Tag: photograph

Becoming Part Of History

On By jenbumannIn hammLeave a comment
Lydia Hamm Oshkosh Normal School Photo for Quiver Yearbook, 1902ish.

About 15 years ago I talked to my Dad to see if he would be okay with me donating part of my 2xg Aunt Lyd’s papers to the Wisconsin Historical Society. He seemed okay with the idea. My reasoning was that I felt some of the items in her papers were more a part of the bigger picture of Wisconsin history, not just the Hamm family story. Another part of the reason for this decision is that when I am gone, I have no idea who is going to take care of the family papers, if anyone. (Which means I have lots of work to do in that regard – ack!)

Lydia Hamm was a teacher in Marshfield, Wisconsin for many years, (she never married, and being married usually meant a woman had to quit her teaching job). In her photograph collection I found lots of class photos with the students names written on the back, (thank you Lyd), and pictures of schools, and her students, that she had taken herself. She loved to take pictures. Also in her collection were histories written about Medford by herself, and her students.

So, I decided that I would donate these items to the Wisconsin Historical Society. I wanted to be sure that other researchers might find their own family as one of the students in her class, and Lydia grew up in Medford when it was just starting as a town so she remembered it’s beginnings.

And now, anyone can see these documents and photographs:

The above is the WHS catalog entry for her collection, (although, it is as yet unprocessed). As Lydia didn’t have children of her own, I am glad to see that part of her contribution to Wisconsin history is out there for the world to see and access. Also, in a way, she is continuing to teach. Yay teachers, unsung heroes.

A Treasure Found

On By jenbumannIn cainLeave a comment

Yes, I know. It has definitely been a while. COVID-19 is all to blame. Can’t go anywhere, can’t get research done, can’t get records, or access to them. It has put a crimp in my work flow. But, I do try to plug away at it once in a while.

In fact, recently while going through my tree on my FamilySearch.org site, I kept seeing a picture of a Barry family that someone had posted about 4 months ago, I always ignored it. But this week I asked myself why was it here, and could this Barry family possibly be related to me? So, I actually did a little investigation into the matter. Come to find out one of my great Uncles is in this photo. One of my great Uncles I do not have a picture of, at all. This photo’s label was focused on the Barry family, which is actually no relation to me other than by marriage. And, the reason I didn’t understand why it kept showing up on my page.

William Cain was Gertrude Cain’s brother in fact he was the eldest son of John Cain and Carrie Rosa, born right after Gert. He married a woman named Lovina Philomena Barry in Oconto in 1902. William, his wife and family eventually moved out to Oregon and Washington state (a place a lot of other John and Cain cousins, aunts and uncles ended up).

William Cain is standing, his wife is next to him.

What is weird about this discovery is before I decided to investigate the photograph I had found the entry shown below regarding this same Uncle’s marriage to Lovina.

I had to read this document over several times before I was sure it was the same William Cain, because some interesting information shows up in his marriage record. Such as, his mother is named as Catherine Lavallee. If the clerk filled out the form, then Catherine could have been misheard for Carrie, or the record was transcribed incorrectly into the index. But, even more interesting is the reference of his mother’s surname as Lavallee. This was his grandmother Jennie’s surname at the time she died in the 1870s. And Carrie and her sister Ida were Rosas not Lavelleys. So I can only imagine what stories Carrie was telling her children, or how even she didn’t really know what was true. There was already the story being told, and passed down by her children, that Carrie’s father had died during the Civil War. We know that was not true, and it was her mother who probably told her girls this when they moved to Wisconsin, without their father.

Anyway, the marriage record does not contain earth shattering news or anything, it is just interesting. And, another reason to not always trust official records as the purveyors of truth. Sometimes they are just plain wrong. This is also a good reason to see actual records and not indexed ones. I have no idea if the transcription is correct, but, I don’t really care enough to see the actual record in this case. He is only an uncle, and I, apparently, know more than he did about his own family history.

In this case it is the picture that is a true treasure, and I thank the person who uploaded it very, very much. William was a very handsome man. As were all the Cain children so far as I have seen.