Grandma Daisy and Her Sisters

I was determined to write a post about the Keys this week.  I looked to see if there were any photos that I haven’t posted yet, and I couldn’t find any.  I can’t let that stop me from writing about my Keys ancestors, especially since there will be a Keys Reunion in a couple of weeks.  It will be on June 15th at the Hathaway/Raymond Catholic Church Hall.  Ask me for more details if you want to attend.

So this week I will share a photo that I’ve shared before.  But I have improved the photo from the last time you saw it.  I got the original image from my Aunt Loris a few years ago.  It was just a snapshot of an old photo in a round frame.  The photo was cropped in a circle, so some of the details were missing.  

I worked on it to fill it in for a square photo.  I like the way it came out, except for the plant on the right side of the photo.  In my first edit, I cloned the bottom leaves of the plant and it went all the way to the top of the photo.  It looked like a small version of Jack and the Beanstalk.  I used it anyway, because I didn’t know what the original setup was.

Then I was looking through Edith Keys Segraves book about our Keys ancestors and I came across this same old photo.  But the version in the book has the curtains like you see in the right side of the photo I’m posting today.  So I did some blending and copying from photo to photo and came out with this better version.  I did this a few months ago and liked the results.  The original photo in that book also shows them all full length.  In other words, their feet are showing and so is the floor.  Maybe I’ll find a good copy of that photo and you’ll see this photo in yet another version!  Lucky you.

Maybe you don’t like this photo as much as I do, but I’m partial because the Keys sister in the middle is my great grandmother Daisy Keys Phenice.  She and her mother and siblings came to America from England in 1887.  They left during Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee.  One of the things about this move is that it separated Daisy’s mom Martha Ann Cook Keys and her sister Henrietta Cook Keys.  It seems like they were very close.  They lost their father when they were young children and they later married two of the Keys brothers in England.  But this move to America put a big distance between the sisters.

Daisy and her sisters did not do the same thing.  They all settled in southern Louisiana.  Daisy was the oldest of the sister, having been born in 1876.  She was the third child, though.  There were two older brothers – Henry Alfred and Leonard.  They stayed in southern Louisiana as well.  Daisy lived in Hathaway, Louisiana, where she raised a family with Harry Clifton Phenice.  Ruth, who was born in 1879, married to Herbert Bryan and they raised a family in Jennings and surrounding areas.  Mabel, born in 1881, married to Abraham Miller and they lived in Kinder, Louisiana.  All five of the Keys siblings lived within 30 minutes or so from each other.  A much easier visit to make than crossing the ocean! 

Even though the subsequent generations have spread out to many states, I’m hoping to see a nice group of cousins at the upcoming Reunion.