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Thank you Gwen! And new family photo, possibly Mell

I want to give my sincere thanks to Gwen from http://therobertsonkubbernessconnection.blogspot.com/2011/01/follow-friday_24.html for featuring this blog and introducing me to a great bunch of fellow old-photo appreciators! I don't promote my blog and kind of assumed there weren't that many others like me out there because I don't know any in real life! It was wonderful to "meet" so many and, being a little unschooled in blog-sharing, I will admit I was a more than a bit flustered at the blog's subscriber count suddenly rising! :) Thank you so much, Gwen!

And "Thank you!" to all of you who subscribed, and to those who left comments.  I set comments for moderation so that I don't miss any, but that means that sometimes one takes a few days to go through.  I do like to reply to them, so please check back soon if you left a comment recently.

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In the past few months I went on an Ebay buying spree and spent much more than I should have really. It will take some time to put all the pictures up here, what with trying to write any sellers about where they got photos that have names on them, scanning, editing, organizing, and posting. I am a bit ADDish and go in fits and starts.

I do hope to be much better about posting more regularly now that I'm not buying any more for a while.

Here is one of my new old photos. It was taken in Flint, Michigan, by, I think, Will H. Foote.  It was interesting deciphering the capital letters on that one, but I'm pretty sure I got them right.

As usual click on the picture to see it in lovely detail1


It is always a huge bonus to me when the people are identified.  Below is a scan of the back of the photo, with first and middle names or initials.   Unfortunately not their surname!  First is a sideways version so you can see the placement as it is probably written like that due to where the people are in the photo.  I believe the names refer to just the children .  It would be better if the parents and surname were named too, but just maybe there will be someone out there searching for the first names of a bunch of siblings!




Here's the same photo turned so we can read without giving ourselves a kink in the neck.

For the purposes of anyone doing internet searches for names, here they are:
Vestie May

Elner W   
This could be a misspelled Elmer but you never know.  Also, the initial could be an H but using my super-sharp detective skills from deciphering the letters on the front, it is constructed unlike the H there and exactly like the first letter. 
(P.S. I found 2 charts here: http://www.moonzstuff.com/articles/oldhandwriting.html, with examples according to which the initial could be W or H, so for the sake of 'googlers' I'll write the alternate names: Elner H, Elmer H, Elmer W)

Charles E

Gladie Ann

Jesse R

Bennie A R

Clarisa Belle. 

And, included in the unlikely chance that someone later wrote the surname along with the price, at the top it says Mell.  I did do a fair bit of searching for Mells with these names, and only found one, who almost certainly is not this one, going by family description here: http://genforum.genealogy.com/mell/messages/5.html


Comments

Brian said…
Thanks for this post. I have Mells in my tree, so I found you via Google. These aren't any of mine, if they are Mell family at all. However, I have come across this spelling challenge before and I believe your "Elner" is not Elmer, but Eleanor, phonetically. Just a thought.
Natalia said…
Brian, thank you for writing! This makes a lot of sense---except that I believe it refers to the young man second from left at back. It seems to me that the names were written directly behind the corresponding person, with the four names (girl, boy, boy, girl) spread out like the people at the top are spread, and the three others are close together (girl, boy, boy, the reverse of the people, as they would be when written behind), positioned just like the children are in the photo, two of them directly below a sibling. This makes me fairly convinced that Elner/Elmer is a boy; at least more convinced than I am that they are Mells! ;)

Thanks so much for writing! I am certainly open to more thoughts!
Nice work. I came across your blog while “blog surfing” using the Next Blog button on the blue Nav Bar located at the top of my blogger.com site. I frequently just travel around looking for other blogs which exist on the Internet, and the various, creative ways in which people express themselves. Thanks for sharing.
Sara said…
I didn't know where else to post this but I love your site!! I love old photos AND big families. I'm the oldest of six and have 5 living children and 2 that have passed on.
I'm so excited to see what you'll be posting in the future but until then I'm going to look at 'older' posts. Thanks so much for taking the time to post these photographs. Very special!
Natalia said…
Sara, I'm glad you found me! Wonderful to find a "kindred spirit!" I hope you keep on commenting. Bless you and your family. :)

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