I can’t believe Saturday has rolled around once again, but it is also the first full weekend of November.
It’s time for this week’s challenge with Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun on Genea-Musings.
1) Lorine McGinnis Schulze on her Olive Tree Genealogy blog asked this question several weeks ago in http://olivetreegenealogy.blogspot.com/2020/10/what-is-your-oldest-ancestral-item.html.
2) So have at it – what is the oldest ancestral item in your collection of artifacts and stuff?
I have a number of family items, including some documents, china, a rocking chair that is now over 100 years old, but mostly I have photos – by the 100s and I’m not complaining!
My two oldest are of Thomas Adams and his wife, Sarah Brawn:
They are really special to me because Thomas and Sarah are two of my 4X great grandparents. Sarah is the daughter of pre-Loyalist Benjamin Brawn, while Thomas is the son of Loyalist John Adams, who left the colonies in the fall Fleet of 1783 that sailed to Nova Scotia at the end of the American Revolution. Thomas was also born in 1783, reportedly in Canada so likely in the fall of that year. Sarah was born c1786, also in Canada.
The pictures were taken around 1850 and are possibly the only ones ever taken of Thomas and Sarah.
Sarah died between 1851 and 1860, either on Deer Island, New Brunswick, Canada or in Calais, Washington, Maine. Thomas died in July 1859 in Calais, where he was living with his son Daniel’s family.
The photos passed down from Daniel Adams to his son, Calvin, to granddaughter Vera Pearl Adams Chadwick and then to me through Aunt Pearl’s son, Charles Chadwick.
I consider myself the caretaker of all my family photos, which will be passed on to the next generation for future safekeeping.
Thanks. Randy, for this week’s challenge.
You are so lucky to have photos taken so long ago. What a great treasure.
What a wonderful pair of photos! You are very fortunate to have them, and it’s great that you will be passing them down and keeping them in the family.
These photos have survived for 170 years and been passed down in your family for so many generations?! Remarkable to see their faces and imagine their lives. TY for sharing their faces and their stories!