One of the goals I’ve had for a long time is to identify the un-named people in the collection of pictures I inherited. I’ve always known this is a very uphill battle. Every now and again though, I make a bit of progress. I told my Dad tonight that even if I only identify 15%, it’s better than nothing and a huge deal. The second part of that goal would be to put faces to all the names in the Diary of Llewellyn. Today I will add four identities to that goal! All thanks to Ancestry’s Yearbook Collection if I’m honest. All these people are also added into my Public Ancestry Tree under my Diary of Llewellyn Network.
Identity One: Roswell Winans
It’s hard to tell from the group shot but I was able to spot Roswell Winans and Walter Wilkes from this image. I didn’t know it at the time, I just knew they were familiar from Llewellyn’s images. It wasn’t until I found their individual pictures that I was able to identify who they were. I will be clear, so far I have not been able to make the Face Search find anyone in my images. I think it is possible but I think the people who I am searching have high quality images available yet in the Ancestry database to really find them. Once I had already identified Roswell, it did identify him. However, I made the connection first.
I will be using these two images from Llewellyn a couple times, as there are numerous people identified in them. Roswell is easy to tell in both images once you’ve seen his Senior Picture. He is a regular participant in Llewellyn’s Epworth League and is mentioned in her diary many, many times: here.
Identity Two: Ernest Smith
Ernest wasn’t identified with a yearbook. I actually was curious if I could find him after having such great success with the others. I stumbled on a member photo (the third image) of Ernest and thought I for sure recognized him from Llewellyn’s pictures. He makes many appearances in Llewellyn’s diary.
The first image is the best image I have of any of the group I think. It contains L to R: Ernest Smith, Llewellyn Thorward, Roswell Winans, Unknown Girl, and Hugh Long. The middle image is actually on one of the church trips and that is Grant’s Tomb in the background. The group is on a boat in the Hudson River going past the Memorial.
Identity Three: Hugh Long
I will admit I was just paging through the Caldwell High School yearbooks when I noticed Hugh in the group picture. Then I found his name once I went into the Senior Pictures. I quickly identified him in a few of Llewellyn’s pictures and he too has made some appearances in her diary related to the Epworth League.
Identity Four: Walter Wilkes
For Walter, I cropped him out of the big image so we could see what struck me so much about this group image. This was my last identification and I think it was his posture that made me stop and take notice first. I was actually looking up people from Llewellyn’s wedding gift list and noticed Walter and his parents listed and decided to see if I could find him. The group picture came up for me first. His class picture isn’t as convincing, but I think it’s hard to argue with the other two pictures once placing them side by side. Walter appears in Llewellyn’s diary one time that I know of and of course the wedding gift registry.
This is fun right? 😂
