Sometimes snapshots like this one can help remind you of the connections between children who played together and adults who lived in different states. #52ancestors #52familyphotographs
Tom, Anne, Carol and Mary
George R. Prince holding his son
If there is anything to be grateful about the change in family dynamics in the 20th century, it is that father’s could hold their babies and play with their children. This is George Raymond Prince (1895-1939) holding either George Raymond Jr. (1921-2004) or Paul Everett Prince (1924-1991). I love the casual informality here but my heart breaks a little as this photo is included in an album my grandmother Kathryn Preston put together for my father about his family. Sadly, Barclay Gibbs Jones Sr. never got to hold Barclay Jr. this way.
George R. Prince, Philip H. Prince and Kathryn M. Prince were the children of George Cornell Prince. They make up the New Jersey branch of this early Bradford County, Pennsylvania family.
George R. Prince, Sr. lived in Camden and worked the family business at Prince Concrete. He married Clara about 1920 (would love more detail on this!) and they had five children: George R. Jr. (1921-2004), Alice Rae (1922-1922), Paul Everett (1924-1991), Joyce Eleanor (1926-2003) and David Roger (1924-2004).
Eleonor Tompkins and Joseph Poland
It’s February and the stores are filled with heart shaped boxes of candy, so romance in on my mind as I select this weeks’ #52ancestors and #52familyphotographs. I don’t know when it was taken but I think the location is the back porch of James Haviland Tompkins‘ house in South Orange, NJ. This is Joseph Fairfield Poland and Eleonor Marie Tompkins. If it is courtship, then it is pre-1935 wedding.
I always wondered what it would have been like if my father and Joe Poland could have communicated more easily (email, whathaveyou) as their careers intersected in so many ways. Joe was an early force in the field of engineering geology and had a world wide reputation, known by Italians as the “savior of Venice” for his research on why that city was slowly becoming a puddle. Back in the states, he was instrumental in helping California deal with some of its many water issues.
I know far less about Eleonor, the grown up. I know that after her mother’s early death, Eleonor lived with the Tompkins clan in Jersey City. Haviland depended on his sisters Louise and Grace to take care of the little girl while he worked. It was a sad day for them when he married for the second time to Elizabeth Carol Baldwin and set up a new household which included Eleonor and two new children. The family story is that none of his children could leave Jersey City until Samuel D. Tompkins died. It bears out as shortly after his 1926 death, Haviland and family moved to South Orange.
Joe and Eleonor lived in Sacramento and had five children, who will not be named here because they are still alive and this is the internet after all.
Mortimer Oldham Heath
Sometimes in genealogy you go sideways and squirrel off in a seemingly directionless research path that leads to fascinating discoveries. That’s what happened this week with my desire to post this lovely picture of Mortimer Oldham Heath. #52ancestors #52familyphotographs
I love his curls, the hat and the intense stare (which I know is probably due more to the discomfort of mid-nineteenth century photography than any message he is trying to send down the ages).
Mortimer O. Heath was born in Lytchett Maltravers, Dorset, England on 16 December 1853 to William Mortimer and Emma Heath. He emigrated to Littleton, North Carolina in 1872 where he lived among the vineyards in the area, sketching and drawing activities of those around him. In 1878, he returned to England for a short visit. In 1880, he returned to the US, landing in New York harbor. In perusing the passenger list, one also sees Miss Susan E. Jones, 26 year old spinster (as noted on the passenger list under occupation). Five years later on 25 November 1885, these two married at St. Clements’ Episcopal Church on Cherry Street in Philadelphia.
Susan Emlen Jones was the fourth of five children of Richard and Alice Woodmansie Davis Jones.
Sadly, Mortimer succumbed to tuberculosis on 27 April 1891 at a resort in Tryon, North Carolina. He is buried in St. Andrew’s burying ground in Mount Holly, NJ.
Jean Van Syckel with Louise Tompkins
Apparently my grandfather was a genius at photographing children. In both of these photographs you see the joy in each person for the other. #52ancestors #52familyphotographs
Jean Van Syckel was born on 28 July 1875, probably in Flemington, New Jersey, to Chester and Mary Jane Mount Van Syckel. She was the youngest of their four children and the Flemington, She never married but the Flemington, Jersey City and Detroit, Michigan newspapers tracked her visits with her brother and sister. Louise Tompkins tells stories about the house and garden at 182 S. Main St. where she “vacationed” as a child. Mary and Jean kept a large garden and small orchard in the back yard of that house. Mary succumbed to dementia on Christmas day in 1952.
Mary Elizabeth Carrel Jones, Alice W. Jones Wills and Mary Wills
This week in #52ancestors I bounce back to my father’s family with a picture of three generations of women on the Jones side of things. This weeks #52familyphotographs looks at a photograph of Mary Elizabeth Jones (1840-1922) standing next to her daughter Alice Jones Wills. To Alice’s left is a young woman whom I believe to be Alice’s youngest child, known as Polly.
Alice W. Jones was born 29 April 1871 in Pemberton, NJ. on 30 September 1891 she married Charles Colkett Wills (1868-1936). They lived in Vincentown, NJ where they had three children: Horace Wills (1892-1943), Helen Wills (1898-1901) and Mary Wills (1906-1927). Alice died on 23 June 1937, and is buried in the Mount Holly Cemetery.
The photograph isn’t dated but Polly appears to be about 11 or 12 so I guess this is about 1918. The women are posing at the bottom of the steps to the side porch to 133 Main St. Vincentown, NJ. If you look carefully, you can see that the porch mill work is original.
Mary Van Syckel and mom
This week of #52ancestors I want to give a face to a woman around whom there are many stories and #52familyphotographs gives me that opportunity.
Mary Van Syckel was born on 1 February 1867 to Chester and Mary Jane Mount Van Syckel. The family story says that she fell in love with a man whom her father would not allow her to marry. He then married her best friend (the height of perfidy) and she she attempted to stab her father to death. She does appear to have had a mental break, as in 1900 she is at the state hospital in Trenton, NJ. Her hospital records are very sad and bewildering as the staff describe her as quite insane (babbling, harming herself and them, unable to function in anyway) until one day her father comes to talk to her. After the visit she gets dressed and comes down to the dining room for mealtime and proceeds to act quite restored to her senses. Her parents come for her and the hospital staff agree to send her home. An astonishing recovery. I wonder what he said.
Mary was artistic and is rumored to have attended the Arts Student League in New York. Still working on documenting that. But she did make things. My cousin Susie grew up in a house where the rag rugs in the bathrooms were made by Mary. And my Aunt Louise tells stories about the way Mary and her sister put up all sorts of fruit and vegetables from their garden in Flemington, NJ.
Mary lived her entire life (minus the brief stay in Trenton) in Flemington, NJ. She died on 18 January 1953 at a nursing home in Chatham and is buried in Prospect Hill Cemetery up at the top of the hill in Flemington.
Benjamin Jones
This week in #52ancestors I dedicate this photograph of Benjamin Jones, Civil War veteran and beloved father.
Benjamin was born 12 December 1833, at Hanover Furnace (Burlington County, NJ) to Richard and Susan Ellis Gibbs Jones. He was educated by a Mr. Gibbs who ran a school in nearby Plattsburgh, a small village that appears to have ceased to exist. He worked for his father and uncle Samuel Howell Jones and also appears to have taught school. In 1861, like many of the young men in his generation, he joined the Union Army and went off to war. Sadly, his experience as a soldier appears to have destroyed his physical health and he returned from the war in 1862 a broken man.
He married Mary Elizabeth Carrell Taylor on 20 October 1862 and they eked out an existence in Pemberton, New Jersey. Benjamin’s post-Civil War pension and other military documentation is voluminous, giving repeated evidence that he could no longer support himself and family doing hard physical labor such as farming or iron work. He appears to have gotten employment as a lamp lighter, and done other odd jobs in the community.
Benjamin and Mary Elizabeth Jones had eleven children together, two of whom died before reaching adulthood.
- Susan Gibbs Jones (1864-1895)
- William Carroll Jones (1865-1937)
- Lillie Jones (1867-1946)
- Elwood Andrew Jones (1869-1940)
- Alice W. Jones (1871-1937)
- Elizabeth Watts Jones (1873-1900)
- Arthur Wells Jones (1875-1936)
- Horace Jones (1878-1884)
- Mary “Stella May” Jones (1881-1946)
- Rebecca Clevenger Jones (1883-1963)
- Martha Evans “Mattie” Jones (1885-1891)
Benjamin Jones died on 7 October 1896 and is buried in the United Methodist Church Cemetery in Pemberton.
Tennant family gathering
This week of #52Ancestors and #52Familyphotographs I am going back to an image I used last year but failed to identify all the characters. It’s not cheating, it’s added value! This image has several generations, as well as folks who rarely got photographed together. I do not know what the occasion was.
The back row is Jean Stubenbord, George Tennant Jr., Helen Tennant, Katharine Tompkins, Harold Tompkins and Ethel Hodsdon.
The front row is Anne V. S. Tennant, Anne V. S. Tompkins, George Tennant Sr., Louise Tompkins, Eliza Tennant Hodsdon, Mary Tompkins and Grace Tompkins.
There are actually several versions of this photograph, each one taken by a different man so that the couples could be photographed. This is the one Granny gave to my mother which shows both Harold and Katharine Tompkins.
Below is the one Granny gave to Louise Tompkins.
In this image the people are a little less posed.
The back row is Jean Stubenbord, William Stubenbord Sr., Helen Tennant, Katharine Tompkins, George Tennant Jr., and Ethel Hodsdon.
The front row is Anne V. S. Tennant, Anne V. S. Tompkins, George Tennant Sr., Louise Tompkins, Eliza Tennant Hodsdon, Mary Tompkins and Grace Tompkins.
Harlow Buttles and others
This year for #52Ancestors I am going to focus on family photographs. I have so many and I think others will get as much amusement and interest out of them as I do. So ring in 2019 with #52FamilyPhotographs !
I just love this image: the car positioned across the street, the outfits on the ladies in the back seat, the chauffeur’s cap on the driver. The photograph identifies Harlow Buttles as the bearded gentleman in the front seat.
Harlow was born in 1834 in Bradford County, Pennsylvania. He was a farmer and the postmaster of South Hill, Pennsylvania. He married Susan Amelia Hill in 1862. They had two daughters, Hellen and Alma Dolly. He died in 1924 and is buried in South Hill Cemetery, Orwell.
Telling My Story 