Friday's Faces from the Past - Did you go to The Loomis School?

My father, Stephen David Matthews, graduated from The Loomis School (now Loomis Chaffee and co-ed) in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1954.  I have been scanning his slides and wanted to post his handful of photos of his schoolmates to see if anyone out there finds them.  Please let me know if you see yourself or someone you know.

"The Boys"

Jon Rieger

"Loomis"

"Bill Cooke"

 

 

 

Graduation 1954

Friday's Faces from the Past - Curt Chittenden

I spent most of last weekend inside to avoid the awful heat. That meant that I got quite a bit of scanning done including some of Dad's slides.

Dad graduated from what was then The Loomis School and is now Loomis Chaffee, a prep-school in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1954.

He took many photos of the beautiful, old buildings around campus and also a handful of identified photos of schoolmates.

This one is labeled as Curt Chittenden. Curt, are you out there? Family of Curt? Let me know in the comments.

Fridays Faces from the Past - Lilian Matthews Hunter and ?

I'm sorting through more photos from that basement stash this afternoon frustrated by the lack of information about some of these photos! It will pass, after all, it is Friday, but I'm turning to you and my Facebook friends and family for help.

Do you think that these photos are the same woman?

The woman on the left is identified as Lilian Matthews Hunter, eldest sister of my paternal grandfather. The photo was taken in December of 1933 when Lilian was 55. The photo on the right is not identified and has no markings from a photographer or developer.

Please let me know what you think. Thank you!

Friday's Faces From the Past - Group Photo

One of my favorite photos (if I can even really pick favorites) from Dad's basement stash is this group photo of family members and friends of my grandmother's family.  Of course, the first thing I noticed was the numbers, in red marker, on the photo itself! Oh, boy!

But it is the people who are not marked, not identified, who are the reason for this post. I have had a little bit of luck finding cousins through this blog, so why not some descendants of my ancestors' FAN clubs?

1 - Carl Johan Anderson, my great-grandfather.
2 - Albin Johnson, my great-grandmother's brother.
3 - Anna Johnson, my great-grandmother's sister.
4 - Charles Johnson, Anna's husband.
5 - John Anderson (Lil' John), relationship unknown, but may have been a boarder according to a 1900 census.
6 - John Carlin - no relation, but possibly the brother of Selma Carlin, Anna and Alfina's friend.
7 - Mrs. Carlin - probably John's wife.
8 - Axel Heinrich Anderson, my great-uncle.
9 - Elmer Carl Anderson, my great-uncle (brother of Axel).
10 - Lillian Hildur Ingeborg Johnson, my first cousin 2 x removed, daughter of Anna and Charles.

There are no indications as to exactly when or where this photo was taken, but many of these people lived in and around Manchester, CT. And from the ages of my great-uncles, I can estimate that it was taken around 1900 when my great-grandparents and great-uncles (my grandmother wasn't born until 1905) had just moved into what is now a two-family house that my great-grandfather built on Garden Street. (The number now is 68 but I believe the numbers changed over the years.) He purchased the land from the Cheney family who owned the mill where he worked and built the home large enough to take in boarders who became my great-grandmother's responsibility. The 1900 census lists a John Anderson as one of their boarders, though it is unclear if the John Anderson above is the same man. The other boarders listed were Albin Johnson (likely my great-grandmother's brother), Alexander and Axel Bergrin (likely Berggren) and Charles Larson - all from Sweden and all employed at the Cheney mills. Any of them could be in this photo, or not.

So, if you have any of this rings a bell to you, please take a closer look at this photo by clicking on it and if you recognize anyone, please let me know!

Friday's Faces From the Past

I found this last week while going through some of my paternal grandparent's loose photographs.

I cannot for the life of me figure out who this could be. I'm 99% certain that if these women are family, the would have to be from my grandfather Matthews side as I know anyone from these generations of the Anderson family.

I have started a Mystery Photo file on my desktop and in Dropbox for this photo and others like it unless and until I can find out who these people are.

So, if you or anyone you know are descended from Arthur William Matthews or Ada Merritt Hobbs of Pittston, PA, please do email me!

Friday's Faces From the Past - Ada Merritt Hobbs Matthews

First, a shout out to the cousin who found me through my blog earlier this week.  I got your email but it had no return address and I could not reply.  Please email me again or check your facebook, I sent a message there, too.

This week's installment of my grandfather's autobiography included the death of his mother when she was 64 and he was 18.  He was the youngest of her six children, born 22 years after her first child, Lillian.

The three photos above were the only I had ever seen of her until recently (the woman on the right is her sister Elizabeth Hobbs Snell).  My grandfather had written that he had a photograph of her as a child in London but I did not remember ever seeing it and had no idea if it still existed.  Then in December, with my birthday card, my stepmother sent me some photos she found while cleaning out a desk.  Among them were these:

 

Well, you'll just have to imagine my excitement, but I can tell you I was practically shouting out loud.  I couldn't believe I was finally holding not only the photo I had been hoping still existed somewhere but another of her as a young woman.

I am so amazed and grateful to have all these images of my great-grandmother.  While I am fortunate to have at least one image of each of my great-grandparents I don't have anything like this range in ages for most of them, this is such a gift.

Friday's Faces From the Past - Martha Ann Louden Linton

Martha Ann Louden Linton was the sister of my 3rd Great Grandmother, Elizabeth Louden Nimmo.  I shared her photo here two weeks ago when I didn't even know her name.

She was identified by one of her direct descendants who stumbled on my blog shortly after another cousin put us in touch with one another.  Tuesday I discovered that this same image is in the collection of the McCord Museum in Montreal.  They have acquired over 600,000 photographs taken by the Notman Studio.  You can see them here.

Even though the relatives I have found in this archive are distant cousins, I still feel as if I have stumbled on treasure with all the Quebec and Montreal history and did I mention the dresses??  Like Gone with the Wind. Gorgeous!

Friday's Faces From the Past - Ministers

Last week I posted an uncaptioned photo of a woman from an album that we believe originally belonged to my 3rd great grandmother, Elizabeth Louden Nimmo.

This week I am posting the photos of two ministers that were also uncaptioned.  There were photos of three other ministers in her album but they were all captioned.  They include the minister who married her daughter Elizabeth, my 2nd great grandmother, and a Father Chiniquy who's very unusual story can actually be found on Wikipedia.

Here are the unidentified photos: