A Photo Of Great-Great Granny?

We are very lucky to have quite a few photos from my Flynn family. Some were in the bible that belonged to my gg-grandfather, Edward Flynn and some belonged to his daughter. Having scanned them all into my computer, I sometimes go through the files, studying them. The first thing I noticed was that most of Edward's daughters have round faces, as you can see in the labeled and dated photos of Cora and Elsie.

I also noticed that a photo from an earlier generation, a carte de visite (CDV), also featured a woman with a round face.

This photo is labeled “lissie.” I now think that this could be a photo of Edward's wife and Cora's and Elsie's mother. Her name was Sarah Elizabeth (Clemens) Flynn. I know that she went by Lizzie from newspaper accounts of her. [1-4] Looking through my newspaper accounts to find sources for “Lizzie” I actually one that refers to her as “Lissie.” [5]

I had noticed “lissie's” round face before, but I suppose I was prejudiced against this being my Lizzie because the pulled back hair and the large dress made me assume this was an older woman. While it is difficult to accurately judge the age of the woman in the photo, I can at least narrow down when the photo was taken. CDVs were popular during the 1860s and as far as I can tell, and admitting I'm no expert, the hairstyle, dress and sleeve style are appropriate to the time period of the photo and the album (1860s). [6] Lizzie and Edward married in 1866 after he returned from serving in the Civil War and we think the bible may have been a wedding present.

I now feel pretty confident in supposing that “lissie” is, in fact, my Lizzie. Thinking about the round face, I remembered another photo also in the bible along with the “lissie” photo of another woman with a round face.

This photo was labeled “aunt sarah.” It just so happened that Lizzie had an Aunt Sarah, her father's sister, Sarah (Clemens) Imhoff. This woman looks older than Lizzie and the photo seems to be from the same period as the “lissie” photo, and actually all of the photos in the album (all CDVs and no photos clearly from a later period). If that is correct then it would seem that the round face seen in Edward and Lizzie's daughters could have come from the Clemens side of the family.

1. “Oshtemo,” Kalamazoo [Kalamazoo, Michigan] Evening Telegraph, 27 February 1902, page 4, column 6, digital images, Kalamazoo Public Library (http://www.kpl.gov: accessed 26 June 2012), Kalamazoo Telegraph Collection.
2. “Oshtemo,” Kalamazoo [Kalamazoo, Michigan] Evening Telegraph, 6 March 1902, page 4, column 7, digital images, Kalamazoo Public Library (http://www.kpl.gov: accessed 26 June 2012), Kalamazoo Telegraph Collection.
3. “To Mrs. Schmidt and Family, In Memory of Freda,” Kalamazoo [Kalamazoo, Michigan] Evening Telegraph, 5 October 1905, page 11, column 4, digital images, Kalamazoo Public Library (http://www.kpl.gov: accessed 26 June 2012), Kalamazoo Telegraph Collection.
4. “Wedding At Oshtemo,” Kalamazoo [Kalamazoo, Michigan] Evening Telegraph, 8 July 1907, page 7, column 5, digital images, Kalamazoo Public Library (http://www.kpl.gov: accessed 26 June 2012), Kalamazoo Telegraph Collection.
5. “Oshtemo,” Kalamazoo [Kalamazoo, Michigan] Evening Telegraph, 17 October 1901, page 4, column 5, digital images, Kalamazoo Public Library (http://www.kpl.gov: accessed 26 June 2012), Kalamazoo Telegraph Collection.
6. Joan Severa, Dressed for the Photographer: Ordinary Americans & Fashion, 1840-1900, (Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press,1995), p. 194-197, 259.