Wordless Wednesday - Halloween

Happy cousins at Halloween.

The History of "Real Photo" postcards

Through my work I have been blessed with the task of scanning in a large collection of World War I-era photographs. The photographs were taken by a Soldier during 1918/19 and feature images of the French and German countryside, burned-out churches and even a battlefield scene. Rare images to be sure. Many of them have white writing on the front and all of them are printed as postcards. While I have seen "real photo" postcards before, these photographs made me wonder where they had come from and how had the Soldier been able to make prints that included scrawled information on the print?

A sample of a WWI photo with hand-written caption. From the Library of Congress.

"Real photo" postcards, also know as RPPC, are actual photographs printed on sensitized paper using glass plates or film negatives. From 1905 to the 1930s real photo postcards opened photography to everyday people, hence an explosion of photos and the mailing of photo postcards. Many of us have at least a few real photo postcards in our collection.

Fred Jacobson, a distant cousin through my Butler line.

The reverse side of the above photo.

"Dear Isabell, I had this taken on my way home and forgot my tie. Isn't it a joke. With love, Frederick."

The example above is a photo of a distant cousin in my Butler line. Notice on the back that Fred mentions he had this photo "taken on my way home." It is a good example of the new immediacy of photography at the turn of the century.

Robert Bogdan and Todd Weseloh have written a great book about RPPCs: Real Photo Postcard Guide: The People's Photography. They discuss the impact of real photo postcards on photography and society. The book is available here in preview format on Google Books. The book also includes many references and is a guide for dating your RPPC.

On page 43, Bogdan and Weseloh answer my question as to how the Soldier was able to write a caption on the front of the photo. It appears that they probably did this to the negative prior to printing the card.

I must say that I am very smitten with RPPC. Without them, I might have had no photographic record of many of my ancestors. Have RPPCs changed your genealogical research?

Surname Saturday - Akers

This week I received an email from a cousin stating that we were related through the Akers line. My first thought was "wonderful!" My second thought was, "I don't know much about that line." His email gave me some motivation to learn more about this line.

I am related to the Akers through my mother's side of the family. Mary Ellen Akers, my 4th great grandmother, is the first Akers in my line. She was born in Ray County, Missouri in 1833 to Joseph Akers and Elizabeth Heard.

Mary Ellen Akers married Colonel Henderson Megonnigil in Ray County, Missouri on April 21, 1850. They had six children: Lucinda (1851), Mary Isabel (1854), Elizabeth (1857), Annie (1864), John Nelson (1866) and Malinda (1869). I have yet to determine when Mary Akers Megonnigil died. The last record I have found of her is the 1870 census.

I was able to connect Mary to her parents based on a biography of her brother, James, in the Portrait and Biographical Record of Clay, Ray, Carroll, Chariton, and Linn counties, Missouri published in 1893.

Notice that the biography states his parents were Joseph and Elizabeth (Heard) Akers and that there were five children to this union: Sarah, Catharine, James, Mary and Marion. It also states that as of 1893 all of the siblings but James were dead. That narrows down Mary's death date.

However, the biography does not give much information on Joseph Akers or Elizabeth Heard Akers. I have found many trees online with information about Joseph but so far I have found no sources other than the above to connect Mary to Joseph and Elizabeth or to the next generation.

Wordless Wednesday - More Happy ladies

My aunt, Grandma and mom sometime in the early 1980s. This was taken during the Christmas celebration at Clifton and Hazel White's house.

From Cradle to Grave - Cora Bell Ozias Kuhn, Part II

Read From Cradle to Grave - Cora Bell Ozias Kuhn, Part I here.

Cora Bell Ozias Kuhn was my second great-grandmother on my paternal side. When we left off from her story it was 1894 and she was recently married to her second husband, James H. Martin. Cora picked up her sons and moved them with her new family to Nebraska for five years. By 1900 the family has moved again to Baldwin City, Kansas.

Martin and Kuhn family 1900 census

The family lives here for the next twenty years. By 1910 all three sons have moved out and Mabel, her step-daughter, is the only child left at home.

Martin Family on 1910 census

This photo was part of a collection of Kuhn family photos I borrowed from a cousin. The only note on the photo is its location. Based on the vehicle, I have to wonder if this is the home of Cora and James Martin.

In 1920, the family is in the same location, but now there is a new child listed: Claude E. Gates. I have found no information regarding this individual, but I assume that he was adopted or that Cora and James were just providing a home for him.

Martin family on 1920 census

Sometime between 1920 and 1925 things went a little off for Cora. In the 1925 Kansas census she is found in Holton, Johnson County, Kansas, but with a new husband: Lemuel B. Wolverton. With them lives a ward, William Felt.

Wolverton family on 1930 census

I have found no information regarding this third marriage for Cora. I do know that James Martin was still alive, so she was not widowed. Another case of irreconcilable differences I assume. And this is where the records for Cora stop. I can not find her or Lemuel Wolverton on the 1940 census. She died February 1, 1953 at the home of her son, F. E. Kuhn, in Pleasant Hill, Missouri. According to her death certificate she had lived in Pleasant Hill for 10 years so she must have moved there sometime around 1943.

Cora is buried in Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Pleasant Hill, Missouri

 

Cora went through some trying times in her life. She moved countless times across four different states, dealt with the deaths of many loved ones and reared at least six children. There are no known photos of Cora, which I find odd since she lived into the 1950s. I won't give up hope that there is one somewhere. One thing I noticed about Cora is that throughout her life she used the initial "K." Regardless of who she was married to she maintained her attachment to her first husband, Frank Kuhn. It's possible that she did this for her children, but I like to think that she was maintaining a tie to her first love.

 

Missing items:

 

- Cora on the 1940 census.

- A photo of Cora (I'll reach out to cousins for this one).

From Cradle to Grave - Cora Bell Ozias Kuhn

Cora Bell Ozias was my 2nd-great-grandmother on my father's paternal side. She was born in Independence, Iowa in August 25, 1864 to John C. and Christine (Potterf) Ozias.

 

Independence was the county seat of Buchanan County and a thriving community on the banks of the Wapsipinicon River.

Photo of the Wapsipinicon Feed Mill, Independence, Iowa. Built in 1854, this was a sight that Cora Bell was sure to have seen during her life time. Photo by J. Stephen Conn, via Flickr.

In 1870, Cora is living with her parents in Byron, Iowa, just northeast of Independence. Cora lives with her parents, six siblings and her grandmother. The family appears to be financially comfortable and even has a domestic servant.

By 1875 the family has moved to Nemaha County, Kansas. They had also spent time in Missouri as Cora's newest sibling, Nanny, was born there. According to the census she was only 5 months old so the family's arrival in Kansas was in late 1874 or early 1875.

The next five years must have been very turbulent for young Cora. Her father dies in 1876 and her mother is left to care for her nine children on her own. Four of her siblings have moved out of the house and young Nanny has died. In 1880 the family still lives in Nemaha County, Kansas, and it appears that young William Ozias at age 18 is now the man of the house.

On December 31, 1882 Cora married Frank E. Kuhn in Nemaha County, Kansas. Frank was the first-born son of Philip and Bertha Kuhn. The couple's first child, Maurice Elmer Kuhn, was born August 29, 1884 and their second son, Frank Earl Kuhn, was born October 11, 1886, both in Nemaha County.

 

Tragedy struck poor Cora's life once again when Frank died of typhoid fever on October 16, 1887. She was now alone with a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old. According to a biography on her son, F.E. Kuhn, Cora chose to send her son (it is not clear whether both children went) to live with an uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. J.K. Anderson, in Pleasant Hill, Missouri. He stayed with these relatives for eight years.

 

It's unclear what Cora did in the meantime. We'll pick up with Cora at her marriage in 1894 in our next installment.

 

Missing pieces: Where was Cora in 1888-1894?



Wordless Wednesday - Boy with carriage

My brother, Scott, at Silver Dollar City May 1974