Wednesday, December 14, 2011

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday ~ My 3rd Great Grandmother

Last week's photograph was taken of the James Hunter home in the city of Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Following are additional photographs taken of family members outside this house.

On the back, in my great-grandfather Percy Hunter's handwriting:
Side porch: C.C. Hunter, Front porch: Helen, Chester, Grandmother Hunter,
Lawn: Grandmother Freeland, S.K., Lois, Mrs. Wolf, Aunt Claude, Lottie Wolf, Mother, Dad
C.C. Hunter, Helen, Chester, S.K., and Lois are all siblings of Percy E. Hunter, my great grandfather. Based on birth dates of Percy's siblings, this photo and the two that follow were likely taken in the late-1890's, possibly in 1897, the year of Percy's marriage to Marguerite Lysle. (Curtis Carr Hunter would have been five and a half when his older brother, Percy, got married.)

Based on another photo I have of her, I think that "Grandmother Hunter" is Mary (Freeland) Hunter, Percy's mother. Perhaps Percy's father, James Hunter, is taking the photograph. (Percy's Grandmother Hunter, Catherine (Carr) Hunter, died in 1891.) 

"Grandmother Freeland" is Percy's maternal grandmother Nancy (Rainey) Freeland. Unfortunately, I don't know who Mrs. Wolf and Lottie Wolf are. Update 9/28/2013: In doing research for a Surname Saturday post for the Freeland line, I think I have determined that Mrs. Wolf is sister-in-law to Nancy (Rainey) Freeland; in other words, Mrs. Wolf is Mary (Freeland) Wolf, sister of James Freeland. And Lottie Wolf is a cousin of Mary (Freeland) Hunter. See Mary Freeland Wolfe Family post (12/28/2013) for how I identified Mrs. Wolf and Lottie Wolf.

Aunt Claude is Percy's mother's sister, Claudine Freeland, a longtime schoolteacher in Allegheny.

I think that "Mother" and "Dad" are Marguerite and Percy, based on the many photographs I have of them.


On the back, in my mother's handwriting: Back row: Lois Hunter, Helen Hunter, Mary Freeland Hunter
Front row: Grandmother Hunter, Grandmother Freeland, Mrs. Wolf, Aunt Claude Freeland, Lottie Wolf
Since the first photograph is identified in the handwriting of my great grandfather, Percy E. Hunter (who would have personally known all these people), I would make two clarifications for this photo: in the back row, where my mother identifies Mary (Freeland) Hunter, I would suggest that this is Marguerite (Lysle) Hunter, my great grandmother, and the woman in the front row identified as Grandmother Hunter is Mary (Freeland) Hunter, Percy's mother.

On the back, in my grandmother's handwriting: Greatgrandmother Freeland / Greatgrandmother Hunter
According to my grandmother's handwriting, these are my third great grandmothers! 

However, based on the facts that:
Mary Freeland Hunter's mother, Nancy (Rainey) Freeland, lived from circa 1813 - circa 1904;
James Hunter's mother, Catherine (Carr) Hunter, lived from 1816 - June 1, 1891; 
and the identification of the group members in the two photos above, I theorize that this is a photo of Mrs. Wolf and Nancy (Rainey) Freeland, Mary (Freeland) Hunter's mother. 

Unlabeled
In comparing this photograph with the photographs above, although the porch, the latticework, and the windows assure me that this was taken at the same house, it was taken at a different time, because the ivy leaves have not grown to full size (so perhaps early spring?), and the ivy has grown farther up the side of the house (so later than the time of the three photos above?). Could this possibly be another picture of my third great grandmother, Nancy (Rainey) Freeland?

December 28, 2013, update: I figured out who Mrs. Wolf and Lottie Wolf are. See Mary Freeland Wolfe Family.

My descent from Catherine Carr > James Hunter > Percy Earle Hunter > Helen Lysle Hunter > My mother > me. 

My descent from Nancy Rainey > Mary Freeland > Percy Earle Hunter > Helen Lysle Hunter > My mother > me.

Wordless Wednesday is a daily blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers, the genealogy community’s resource for blogging. It is used by many genealogy bloggers to help them tell stories of their ancestors.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for sharing these, Elizabeth-- that house is amazing. Does it still exist, do you know?

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  2. Karen, Thanks for reading and commenting. If I plug the address that I have for the family around the turn of the last century (3623 Perrysville Avenue, Pittsburgh) into Google Maps, I don't see this house, so I don't think this house still exists.

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  3. I love this house too. Any idea of how many people lived in it at the same time? So enjoyed seeing the people as well.

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  4. Barbara, thanks for the question. See my posts about the Percy Hunter 1910 Census record and the James Hunter 1900 Census record and about James' and Mary's ten children. From these records, it looks like there were always lots of family members (a dozen, at least) living here for a couple of decades.

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