Maternal Ancestors in 3D in 1926

I thought I would write a post about my mom’s family in honor of Mother’s Day this weekend.  I thought I should write something about how wonderful she was, but I think I’ve already done that.  Of course, you can never really say enough about a wonderful mother and capture that essence on the page.  It transcends words.  So you write what you can and hope that people can relate to some of the things you express.  What I’m trying to say is that I can’t write about her every time.  I feel like I’m trying to defend my decision not to write about her.  And what’s funny about that is that she wouldn’t have been concerned in the least.  All she ever wanted was to be treated kindly and with respect.

So I’m writing about her ancestors.  When I decided that, I started thinking about finding a photo with the biggest number of her maternal ancestors in it.  I’m talking about grandmothers, great grandmothers, or great great grandmothers.  They didn’t have to necessarily be on my mom’s maternal side.  It didn’t take me long to figure out which photo that was.  I’ve posted a few photos from this gathering in 1926 before.  My mom and her cousins worked at identifying as many of the people in the photo that they could.  That was very helpful, being that there were so many.  (This is a cropped photo.  There are 86 people in the original photo.)  What I was always amazed at was the number of relatives in the photo.

The photo was taken on October 3, 1926, in Elton, Louisiana, at the joint birthday celebration of my great great grandmother Susan G. “Sue” Stanbrough Hine and her good friend Edessa Jane “Jennie” Welton Havenar.  My Grandma Sue is the older woman in a dark dress on the far right of the photo.  In the exact center of this grouping is my grandmother Myrtle Sylvia Phenice.  She was almost twenty years old at the time and still single.  You can only see her head in this photo.  To the left of her is a girl with glasses and a long tie.  To the left of this girl are my grandmother’s parents.  That would be Harry Clifton Phenice and Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys Phenice.

There are three maternal ancestors in that first photo – Sue, Myrtle, and Daisy.  But there was another of my maternal ancestors present at this event.  That would be Addie May Hine Bucklin.  Of course she would be there, the gathering was to celebrate her mom’s birthday.  I don’t know why she wasn’t in the large group photo.  That would have been even better.

But I also have some paternal ancestors in the group.  You know that already because I mentioned H. C. Phenice.  He was the husband of Daisy and the father of Myrtle.  On the far left of the first photo is my grandfather Fred D. Bucklin.  He takes after his grandmother Sue.  They both have a middle initial that doesn’t stand for anything.  Fred’s father Louis Charles Bucklin was still alive at the time and lived in the area, but he didn’t come to this event.  He’s not in photos as a rule, but there was also a newspaper article about this event.  It named all those present and it named Addie Bucklin by herself.

Now that I think about it, H. C.’s father was also alive at the time!  Samuel Charles Phenice lived up north in Nebraska and was 80 years old at the time.  Grandma Sue was only 75 years old.  Samuel’s granddaughter Mary Bucklin had married Sue’s grandson Sylvan Phenice earlier in 1926.  I wonder if Samuel came down for that?  Samuel and Sue could have met.  They had both lost their spouses six years earlier.  Things that make you wonder.

About the photo I posted.  There were several photos taken on that long ago day in 1926.  I found two of them that were taken at almost exactly the same time from two different photographers.  I say this because when you bring the two photos together, you get a 3D effect.  This happens when you have two eyes looking at the same thing.  Or two camera lenses in this situation.  So I combined the two photos to make this one image.  To see the 3D effect, get a comfortable distance from the screen.  While looking at the image, slightly cross your eyes and bring the two images together.  It helps to focus on a certain person and bring their images together.  It’s not a perfect 3D image, because it wasn’t taken at the exact same time.  But it was close, and it happened unintentionally.

I am a big fan of the 3D photos.  I am an even bigger fan of old family photos.  It’s great to have an old family photo that shows five of my ancestors in it AND it is a 3D photo.  How can you ask for more?  Happy Mother’s Day to all of you!