In these two photos of the family gathering in 1916* to celebrate the golden wedding anniversary** of my maternal great great grandfather George Marion Tomlinson (1839-1922) and his second wife, my great great grand aunt Amanda J. Darling (1843-1921), the only two people I can identify with confidence are the couple themselves. Amanda, dressed all in white with flowers in her hair and holding a bouquet, looks tiny compared to her husband.
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| [Photos courtesy of Olive Kennedy] |
Certainly at least some of the people in both photos are among their five children but I don't recognize my great grandmother Rufina Ellen Tomlinson Slater, George's daughter from his first marriage.***
*Most likely in Boulder County, Colorado, where George and Amanda had been living since at least 1893 when he appears on a voters list.
**They were married on March 27, 1866 in Fairview, Jones County, Iowa.
***Although she was living in Colorado by the 1920 U.S.Census, in 1910 she was still in Kansas and I don't know when she left there.
© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.
How is it that your great great grandfather's second wife is a great great grand aunt? Did he marry his dead wife's sister? Wouldn't his wife normally be called your great great step-grandmother?
ReplyDeleteYes Amanda was my 2X G stepgrandmother. She's my great great grand aunt because her older sister's granddaughter (her grand niece) is my maternal grandmother. So Amanda is a relative of mine too--something she wouldn't be if our only connection was through marriage. (Small world and all that.)
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