Jane Zina Petrina Folkman, who was known by Petrina, is my 2nd great-grandmother. She was born 30 March 1876 in Plain City, Weber, Utah to Jens Peter Folkman & Maren Katrine Thomasen.
Jens was a polygamist. Maren was his second wife. They were married eight years after he married his first wife, Kirstine Mathilde Funk. Jens and Kirstine had twelve children born over twenty years in 1858-1878. Jens and Maren had four children born over ten years between 1866-1876. This complex family occupied two different homes.
My copy of this photo was printed in 1983. The photo back contains only this information:
That leaves me to wonder which girl is Petrina and which two sisters are in this photo with her. The girl on the left looks the most like Petrina to me.
Thankfully, Petrina’s son, Evan Folkman Skeen, wrote a book at the end of his life that he titled, “Joseph and Petrina Skeen Family History.” On page 216 of that book we see:
I was delighted to see that Uncle Evan labeled this photo with Petrina and that I had correctly guessed which girl is Petrina! But which sisters are in the photo with her?
Petrina had two full sisters and seven half-sisters. It would seem logical to consider her full sisters first, but one of them is ten years older than Petrina and the other is eight years older. These girls appear to be very close in age which rules out her full sisters. Among her half-sisters, the youngest two seem most likely.
Margaret Lavinia Folkman was born 16 June 1875 and Clarissa Jacobia Folkman was born 5 October 1878. Petrina was born in between the two on 30 March 1876. The sister on the right appears to be older than the sister at the bottom. Unfortunately, neither woman has any childhood photos on FamilySearch to compare to.
I found the email address for Margaret’s grandson on FamilySearch and sent him an email. He did not have any childhood photos of his Grandma to compare this image to but agreed with my assessment. That may be as good as we get for this photo.
Happy Thursday, do you have any old photos you need to label? Don’t delay! xoxo