Fun: The Hunter Sisters ~ 52 Ancestors #48

I have quite a few fun (and funny) photographs of my grandmother, Helen Lysle Hunter, and her four older sisters from very early in the 20th century. See My Grandmother and Her Sisters.

Since I originally shared photos of the Hunter sisters, MyHeritage has made their enhanced and colorized photos available.

Here is one I previously shared and two more that I don't believe I have shared before. I believe these photos are taken at the home on Perrysville Avenue in Allegheny City, where their paternal grandparents lived and where they lived after their grandparents died in 1902.

The sisters look like they're having fun in these photos. All three have been enhanced and colorized by MyHeritage.

Caption: MUD PIES; sisters from left: Marion, Mary, Caroline, Margaret, and Helen

Esther Abigail Whitman ~ 52 Ancestors #47

My second great-grandparents, Esther Abigail Whitman and James Pyle, married in New York City in 1853, when they were recent immigrants from Guysborough, Nova Scotia. I have a lot of information about James Pyle, but much less about his wife.

Matrilineal Monday - Esther Abigail Whitman shared census records for her as well as a brief death notice from the New York Times.

Deaths, New York Times, 10 November 1921, p. 19, col. 7, Esther A. Whitman.

The New York City Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) now provides the ability to view some birth, marriage, and death records (as long as they're far enough back that the individuals named are long deceased). These images can also be found at MyHeritage (a subscription site).

I found Esther Pyle's November 10, 1921, death certificate at New York City Deaths, 1866-1948 at MyHeritage.

Stephen Ashby U.S.N.A. ~ 52 Ancestors #46

There are a few Stephen Ashbys in my ancestry. 5th great-grandfather, Stephen Ashby, was a Captain in the Revolutionary War. My 3rd great-grandfather of the same name died in 1829, leaving a widow and four young children. I wrote a Surname Saturday: Ashby post several years ago.

My ancestral line is as follows:

Stephen Ashby (1710-1797)
|
Daniel Ashby (1759-1834)
|
Stephen Ashby (1800[?]-1829)
|
Daniel Morgan Ashby (1828-1907) = Mary Elizabeth Gorin
|
Mary Bowman Ashby
|
Elizabeth Adsit
|
Charles McAlpin Pyle, Jr.
|
Me

Daniel Morgan Ashby continued the tradition of naming a son for his father. Stephen Ashby was born October 15, 1861, in Barren County, Kentucky, the third child and second son of his parents. (And my second great-uncle.)

Stephen Ashby attended the U.S. Naval Academy, as indicated in the 1880 Federal Census.

1880 US Census, Barren County, Kentucky, population schedule, Town of Glasgow, ED 7, page 4 (penned), dwelling 21, family 32, household of Daniel Morgan Ashby.

I also happen to have one letter that he wrote to his mother in January 1881 when he was attending the U.S. Naval Academy.

Thomas Jefferson Copeland (1801-1877) ~ 52 Ancestors #45

Thomas Jefferson Copeland was born in Boston to Nathaniel Copeland (who died in 1803) and Mary Page (1771-1847). 

He was living in Norridgewock, Maine, by 1840 and Calais, Maine, by 1843. He died March 2, 1877, in Calais and is buried in the local cemetery. His FindAGrave memorial includes a transcript of a local obituary with additional information than what I found in The Kennebec Journal.

The Kennebec Journal, 28 March 1877, p. 3, col. 3 (Newspapers.com).