Black Ellis Album #1, Pages 1 & 2

 

The image on page one appears to be cut from a greeting card.

Page two contains two photos.  The first is a photo of Blanche Octavia Huband holding her younger sister Gene Ann Huband and was taken in Gridley, California in 1909.  Blanche was born in 1895 and Gene in 1908.

 

 

The second photo on page two is of the Cheney Family.  Blanche’s mother, Hattie Margaret Cheney, appears in this photo with her mother and six of her siblings.

 

 

The matriarch of this family, Louise Maria Austin, was born in 1838 and died in 1927.  She was the mother of eight children, seven of whom are in this photo.  Missing is daughter Octavia Achsa Cheney.

A slightly different photo taken in this same sitting appears twice on FamilySearch.  This copy has the following note:

“Taken June 21, 1925 in Laketown, Utah for Louise M. Cheney’s 8th birthday.” 

I imagine the writer of said note meant to say it was Louise’s 87th birthday.  That date seems logical based on the appearance of everyone in the photograph.  Additionally, daughter Octavia died in 1920 which would explain her absence if the photo was taken five years after her death in 1925.

The copy of this photo in Blanche’s album has a tear that was repaired with tape.  Unfortunately, the tape was applied to the front of the photo across several faces.  I did not try to edit that out.  It’s way beyond my skill set.  If one of my talented cousins would like to try to clean that up, the largest file size of this photo can be found here.

 

One more comment about the second page.  The notations were written by two different people.  The first writer used a white pen of some type and wrote directly beneath both photos.  I believe that handwriting belongs to Blanche Octavia Huband the album creator.  The second writer used a white pencil and wrote the names of the Cheney family.  That handwriting definitely belongs to my grandmother, Mary Margaret Ellis, daughter of Blanche.

 

 

 

This post is part of a series sharing this wonderful old family photo album.  You can learn more about the album here.  A digital version of this photo album can be viewed on Flickr here.