession 9, East Nissouri Ontario

On the same page in the album is this photo labelled Mary & Hugh Finch [with] daughter Ethel. Friends of Facey family at St. Mary's

A search of the 1921 census for St. Mary's finds Hugh Finch age 60, wife Mary age 48 and daughter Ethel 27 years old, along with son William 19 and daughter Irma age 10 . Based on the appearance of Hugh and Mary in this photo, and their clothing, I am fairly certain this photo was taken in the mid 1920s which means the young girl identified as Ethel cannot be correct. I suspect this is their daughter Irma who is age 10 in the 1921 census.