The Sisters of H. C. Phenice

When I was looking for a subject for tonight’s blog, I decided to share a recent photo I found online.  It’s a photo of my great grandfather’s older sister.  As I was thinking of what to write, I realized that there have been a lot of sisters in my family.  I grew up having three sisters and both of my parents had three sisters.  My paternal grandfather (Robert Joseph Landry, Sr.) only had two sisters and both of them died at about 20 years of age.  My maternal grandmother (Myrtle Sylvia Phenice) was one of three sisters.  My maternal grandfather (Fred D. Bucklin) had three sisters.  But the grandparent with the most was my paternal grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau.  She was one of seven sisters.  But her own grandmother wins the prize.  Amelie Bujol was one of ten sisters.

That’s what happens when you have large families, and I have large families on both sides of my family tree.  But I mainly am concerned with the family of my grandmother Myrtle’s father.  His name was Harry Clifton Phenice.  He was born in Butler County in Pennsylvania on May 24, 1874, to Samuel Charles Phenice and Cathrine Jane Foster Phenice.  He was the fifth child born to them.  I was a fifth myself.  He had three older brothers – Chauncey,  William Emory, and Edd – and an older sister named Anna May.  He had two younger sisters – Lolo Myrtle and Emma.

It’s interesting that the only one that I don’t have a photo of is William Emory.  Yet it was a newspaper article about W. E. Phenice that helped me discover the family history of his mother Cathrine.  Just a short little blurb about him visiting an uncle in Kansas with the last name of Millison was all it took.  I do wish I had a photo of W. E.  If you know of one, please share!  In fact, sharing is what helped me to have these photos.  My generous Phenice cousin Mona had several photos of the Phenice sisters.  That’s because her grandmother Emma was one of them.  And she was good about labeling who they were in the photos.

The combined photo is from three photos I’ve posted before.  I combined them like this at some point to make sure I could recognize who’s who in the photo.  Now I know how to recognize my great grandfather’s sisters.  Now you know that I’m a fanatic!  

Those photos helped me to correctly identify a photo that I’ve known my whole life.  That is this second photo of the Phenice family all dressed up.  I’m pretty sure they are dressed up for the March 1906 wedding of Lola Myrtle Phenice.  It took place in Precept, Nebraska, which was where the Phenice family lived at the time.  Lola Myrtle is in the center of the photo.  On the left is Harry Clifton and his wife Daisy Keys Phenice (my great grandparents).  On the right are two other Phenice siblings.  In the back is Emma (grandmother of Mona) and in front is Edd.  I’ve shared this photo before.  It is decidedly a favorite.

And now we come to the new photo.  Drum roll, please.  This is a photo that I found on the profile of Anna May Phenice on the FamilySearch website.  When I first saw it, I thought she had the right look.  But I still had to pull out the reference photo collage of the three sisters.  I decided it was definitely a photo of Anna May Phenice.  And it is a very good photo of her.  It was definitely a studio portrait.

But it still left me with some questions.  Who are these children in the photo?  You can read a number in the bottom right corner.  It looks like 1916.  Was the photo taken in 1916?  Her youngest children were born in 1907 and 1910, which would make them 9 and 6 in 1916.  These children look younger.  Does this woman look 47 years old in this photo?  Anna May was born in 1869.  Thoughts?  Opinions?

I always enjoy finding new photos of family members.  Especially when they’re really old.  I think this one qualifies.