People in the Pictures Continued.

The discoveries from the photos sent to me by the Clawson Historical Museum's curator have really got me trying to come to conclusions as to which families are in the pictures which we have from my husband's family which are unidentified. The majority of the pictures don't have photographer's studio marks and those that do were Canadian which is where virtually all of Hubby's lines were prior to settling in Michigan. One photograph of a large family had a marking that said "Wheel City Studio Cheboygan, Michigan" so I looked at my FTM file for Jim's lines that were in that area. There were two families there in the 1900s--Ellen Lincoln Buchanan Stoner(she was widow of John Buchanan and mother of 3 sons) she had remarried and by 1910 is in Pierce Co. WA. The other family that was in that area was that of the elusive Thomas H. Leonard. Going by Census & Death records I've been able to place him in the area around 1901-1910. He and his wife Jane McHugh had a rather large family with 7 children--3 sons & 4 daughters. The picture with the Wheel City Studio shows what looks to be parents with their seven children. I got out the census entry for this family to compare the children listed with the ones in the picture. I grouped the children in the picture from oldest to youngest and the pattern of son, daughter, daughter, daughter, son, daughter, son fits perfectly with the known children of Thomas & Jane. I immediately looked at the daughter who would if my guess was correct be Margaret Leonard (my husband's great grandmother). A comparison of the face with a known picture of an older Margaret Leonard really makes me believe even more that this is the Leonard family. I'd been working with another Leonard researcher who believes that her lines may connect with that of my husbands so I sent her a quick explanation and copy of the pic via email. She thinks she may have a similiar picture but we will have to wait until she can get to her box of family pictures.

Chasing Leonards

I'd sent off for the death record from the Cheboygan Co. MI library of a John Leonard in hopes that this would be THE John Leonard who was an Uncle of Thomas H. Leonard(Jim's Direct line) & living in Thomas H.'s household in the 1900 census. You can read my earlier post here. I don't want to go down the wrong road in this research but the age and location is certainly right on the money for it to be his Uncle. From the Death Info I learned that this John Leonard was a widowed farmer and was the son of Hugh Leonard & Dorothy Downey. This doesn't tell me for certain that this John Leonard is the one I'm looking for as I don't know for certain who Thomas H. Leonards parents were. It is progress though in that I can see if there is a trail from the Hugh Leonard & Dorothy Downey that might lead to Thomas H. Leonard's Dad.