Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Wordless Wednesday ~ Benjamin Willis (1791-1870)

My fourth great-grandfather, Benjamin Willis. I recently shared an 1865 Massachusetts State census record for him and his family.



Gt. gr. grandfather
Benjamin Willis, Jr.
Born Nov 16th 1791
Died July 28th 1870

The relationship noted on the back of this photo was to my grandfather, Lowell Townsend Copeland, and his sisters. If a relative can identify the handwriting, please let me know.

My Willis line can be found at Surname Saturday ~ Willis of England and Massachusetts.

2 comments:

  1. Dear cousin Elizabeth, I am almost certain that the handwriting above belongs to Pauline Willis. I have more samples of her hand than any of our other relatives because she copiously annotated her copy of the May family genealogy.

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    1. Interesting, because this Benjamin Willis was her grandfather, not her great-grandfather, unless she was notating the back for my grandfather (and your grandmother), for whom he was a great-grandfather, which I suppose is very possible! I believe I have a few photographs with this handwriting on the back.
      Thank you for the comment!

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