Fashionistas: Date the Look

I have recently found some old family photos and I don't know a soul. The ultimate goal of course will be to identify the people in the pictures. Unfortunately I'm not even sure what years most of the pictures were taken. So I ask for my costume and fashionista friends to enlighten me what time period these fashions were, well, in fashion.

What style are the girls wearing?

Unknown woman from an unknown era

The boys in what decade?

My grands, guess the year

The Eliza Metzker Hudson Story

The Hudson Family circa 1869
 L-R Elizabeth, William Alexander Hudson holding William Jr, Eliza Metzker Hudson holding Isaac

The latest snow storm in New Jersey, gave me the opportunity to play with a new to me feature in Ancestry.com, the Story. Story takes the information you have entered about a person and creates a chronological historical picture book. Now if Ancestry took all the timeline entries I made on Eliza and included them in the story view, I would have been ecstatic. It's unclear how Ancestry decides what goes in the timeline besides, census information. It looks like if there is an Ancestry.com source then it appears on the timeline. Other entries being included seems to be a crap shoot. All pictures attached to the ancestors file get uploaded, so you can create your own entries. There are severe limitations with the picture file in my opinion since it will only let you use a picture once. I add children's births to a mother's timeline so I need to use the "it's a boy/girl" multiple times. Ancestry is also erratic when pulling descriptions from the timeline view to the story view. Net result, instead of having a well rounded story on the first take, I had to re-create the majority of events before Eliza's story could be told. My final pet peeve of the story view is it can't be saved as an infographic, only as a web link. If anyone has figured out how to save the story view to an infographic, please let me know. For the moment at least if you would like to learn about my 2nd great-grandma Eliza Metzker who married William Alexander Hudson in 1866, you will have to use this story link. Update, the above story links no longer work. Now called LifeStory it can be printed or saved as a pdf. Eliza Metzker Hudson's Life Story 

Wednesday’s Child

Wednesday’s Child in the genealogy world is a time to recognize our ancestors who passed far too young. Given the hard life of our ancestors in the 18^th and 19^th and even the early20^th centuries there is no surprise that life spans were far shorter than they are today. Vital records (birth/death records) weren’t officially recorded by the government in most parts of the country until sometime during the 1900s. Before 1850 the US census only listed the head of household, so it is easy to see why finding information on minor children of the time is difficult. Oftentimes the only record of their life is their headstone. So in honor of those whom much is unknown in my own family tree, let me introduce:

Emanuel Hudson – Age 2

Birth 1 Jun 1874 in Hopewell, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, USA
Death 1 Dec 1876 in Blair, Pennsylvania, USAEmanuel was the youngest of 5 children born to William Alexander Hudson and Eliza Metzger. His father died a mere 10 months after Emanuel was born. He is buried in the Mennonite Cemetery in Martinsburg, PA alongside his mum.

Catherine E Ritts – Age 1
Birth 15 Oct 1906 in Antis, Blair, Pennsylvania, USA
Death 25 Jul 1907 in Antis, Blair, Pennsylvania, USA
Catherine was only the 2nd daughter born to Harry & Lizzie Ritts. The Ritts clan numbered 11 with 9 boys and my nana surviving to adulthood. Catherine's remains lie with her parents, grandpa, and a few brothers in the Antis Cemetery.

Margaret Levenia Campbell – Age 11
Birth 17 Mar 1878 in Buckner, Louisa, Virginia, USA
Death 4 Mar 1890 in Altoona, Blair, Pennsylvania, USA
Maggie C, the eleven year old daughter of Henry J and Tressie Campbell died on Tuesday morning at 20 minutes to 2:00 of pneumonia, super induced by grip and asthma combined. Her demise is a great blow to her parents, she being the youngest daughter. Stevens Mortuary, Altoona, PA 1883-1910, p 31, Campbell, Maggie d 3/4/1890 St Marys; a 11 yrs; d/o Henry & Theresa Campbell; r. 2516 Oak Ave*

* Bakers's Mansion, Altoona Tribune, March 6, 1890, Thursday