Pennington – After Toil Comes Rest-Genealogy Musgrove, Holder, Buckmaster, McIntire

Musgrove Family Reunion – CD of Family Pictures

Last summer, Aunt Mary Mae brought her collection of family pictures to the Musgrove reunion on Lake Texoma. She and I spent three days going through the collection, which included several unlabeled photographs from the early 1900s. As the oldest daughter of William (Bill) and Eva (Buckmaster) Musgrove, Mary Mae inherited their pictures, including some from Bill’s parents and aunt Odessa (Pennington) Smith.

Pictures were scanned on my Flip-pal scanner, photographed and some originals Mary Mae gave to me to preserve for the next generations. All those photographs are now scanned into my computer and labeled. I’ve just finished making a CD with just over 200 pictures, many from Mary Mae’s collection, but a few others collected from other sources. All pictures are used with the permission of the owners.

While I won’t be able to attend the reunion this year, tomorrow twenty copies of that CD will go into the mail. I’ve already found two mistakes – a name misspelled and a DAR obit inadvertently included. My email address is on each CD to contact me with other errors.

Here’s some pictures from the CD. Could the tall young man in the picture below be William (Bill) Musgrove Jr.-Nora’s brother and Eva’s future husband? And perhaps the boy in the front could be Kenneth Eugene Smith, Nora and Bill’s younger cousin and Dessa’s son? The ages fit. If anyone has these same photographs labeled or photographs of these people at about the same age, please contact me. If this is Eva, it’s the earliest photograph I’ve seen.

The photo postcard below was in both the Mary Mae (Musgrove) Dollar collection and the Norma Ennis (Musgrove) Craig collection.

William Walker Musgrove is on the left in the picture below, but the man on the right was unknown, until I looked through the Norma Ennis (Musgrove) Craig’s book. Benjamin Harrison Musgrove, William Walker’s younger brother, is the man on the right.

Several of the other photographs are still unidentified, but not forgotten. I’ll continue to post the rest of them on the blog and research other ways to identify the photographs.

Have fun at the lake!

Copyright © 2014 Andrea Musgrove Perisho

Unknown Photographs from Bancroft, Daviess County, Missouri #6 in 52 Ancestors

Today’s article features two photographs from the collection of my paternal grandparents, William Musgrove Jr. and Eva Buckmaster Musgrove, now in my collection. There is no writing on the back of these photographs to suggest names for the featured people. The name of the photography studio, W. H. Allen, yields no clues from a computer search.

However, the location of Bancroft, Mo. does give us some clues. Bancroft is in Daviess County, Missouri, where my 2^nd great grandparents James T. Pennington and his wife Elnorah Melvina Francis were born in 1857 and 1859, respectively. Their young family was in Daviess County for the 1880 census, but had moved to nearby Harrison County, Missouri by the 1900 census. The 1890 U.S. census was destroyed in a fire, a constant point of grief for genealogists.

While the Pennington and Francis families did scatter into other areas of Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and California, some were still in Daviess County in 1900. Daviess County is north and a little east of Kansas City, Missouri on the way to Des Moines, Iowa. Harrison County is on the border of Missouri and Iowa with Daviess County just south of Harrison County.

This style of photograph is called a cabinet card.

“One style of photograph that can often be found in many old family photo collections is the cabinet card. First introduced in 1863 by Windsor & Bridge in London, the cabinet card is a photographic print mounted on card stock. The Cabinet card got its name from its suitability for display in parlors — especially in cabinets — and was a popular medium for family portraits.”[i]

The cream colored cards measure 4 1/4” by 6 ¼” with rounded corners and a thin gold border imprinted around the edge of the photograph. The name of the photography studio, W. H. Allen, and Bancroft, Mo. are written in script with same gold ink. The back of the cards has three chubby cupids flying around a heart pierced by two arrows. Ms. Powell, on her website, indicates cabinet cards with rounded corners and a thin gold border were popular from 1889-1896. Though, if a photographer had those cards in inventory, they could be used later.

As I look at the photograph of the two young girls, I see my own pug nose on the girl on the right, the one with the high-necked dress. I wonder if this could be my great-grandmother Mary Elizabeth Pennington Musgrove. In 1896, she would have been 17 years old and her younger sister, Alice Cynthia, would have 15. We have other pictures of these women when they are older, but it’s hard to tell. Those of you that have those pictures, or knew the women, what do you think – could these be Mary Elizabeth and Alice Cynthia Pennington?

The picture of the two young couples is more difficult, though it does seem like the young women on the left in both pictures share at least a family resemblance, with the woman in the couples picture looking a little older. What do you think?

If you have any clues to the identity of these people, please let me know.

[i] Powell, Kimberly, Cabinet Cards, (http://genealogy.about.com/od/photo_dating/p/cabinet_card.htm :accessed 20 Feb 2014).

Written for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge at No Story Too Small.

Copyright © 2014 Andrea Musgrove Perisho

Unknown Ancestors – Pictures from the Musgrove collection #4 of 52 Ancestors

Last summer, a Musgrove aunt gave me several pictures collected by my paternal grandparents, William Musgrove Jr and Eva Buckmaster Musgrove. Most of these photographs had been removed from photo albums and had no other identification. Perhaps, someday a Musgrove, Buckmaster, Pennington, Medcalf or Hopkins cousin will find this blog and identify these ancestors or family friends. Family members with all these surnames lived in or near Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma.

Copyright 2014 by Andrea Musgrove Perisho

The three photographs in today’s post were all taken by Klepfer Studio in McLoud, Oklahoma. From what I’ve learned today about early photography, these were probably all taken sometime shortly after 1900. A call to the McLoud library indicated no city directories are available to decide when Klepfer Studio was in business. I did find a Klepfer photographer in the Oklahoma City area and sent a message through Facebook, just in case the McLoud Studio owner was related. Using Google images search, no matches for these images showed up. Articles and books recommend looking at clothing/hairstyles to decide a range of years the pictures could be taken. I’m thinking that might work better in a metropolitan area. Any suggestions on how to identify these old photographs would be appreciated.

We originally thought the picture of the baby in the wicker baby carriage might be my grandfather, William Musgrove Jr., but after seeing a labeled picture of my grandfather in a different gown, this is probably a different baby.

The pictures are out of their ziplock bag and into an acid free archival quality Hollinger Metal Edge album, safely stored for future generations, if we just knew who these people were. I’ll be posting more of these photos as I get a chance, next up with be six cabinet cards from Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri – perhaps Francis or Webster kin.

Neosho River, Kansas Picture – Pennington

Written on back of picture is Hazel, Desse, Hershall, Jess, Grace, Jim, June, Margaret, Inez, Kenneth. Neosho River Kansas. Picture is from Debbie Cook Davis and is used with her permission. Accessed on Ancestry.com on 29 May 2013 at http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/24126424/photo/bcfac365-ab6f-4b4e-bbcc-678dddf22d63. — Written on back of picture is Hazel, Desse, Hershell, Jess, Grace, Jim, June, Margaret, Inez, Kenneth. Neosho River Kansas. Picture is from Debbie Cook Davis and is used with her permission. Accessed on Ancestry.com on 29 May 2013 at http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/24126424/photo/bcfac365-ab6f-4b4e-bbcc-678dddf22d63.

Debbie Cook Davis is a cousin found on ancestry.com. We share James T. Pennington and Elnora Melvina Francis as ancestors. My great-grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Pennington, was their oldest daughter and Debbie’s grandmother, Hazel Pennington, was their youngest daughter. So I’m not sure if we are 2nd or 3rd cousins. Does anyone have that figured out?

While working on my great grandparents records (William Walker Musgrove and Mary Elizabeth Pennington), I went through Debbie’s extensive collection of pictures on ancestry.com and found this great photograph.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the three in the middle of the picture sitting together – Grace, Jim and June? After I get some comments back, I’ll update this post.