GENEALOGICAL MYSTERIES 

Swap Meet Sleuthing

Last year, on June 29, 2014, QHGS member Penny Nugent purchased an old photograph album at the Long Beach Antique Market.

photo scan: QHGS

A composite photograph labeled “Class of 1922” (shown above) was pasted on its title page. Every photo had first names written in ink on the image, and, while a few of the pictures gave relationships like “Aunt Lucy,” and “Uncle Clark,” the majority had “me” or “myself” written on them. Only one item gave any indication where the album might have come from: a photo postcard of the Washaura County Normal School in Wautoma, Wisconsin. Using that information as her first clue, Penny decided to proceed as though the album were a genealogical mystery that could be solved. Her goal would be returning it to a living relative, but first she had to discover whose family photos had been preserved with such care—who was the young woman labeled “me,” “myself,” and “I”?

photo scan: QHGS

June 30, 2014: Because no surnames were recorded on the pages, Penny listed all of the first names that were written on the photos, making tentative assumptions about possible relationships as she did so. Many pictures showed an “Edward” and a “Sally.” Comparison of all the Edwards showed that they were the same person, but the Sally was not “myself,” The most common photo caption was “myself and Eddie” or “Edward and I.” Two of these pictures were of the subjects at age 10 and at age 20, thus, there was a possibility that the “me” was Edward’s twin sister. It was time to look at census records.

July 1, 2014: “Edward” and “Sally” are common names; so, Penny searched the 1920 census in Waushara County, Wisconsin, using the names of “Aunt Lucy and Uncle Clark.” It did not take long to find the only couple in the county with those given names: Lucy and Clark Berray. Nor did it take long to find out Lucy’s maiden name, Ceman, on FamilySearch.org. Sure enough, a Ceman family was living near the Berrays—a Ceman family with two children, named Eddie (15) and Mary (14)! This family also had a daughter Genevieve (10) and son Clifford (3), both of whom appeared in the album.

July 2, 2014: Fortunately, there was a well-sourced tree for this Ceman family on Ancestry.com. After sending the tree’s owner a description of the photos, Penny continued to search newspapers and directories for more evidence that Mary Ceman was the album’s creator. When she found documents showing that Mary’s brother Eddie had married Sally A. Thorsen, she was sure. 

On July 3, 2014, a very excited Lorene Seman (note change of surname spelling) contacted Penny; and, after several email exchanges, on July 5, 2014 the photo album that Mary Ceman had created c. 1925 was mailed to her distant cousin in Wisconsin.

RESEARCH TIP: Swap meets and garage sales offer many items that you can use to improve your research skills. Not only will you learn a lot by tackling a project like this, you may reunite photos of ancestors with a descendant’s family!