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I reunite identified family photos that I find in antique shops and second hand stores with genealogists and family historians. If you see one of your ancestors here and would like to obtain the original, feel free to contact me at familyphotoreunion [ at ] yahoo [ dot ] com. I also accept donations of pre-1927 images to be reunited. I hope you enjoy your visit!
~The Archivist


Friday, April 25, 2014

Analyzing Possible Relationships in a Photograph: Is This Really the Samuel Pollock Family from Ontario?



My recent find of two sporadically-filled cabinet card/cdv albums in a local thrift shop has been a bit of a challenge.  Most of the photographs are not inscribed on the actual photograph, but rather, occasionally labelled on the album insert pages.   Most of the photographs that appear with handwritten notations seem to fit:  a cabinet card of four men labelled "The 4 Jacks - Hauled Milk to Molesworth Cheese Factory"  A Jack Pollock is indicated with an X.  The inscription seems to make sense.  How about this one on a later page?

The above cabinet card photograph was taken at the A.C. Washburn Studio on Queen Street in Kincardine, Ontario, probably in the latter part of the 1880s because of the style of dress, and because the photograph card stock has cut-out scalloped-style edging which was starting to become popular at the time.

Sam and Clara Pollock appear in the 1881 census living in Grey Township, Huron County, Ontario with their daughter, Charlott R. Pollock, born about 1877.1   When I set out to find Louise in the 1891 census, Charlotte's younger sister is listed as "Alphitte," born about 1882.2  I found Lucinda Alphretta Pollock's birth record, and confirmed her birthdate of 20 March 1882.3   Lucinda Alphretta appears to have married Vincent Leeson, and is recorded as "Louise" in the 1911 census.4  Do the girls in the photograph appear to be about five years apart? What about the man and woman? We know from the census records that Clara is reported to be born around 1851, making her 2-3 years older than Samuel.  Does that look about right?

Well, I wasn't sure.  When I discovered that a Pollock descendant on Ancestry.com had an image of Samuel and Clara, I had to contact them to see if they'd share that image with me.  They did, and I am now fairly confident that this is, indeed, a portrait of the Samuel Pollock family, circa 1888-89.   The owner has kindly let me post their image here:



There will be more to come from this album containing images from the Longman, Pollock, Petherick, Mann, Stewart, and Marshall families in future posts.  Locations include Ontario towns such as Listowel, Molesworth, Drayton, and Arthur as well as many from Detroit and Bay City, Michigan.


1 1881 Census of Canada, digital image, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca: accessed 21 Apr 2014), entry for Samuel Pollock, Ontario, Huron Centre, Grey, District 178, p. 27 (penned); citing LAC microfilm C-13273.
2 1891 census of Canada, Greenock, Bruce East, Ontario, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 51, subdistrict Greenock, p.13 (penned), family 64, Samuel Pollick household; digital image, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 22 Apr 2014); citing LAC microfilm T-6327.
3 "Ontario, Births, 1869-1913," online database, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca: accessed 23 Apr 2014), entry for Lucinda Alphretta Pollock, Registration No.013629, Grey, Huron, Ontario, 20 Mar 1882, citing original data at Archives of Ontario; microfilm MS929, reel 54.
4 1911 census of Canada, Bruce North, Bruce, Ontario, population schedule, enumeration district (ED)#59, subdistrict #20, p.4 (penned), dwelling 33, family 33, Vincent Lesson family, digital image, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed Apr 22, 2014), citing microfilm LAC microfilm T-20326 to T-20460.

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