Friday, May 24, 2019

Family Photos…Some are Mysteries (Weed and Sibbald)


I’ve been digging through our stacks of photos…vacations, trips, food, attractions, historical sites, museums, trains, depots, automobiles, airplanes and more.  However far and away the most numerous photos are the stacks of photos featuring family and friends…

Some of these photos are really very old.  In this post I’m showing a few of my mother’s oldest photos of her parents and grandparents…and others who are a complete mystery!


Some of these pictures include the identification of the subject being photographed.  This photo is of my maternal grandmother, Estelle J. (Sibbald) Weed as a little girl.  Even at this early age, she looked determined!  Credit for the photo goes to R and R Studios (G.W. Thomas and Company) at either 152 – 154 West 23rd Street in New York City or 298 Fulton Street in Brooklyn. 

My grandmother was born on March 4, 1894 at 2635 Eighth Street in New York City.  Her parents were John Sheppard Sibbald and Elise Ferdinando Strauck.  


This is a photo of my maternal grandfather’s mother…aka my great grandmother, Selma C. (Bergstrom) Weed.  She was born ca. 1860 in Sweden.  The photo was taken at the Smith and Hardy studios located at 685 Sixth Avenue in New York City. 


Other than the fact that this is a relative from my maternal grandfather’s side of the family, we only know his name…Charles E. Weed.  Given his age and the obvious age of the photo, I’m guessing that he’s Edward A. Weed’s brother.  Edward (born ca. 1849) was Selma Weed’s husband.  There is an attribution as to the photographer handwritten on the back of the photo but I can’t read the author’s writing.

Selma and Edward were married at Sag Harbor New York on October 30, 1883.  She was about 23 and he was 34 years of age. 


This colored photo is of my grandmother’s sister Sadie with her dog Punch. It was taken at DeYoung’s at 815 Broadway in New York City.  The back of the photo includes a Medal of Merit awarded to this studio in 1885.


…and then there are the mystery photos.  They are all part of the family photos that my mom passed on to me.

Beginning with this chubby baby, the theme song entitled “Who Are You?” (Performed by Peter Townsend with The Who), from the TV series CSI (Crime Scene Investigation), comes to mind.  This photograph was taken at the Bostwick Gallery which was located at 98 Sixth Avenue in New York City.


This is another mystery photo.  This child is posed for maximum impact on this little ‘stage’.  The photographic studio was Baker and Vanduzen.


Yet one more mystery baby picture… This little one with the spooky eyes was photographed by William F. Hunter, Art Photographer who had his studio at 243 Fulton Street in Brooklyn New York.


We do know who this jaunty lad was… This is my grandfather Nathan G. Weed.  Love the suit with knickers and the hat!  Since his mother’s photo was taken by the same studio, it makes sense that this photo was also taken by Smith and Hardy at 685 Sixth Avenue in New York City.

Nathan G. Weed was born in New York City at 207 East 73rd Street on September 12, 1884.  Nathan and Estelle Sibbald were married on March 30, 1912.  She was only 18 years old while my grandfather was 28.

At the time they were married my grandmother’s address was at 3472 Broadway and my grandfather’s was at 522 East 183rd Street.


Hey…family is family!  It was part of my mom's family photo collection... This handsome portrait of a proud and evidently well-bred relative was extremely well posed… The picture was taken by the Alcide Pinard Studio at Amsterdam Avenue near 145th Street in New York City.  Unfortunately we don’t know his name…

I’ve previously published old family photos on my blog site…but these are a bit older than most.  You can check out some other old photos as posted at https://bigdaddydavesbitsandpieces.blogspot.com/2015/07/old-time-family-photos.html.  I have 'scored' before, finding ‘lost’ family via posts on this site…so maybe I’ll get lucky again.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

4 comments:

  1. You must be in nostalgia heaven by now. It;s fun to look back at our history.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What lovely old pictures, I love these pictures I have someones of my mmom and my grand mo and are really special for me, hugs

    ReplyDelete
  3. What an awesome awesome post, friend David ... So glad you have them and all that info ... I only have 4 pics of my ancestors ... One shows my great grandmother Juliane as an old woman with exactly the great big nose that I have ... the other one shows my grandmother Maria, Juliane's daughter as a very young woman with a needle nose ... the other one shows my very slim grandpa Paul shortly before he died after a fight with a bull .. then there is a a pic of a whole bunch of family bunched together ready to be transported to somewhere as we were undesirable gypsy scum at that time ... my needle nose mumme was only 14 at that time and was put on an unknown train going West in order to save her life ... Her mother Maria was transported to Siberia and died there ... Maria's sister Uta was shot and and killed before the transport because she resisted rape by the Russians, Maria's other sister Anna was shot and killed on the spot cuz she was suffering from epilepsy ... my mumme witnessed all that age 14. She is 89 now and never speaks about this anymore. And she never ever speaks about how I came about. Wanting to know more I had a genetic tests done, and it concluded that I am 64% Eastern European and 36% Ashkenazim. Case closed. Anyway ... Love, cat. PS: My first name is Uta, and I named my daughter Mary, and I named my son Paul.

    ReplyDelete