Treasure Chest Thursday: Aunt Ivy's Album
I mentioned to you back in February that I was lucky enough to have been given Aunt Ivy's photo album on a recent trip to Kentucky. My first post about the photo album is here: A 108-Year-Old Valentine.
I got down to business and scanned all the photographs from that album shortly thereafter. Those scanned images now reside on my external hard drive and backed up on a jump drive as well. There were approximately twenty or so photographs in the album plus a news clipping of Aunt Ivy's obituary and an old Christmas card. The Christmas card and at least two of the photographs tucked in the album were from my cousin's mother's side of the family (the Poindexters), but most all of the others were actually placed in the album slots and undoubtedly were family and friends that Aunt Ivy and probably her husband F. Travis Diuguid knew.
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Many of the photographs are cabinet cards taken by Anderson of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Some of the others are Real Photo Post Cards (RPPC) popular in the early 1900s. The first two photographs in the album is probably Aunt Ivy and Uncle Travis:
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Mildred Hall as an infant. She was the daughter of Lindsey Willis "Pete" Watts and his wife Annice Underwood. Pete was Ivy's brother.
Lizzie Watts and her husband Charles Terry Woosley. Lizzie was Ivy's sister.
Durwood Woosley (Lizzie and Terry's son).
John Willis Watts and Ollie Spencer. Ivy's parents.
Richard Alvin Watts. Ivy's brother.
Kate Watts with husband Willie Washington Diugiud and daughter Inez. Willie was Uncle Trav's brother and Kate was Ivy's sister.
Ora Watts, Ivy's sister and Lena Hill, their cousin.
Harry Watts, Ivy's youngest uncle.
But that still left many that were unidentified. My cousin who gave me the album could not identify any of them either.
To help identify the ones that looked familiar to me, I went through my Watts family scrapbook that I had put together with photographs and other items from my grandfather's collection. I had never before really looked into the Diuguid family history, seeing as how it was not a direct line for me, but a family that my grandfather's sisters had married into. I knew that Ivy and her sister Kate both married Diuguids and that Lizzie and Zeffie, two other sisters, married Woosleys. I remembered hearing that one of those sets of husbands were brothers and one set were cousins, but I wasn't sure which at this point.
Another item I had put in that scrapbook was a letter written to me by a woman named Elsie. Elsie was a cousin of Frances Sizemore, my genealogy mentor and friend. Frances was an extraordinarily meticulous and tireless researcher who was instrumental in sparking my interest in the craft. When my grandmother died in 1989, she sent a letter to my uncle who lived locally to explain her husband's connection to my grandmother's family. Frances was also a Diuguid cousin to my cousin Inez. After Frances died, Elsie wrote to let me know and included a copy of Frances' obituary from the local newspaper. Ironically, Inez and Frances died within a day of each other and their obituaries were listed side by side.
Elsie became the caretaker of Frances' work and it was her I wrote to for help with the other photographs in Aunt Ivy's album. When she got my letter, Elsie called me right away and we began corresponding via email. She has been happy to help as much as she can and even enlisted the help of her Uncle Frank.
In my next post, I will share with you some of the photos that Elsie and Uncle Frank were able to identify for me.
I got down to business and scanned all the photographs from that album shortly thereafter. Those scanned images now reside on my external hard drive and backed up on a jump drive as well. There were approximately twenty or so photographs in the album plus a news clipping of Aunt Ivy's obituary and an old Christmas card. The Christmas card and at least two of the photographs tucked in the album were from my cousin's mother's side of the family (the Poindexters), but most all of the others were actually placed in the album slots and undoubtedly were family and friends that Aunt Ivy and probably her husband F. Travis Diuguid knew.
Many of the photographs are cabinet cards taken by Anderson of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Some of the others are Real Photo Post Cards (RPPC) popular in the early 1900s. The first two photographs in the album is probably Aunt Ivy and Uncle Travis:
Some of the others that were identified or I could identify on the Watts family because of other copies I had of those same photographs include the following:
Mildred Hall as an infant. She was the daughter of Lindsey Willis "Pete" Watts and his wife Annice Underwood. Pete was Ivy's brother.
Lizzie Watts and her husband Charles Terry Woosley. Lizzie was Ivy's sister.
Durwood Woosley (Lizzie and Terry's son).
John Willis Watts and Ollie Spencer. Ivy's parents.
Richard Alvin Watts. Ivy's brother.
Kate Watts with husband Willie Washington Diugiud and daughter Inez. Willie was Uncle Trav's brother and Kate was Ivy's sister.
Ora Watts, Ivy's sister and Lena Hill, their cousin.
Harry Watts, Ivy's youngest uncle.
But that still left many that were unidentified. My cousin who gave me the album could not identify any of them either.
To help identify the ones that looked familiar to me, I went through my Watts family scrapbook that I had put together with photographs and other items from my grandfather's collection. I had never before really looked into the Diuguid family history, seeing as how it was not a direct line for me, but a family that my grandfather's sisters had married into. I knew that Ivy and her sister Kate both married Diuguids and that Lizzie and Zeffie, two other sisters, married Woosleys. I remembered hearing that one of those sets of husbands were brothers and one set were cousins, but I wasn't sure which at this point.
Another item I had put in that scrapbook was a letter written to me by a woman named Elsie. Elsie was a cousin of Frances Sizemore, my genealogy mentor and friend. Frances was an extraordinarily meticulous and tireless researcher who was instrumental in sparking my interest in the craft. When my grandmother died in 1989, she sent a letter to my uncle who lived locally to explain her husband's connection to my grandmother's family. Frances was also a Diuguid cousin to my cousin Inez. After Frances died, Elsie wrote to let me know and included a copy of Frances' obituary from the local newspaper. Ironically, Inez and Frances died within a day of each other and their obituaries were listed side by side.
Elsie became the caretaker of Frances' work and it was her I wrote to for help with the other photographs in Aunt Ivy's album. When she got my letter, Elsie called me right away and we began corresponding via email. She has been happy to help as much as she can and even enlisted the help of her Uncle Frank.
In my next post, I will share with you some of the photos that Elsie and Uncle Frank were able to identify for me.
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