A Revised Look at Samuel Phenice

Sometimes I have a difficult time coming up with a title for my post.  Just something that will tell people that it’s about someone they might be interested in.  I didn’t have difficulty deciding on a title or a photo for this week.  The photo is one that I’ve had for a while.  I’ve always thought that I would eventually use the photo for a post.  Of course I would!  It’s a photo of my great great grandfather and there aren’t many photos of him around.  But I never thought of what I would write about it, and now I can’t think of anything to say about it.  I guess I’ll just click on these keys and see what happens.

The photo in question is this photo that I got from my Phenice cousin Mona several years ago.  I think it was in 2017.  It’s a photo of our common ancestor Samuel Charles Phenice.  But she is a great granddaughter of Samuel.  That’s because she descends from the youngest child of Samuel’s youngest child.  She’s not much older than I am, but she’s in the same generation as my mother.

Samuel’s youngest daughter was Emma Phenice.  Unlike her older brother Harry that I descend from, she stayed in the area that her parents had settled in.  Emma had a closer connection to her parents through the years, and her children got to know them well.  When Samuel grew to be elderly, he went to live with Emma and her family.

Harry, on the other hand, moved down to Louisiana and visited from time to time.  I really don’t know how often he visited.  I’ve seen a few photos through the years, but I don’t know if those were the only times he visited.  I probably don’t have all the photos that were taken at these visits with the parents.  My grandmother was Harry’s daughter Myrtle, and I don’t know if she ever visited.  Her younger sister Marguerite recounted that she only visited once and there are photos of that visit.  I think if my mom had visited, she would have remembered and talked about it.  She liked to talk about Samuel and Cathrine, but I don’t remember hearing that she had met either one.  Cathrine died before mom was born, so that didn’t happen for sure.

Emma’s family spent more time with him and consequently have more photos of him.  Fortunately for me, they have been willing to share some of those photos.  I’m hoping there are more that I haven’t seen.  I’m very good at wishful thinking!!  The image I have of the photo was of poor quality.  It was just a snapshot taken with a shadow across the image.  I’m not sure if the original photo is much better.  So, I decided to revise and enhance it.  

Sometimes enhancing a blurry photo has results that don’t look like the person.  I revised the enhanced version to try to get it to look like Samuel the best I can.  The results may make him look a little younger than the 90-year-old man at the estimated time of the photo.  It’s better than nothing.  Plus, I’m letting you know that it is a revised image.  That was hinted at in the title.  A person of the mind to reject revised photos might have just skipped right over this post.  I’m hoping that you that came along enjoyed the image of one of my progenitors.