Someone once wrote that the poor were cannon-fodder for the rich. My great-great-grandfather Samuel McClurken was a poor Irish immigrant that lived in the "factory district" of Philadelphia called Kensington. Most of his sons served during the various wars the USA has been involved in. In the photograph, you see three of his sons, clowning around a bit in his backyard, sitting without a chair.
I think the three brothers in the photograph are James, Howard, and Edwin, but I'm not 100% sure which of these fellows is whom. I've found WWII draft cards for 4 of the 5 living brothers. It's amazing what you can learn from them.
Thomas (1880-1958) (WWII draft card image not available)
William Spence (1884-1924) (died in train-truck accident) Did not serve during WWI. He was my great-grandfather.
The only brother I've been able to determine to be in the photograph "for sure" is Corporal James (1888-1958) Co. D, 34 Infantry, 7th Division WWI (never married). James was a Chemist and he went on to make ice cream for Abbott's Dairy. He is listed as 5' 10", 140 pounds and light haired. He lived with his brother Raymond for a time.
George Richardson (1892-1976) is shown living with wife Emma and working for the John B. Stetson hat factory. 5' 10 1/2", 190 pounds and blond haired. With him being blond and husky (at least he was by 1940), I don't think George is in the old photograph.
Edwin Winfield (1894-1983) listed as married to Anna and also working for the John B. Stetson hat factory. 5' 7", 166 pounds, and brown haired. I think Edwin is the "short" guy on the far left in the old photograph.
Howard Wilson (1897-1982) 5' 11", 150 pounds, and brown haired. Howard is shown married to Edna and working as a partner with Morgan and Co., in the "Pakard" building. Howard was a CPA. I've not been able to determine where this building actually was/is, nor who the Morgan and Co. owners were. I guess the mailman knew how to find the place and I'll leave it as a rainy day project. I think Howard is in the old photograph. Being the tallest (but not by much) I'm guessing he is the one in the center.
Raymond Wesley (1901-1958) No WWII draft record. I think Raymond was too young to have served with his older brothers in WWI.
So there you have it, an educated guess (at best) that, from left to right, we see Edwin, Howard, and James in the old photograph.
This old photograph illustrates far more than what appears in it. You see two young babies, perhaps less than a year old - one with the hair parted in the middle and one with hair parted elsewhere. These two are twins and are my paternal grandmother's older brother William (center part) and his twin sister Margaret. Sadly, Margaret died at the age of five from childhood illness.
What has been a challenge to me - are the names. My grandmother's parents names were William and Margaret. They had the twins and named them after themselves. Margaret (Jr.) died - but William (Jr.) went on to marry a Margaret. Confused yet? My great-grandfather, in addition to being married to a Margaret, had a sister named Margaret. There are twelve Margarets in three generations in this family tree.
I know I'll never have any children, but if I did, I don't think Margaret would be on my list of possible names. I hope my ancestors can forgive me for that.
20 comments:
Why don't you think you'll have children? As a man, you have plenty of time left.
You have many Margarets in your family for sure. My family... has a quirk of marrying like names.
Let's see. My sister is Katie. Sister in Law is Kate.
Brother is Eddie. Brother in law is Ed. Nephew is Edwin.
I used to date a Nick, my name being very close to that.
My brother make sure to name his children unusual names. Vaughn. Holly and Leah. Nobody else in the family have like names.
I always dreamt I would name my girl Isabelle and the boy Jacob. But I don't think its gonna happen for me either.
HOW is the first guy in the picture supporting his own weight? It looks physically impossible! It can't be that he's putting his weight on the second guy's knees.
It's so important to label pictures. I'm glad you figured out part of the mystery..at least you hope.
You 'know' you'll never have children? Ah come on. You might, and I think you'd be a super dad!
So many things went through my mind as I read this post, Ig.
Since I've spent many hours lately looking at old photos and scratching my head over many of them, I'm fascinated with yours. The one similarity of yours to mine are how thin that generation was! Those photos could have been my dad and his buddies.
Speaking of Margarets... my grandma was Margaret. My mom was Margaret. My sister got the middle name Margaret... You might note I did not name any of my children Margaret - not even the middle names! But.... my Tessa SERIOUSLY considered naming one of her girls Margaret! Fortunately she has an Emily Deanna, Anna Rose, and Cara Marie. Whew.
Your Irish roots and family history is very interesting to me. Keep the posts coming!
That's a lot of Margarets! I always enjoy it when you do your family roots stories, it's always fascinating. Thanks for giving the links to the backstories also, it helps for me to keep on track. Too bad little Margaret only lived to be 5, it must have been heartbreaking.
So many Margarets!! I love the old photos and all your research. Someplace we have a box of old, old photos with lots of people we don't know in there. Tried to get the grandmothers to help name some of them...and they remembered quit a few. But a lot of them they couldn't remember, either. Sadly some of them might not even be family members at all, we were told, and could be just friends of the family. And we'll never even know who are actually family--LOL!
Which reminds me--I don't even label my digital photos. Hummm.....
More wonderful photos! Are you sure the one on the left is short? He looks to be the tallest to me. Look at those long legs!
Speaking of similar names, look at what you helped me uncover: Three generations of Fritz's, one had two wives BOTH WITH THE SAME NAME. I'm glad the last Fritz never had kids to keep the name going, lol. By then, we started on Ernest and started passing that down as either first or middle name. Does get confusing if there are too many of them.
This is so fascinating, Iggy. I had to laugh about all the Margarets; it is a bit confusing to try to sort it all out. It is interesting that all that info was still kept (thought shouldn't surprise me that much since we have lots of things here). It does go with my admonishment for people to mark their photos earlier than later so subsequent generations can have a better picture of who was who when going through things that meant so much at one point in someone's life.
betty
What an amazing family history you have!!! I love when you post these because they are so fascinating!!
Hugs!
I am probably on the wrong comment thingy, but I didn't see another. I just wanted to tell you that it is a great idea you had to put the draft cards on your blog. I think I might try that.
Oh, and naming like names..Aiy yi yi! My mom's side, the men could never stop with the name John, and of course the siblings of these would name their sons John too, and with a name like Cline, the John's are overwhelming! I put one of mine where the census and all indicated it should go and it turned out I was going down the wrong path. My husband family, being good Catholics, they went forth and multiplied and named their kids Henry, Nicholas, Peter, Mathias..and then the families they married into..guess what names their spouses had in their family? Yep...Henry, Nicholas, Peter, Mathias (and a few others). I have been having quite the time trying to keep them straight. In fact their was one man who's looks seem to change more than I thought and it dawned on me the other day that it didn't fit because I had 2 diff Peter's with similar last names, Sadler and Schlader. Mind boggling!
Parsley is right, it is important to label pictures. At least that’s what my grandmother ALWAYS said. Her name was Margaret. Go figure.
BTW, I'm not so sure the guy on the left is that short. His hips are lower than the other guys. His knees are bent more and his upper leg is more perpendicular to the ground. just say'n.
It had accured to me, as well, as another follower, that these were thin men. 140# is very thin. They did so much more manual labor than we do. I know my mother's side of the family were all farmers that ate those huge farm breakfasts after working 2 or 3 hours first.
The other thing is the loss of children. It was not uncommon for a family to lose a child or two. How sad. My grandmother had a 6 yr. old sister that got her long skirt too close to the fire while Mom was making lye soap and burned to beath.
Thanks for sharing you relatives. I'm always interested in their stories.
Yes, a lot of margrets...
And, hey, there's still time for you to have children; it's different for men than women!
I always love seeing the old pictures you uncover and the stories behind them. Lots of family history there. :)
*hugs*
Haha, Margaret has never been a favorite name of mine, but William is good....:)
That is one great photo..I love it! I have never seen one like it before. Way cool.
The babes..William and Margaret..are an example of the hair parting rule that went along with gender most of the time!
Thanks for sharing:)
i love your family news posts..and you have plenty of time for babies.
Iggy you and Sue have a similar idea about finding out aobut your family history! You really would make a great detective! I like to see family details unfolding on our blogs.
I don't think I have a single Margaret in my family...but you have enough for the both of us! And I am so jealous that you have all these amazing old photographs- they're so fascinating!
I just love all the older pictures you show us Iggy and then the history also :o)
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