52 Ancestors-January Wk#3...FAVORITE PHOTO

 Week 3 ~ Prompt ~ FAVORITE PHOTO

In 2004 I inherited my Great Grandmother's Photo Album from her Grandson, my Dad's first Cousin.  He inherited it from his Mother who was the youngest daughter of Martha Jane Carroll.  That name was the only thing he knew about the Album which was more than I knew about her or any of her ancestors, parents, siblings and families with the exception of my Dad's generation.

The entire Album was a Genealogists 'Brick Wall'.  

The 1890-1910 Photo Album was full of unidentified pictures, cards, and a few fragile clippings.  One photography studio setting photo had her name and description of children on the back....obviously written by the photographer. 

After long hours of online searching for anything in her name, a birth record, marriage record and even a death record...none found, I turned to my Aunt Irene's somewhat all over the place in time, hand written family history notes.

There it was...Martha Jane Marley (daughter of E.S. Marley and Mary Josephine Leatherwood ?)  Thankfully...no question mark after the name Marley. In addition...Married in Cleburne, Texas, Jack County.   Her notes included the names of Martha Jane and Steven B. Carroll's children, their birth dates, and the death date of great grandfather Steven and the fact that he was buried in Cleburne. One of those children was my Grandmother who had given her Maiden name Carroll to my Dad, Willard Carroll Pittman.  The pieces began to fit together.

Her studio setting Portrait became my FAVORITE PHOTO. At last I had not just one maiden name, but two...Marley and Leatherwood.  Both names opened a flood gate of Family Histories dating back to the American Revolution and the identities of people from the inherited Album. 

And in turn led to the establishment of my Ancestry Family Tree

The Pittman-Carroll-Marley-Leatherwood Family Tree

 My first Genealogy Blog

Tracks of My Texas Ancestors

and a greater respect for

Irene's Old School Genealogy Record Keeping!