Week 14 Check it Out!

Amy Johnson Crow gave us the theme “Check it Out” for week 14 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. I was trying to decide which ‘Check it out’ moment in my research to share when I thought of the album my brother passed on to me last summer. The album itself is a work of art. It looks Art Deco to me. Isn’t it pretty?

How pretty is this decorative design just inside the cover?

One of the first set of photos is my second great grandparents, Ira Smith 1831-1920 and Anna E. Slater 1839-1913.

On the following page is my great grandparents, Charles William Smith (1860-1936) and Melissa Alice Minson 1863-1932.

The next page has my grandmother, Nettie Myrtle Smith 1883-1952 and both of her parents. It also has a mystery woman, I’ll have to compare her to some of the other photos and see if I can figure out who she might be. I am thinking a sister of Anna might be a possiblity.

Another page with a mystery woman has three photos of my great aunt Mary Smith, sister of Nettie Myrtle Smith, my grandmother. I think this was probably her album. There is again one unlabeled photo on this page. Another mystery to try to solve. This photo looks quite a bit older to me, so I don’t have a guess at this point.

Moving farther into the book I was thrilled to find this photo of my fourth great grandparents. I wish she had been called by her actual name because I still have no idea what her name is. My third great grandparents were born in England, all of their children were born in England, they immigrated to the U.S. when their youngest was less than 1 year old. I am assuming the William Slaters lived in England.

This next picture was possibly the only photo taken of Marc Noris Smith 1904-1905. I am not sure what caused his death. I found his tombstone next to Ira and Anna Smith last summer and realized I knew who he was. A relative on ancestry had a son for the brother of Charles William Smith. Charles’ brother Thomas Robert Smith 1871-1946 and Leonne Perle Crane 1883-1945 married in 1902. I found them in the 1905 Iowa State Census and I also found Marc, their son. He was so cute, it must have been heart breaking for them when this happened.

In the back of the book were some loose photos and one letter. This post is already getting long so I may find another theme to fit the rest of these amazing finds. Hope you enjoyed my Check it Out moment. So exciting to me when I can put pictures with the names.