Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Favorite Photo: For Jack From Mama ~ 52 Ancestors #3

This week's theme for this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is "Favorite Photo."

I have many photos that I have previously shared under the Wordless Wednesday prompt. Here are a couple that I haven't previously shared.

This is a tiny envelope, about 2.5" x 3.5". On the front is written: "For Jack from Mama."

And on the back is my mother's handwriting identifying the individuals in the photos as James Hunter and Mary (Freeland) Hunter, who are my second great-grandparents. This suggests that the handwriting on the front is my second great-grandmother's, Mary (Freeland) Hunter. Inside this small envelope are four tiny pictures.

I previously shared portraits of them when they were younger.

One is a portrait of James and is about 7/8" x 1 1/8". I enhanced it using the MyHeritage Photo Enhancer.

There are three of the same image of his wife, Mary Freeland Hunter, only slightly larger than the one of James. Even though this one was yellowed, I thought it looked like the best image and I also enhanced it at MyHeritage.


Blonde hair or did she go gray very young?

James Hunter and Mary (Freeland) Hunter both died in 1902, she in March, at age 52 (see her obituary here), and he in October, at age 58. See a wonderfully descriptive obituary here.

The recipient of these tiny portraits was their sixth child, John Robert Hunter, known as Jack, who lived until age 102, dying in 1984. I shared a write-up from the Pittsburgh Post when he turned 100

Jack never married and had no children. I wonder if, when he died, my grandmother, helping to clean out his apartment, kept these photos.

I descend from James and Mary as follows:

James Hunter and Mary Freeland
|
Percy Earle Hunter
|
Helen Lysle Hunter
|
My mother
|
Me

2 comments:

  1. What incredible tiny photos! And the MyHeritage Photo Enhancer did a wonderful job. I'll have to share this on a post later, but my mom only had 2 photos of her mom - one when she was about 3 and one as a teen. The one as a teen was tiny like these. She got it out to show me quite a few years ago. We left it on the table... and the CAT STARTED RIPPING IT APART!!! Oh my gosh! It's now in several pieces. :( We need to get it professional restored. So incredibly sad!

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    1. Thanks for your comment and I'm so sorry to hear about your cat getting into one of your few precious photos. I hope you recovered as much of it as you could and can get it repaired!

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