One Favorite Photo? How can I pick just one? I can’t. My Genealogy journey started with a dusty old box of photo’s that my Grandmother had. She was sorting thru their things after they had moved to a much smaller apartment in a retirement home. She was trying to get Grandpa Everett to help her and it just wasn’t working. There were many old picture in the box that were from the Smith side of the family that were not identified. She had no way of knowing who some of these people were and it was important to her that we knew who these people were when they were eventually no longer with us.

One summer day when they were visiting us at our house, Grandma brought the box of Photos. “It was one more thing to take to Harold and Leah’s for safe keeping”, she decided. Grandpa would have time on his hands and she was just going to make him do this. As I was attempting to head out the door to hangout with my friends, she nabbed me. I was 13 years old and the last thing I wanted to do was to go thru this box of photos with her but how do you tell your Grandma , “NO!”

For the next hour or two, I sat at the picnic table with Grandma Lillian and Grandpa Everett and we sorted through old photos. The Photo’s were of people from a long time ago. They were of Grandpa’s Dad and Mother, their parents, his Uncles, Aunts and assorted cousins. Grandma made it almost like a game. Grandma would show Grandpa the photo like a flash card and he would tell us who it was. It was my job to write the name on the back of the photo. So I wrote the names that I heard; McGoogan, Wert, Sparks, Meeks, Crites, Jackson, Smith and Denney. I wrote them on the back of the photos in my 13 year old hand writing. Some were misspelled but I was in a hurry, too busy to ask, “How do you spell that?” I had better things to do, you know! These photo’s were invaluable thirty years later when I started my Genealogy Journey! SO today I’m going to show you a few of my favorites…Some are Grandpa Everett’s photo’s and some are Grandma Lillian’s.

Look into her eyes. This little girl is my Grandmother, Lillian. The same one who made me help her with the pictures. At this time in her life, she had just lost her mother a year or so before. She is likely eleven. Now she lives with her Grandmother, Mary Florence Boyer, with two of her four siblings. Her Grandmother owns and operates a boarding house in Flint, Michigan. It is the very early days of the Automotive Industry. Auto workers are flooding to the plants that are springing up in Flint looking for jobs. Mary Florence’s boarding house was a busy enterprise. Lillian’s other two siblings, brothers, Lester and Wallace, live with their father and help on the farm when they are not in school. I wondered for years why she and her sister, Florence, were raised by Mary Florence after her mother died. I learned that fathers were not allowed to raise adolescent daughters unless they had remarried and the new wife lived in the home. Lillian looks like a sweet, sad young girl who is trying on a new fashion statement with her headbanded long hair, beaded necklace and the broach that is holding her shirt closed. I can not help but smile when I look at this sweet picture.

This is Nellie Best Losee (1860-1930). She was my Grandmother’s Grandmother! (My 2X Great Grandmother) She was married to Newton Losee in 1877. The Best Family came from Ontario, Canada and many of her siblings and their families came to Michigan too.

This is a small tin type photo of Newton Losee (1856-1913) as a very young man. He looks like a teenager. There is no date or any information about it. He was my Grandmother’s, Grandfather and my 2X Great Grandfather. The husband of Nellie Best. This is one of several tin type photo that Grandma had in her box.

I wish I could make this photo clearer. It is of Edwin Losee and Julie Ann Payne Losee. Newton Losee’s parents. This was also a tin type photo from the box of photos. They are my 3X Great Grandparents. They came to rural Genesee County, Michigan from Genesee County, New York. All the previous photos are from the Maternal side of my father’s family.

Next up are John Henry and Amanda McGoogan Crites. This couple spoke to me thru this photo. They have from the first time time I saw it. What a lovely old couple! It took me a long time to find where they were buried and eventually when I found their unmarked grave I put a tombstone on it. I have written quite a lot about them. They are my 2X Great Grandparents on the paternal side of my father’s family. She was a fabulous gardener and he was a hard working farmer. I found their home in Uniondale, Indiana in 2017. It was actually her home. She bought it after her parents died with the money they left her. It was a fairly unusual real estate transaction for the time period. Amanda and John had lived on John’s father’s farm and worked the farm for many years. She must have gotten tired of it and wanted to move to town. The latest owner of her house showed me her signature on the deed. They welcomed me into the house and shivers rattled through out my body as tears ran down my face. There is so much I could say here but there is not enough room in this blog.

This is the James W Smith Family. James W. and Oella Smith are the couple seated in the center of the photo. They are my 2X Great Grandparents. James W. served in the Civil War as did several of his brothers. This is the only picture that we have of him. We have several of Oella who outlived him by nearly twenty years. In all of her pictures, she has a stern look with no evidence of a smile at all. My Great Grandmother, Cora Crites Smith, is seated left of James holding her son, James Fredrick and my Grandfather, Everett is seated on the ground in front of her with the bow tie. Cora’s husband, Alvin O. Smith (my Great Grandfather) is standing behind her. It is believed that this was taken on the day that James Fredrick was baptized. We have estimated that this photo taken about 1909 based on who is in the photo and who is not and the ages the children.

Standing Left to Right; William Harvey Jackson, Alvin Oliver Smith, William Sparks, Della Smith Sparks, Oscar Jackson, William Homer Wert, William Frampton Smith, Francis Willard Smith, Arena May Straley Smith

2^nd Row Seated L to R: Ruth Jackson standing next to Dora Belle Smith Jackson, Cora Crites Smith, James W. Smith, Oella Denney Smith, Dessie Heckman Smith, holding Virgil Smith

1^st Row Seated L to R; James Frank Wert, Lulu Etta Wert, Alvin A Sparks, Everett A Smith, Virgil J. Sparks, Talmage Sparks, Nora Sparks, and the last girl in the photo is Arena’s sister Ethel Straley.

Look into her eyes. They implored me to find her! This is Etta Clair Smith. She was born in 1882 and with the loss of the 1890 Federal Census due to a fire in Washington DC, she became an nearly invisible daughter of James and Oella Smith. She married William Homer Wert in 1903 and died in 1905 while giving birth to her daughter, Lulu Etta Wert. (The little girl seated on the ground next to her brother on the far left of the first row in the James W Smith Family Photo) I had this picture identified as Etta Wert and a photo of her husband, Homer Wert, from the box of photos that Grandma had. But I had no idea how they were connected to our family. One day a fellow researcher posted a newspaper article on the internet. Both Etta Smith and Francis Smith are identified in the Splinter School photo. The light bulb came on and I went looking for Etta’s picture…Sure enough that is who she is!

So now you know why I can not say that I have one favorite photo. I have many and they have all played a very important role in my genealogy research. I am lucky that my Grandmother Lillian felt so passionate about the family photos! I have a handful of photo’s that are not identified. I keep them because I believe one day I’ll find that relative who can identify them.

Happy Hunting,

Jan