Thursday, July 1, 2010

Treasure Chest Thursday - Postcards From The Past

Something recently found in my Dad's things - a postcard from someone seemingly named "Dora" as written here, a cousin of my Great Grandmother Sallie Hott Anderson.


I had never come across a cousin named Dora Henderson in my research and this of course sent me investigating who this could be.   Sallie's mother's maiden name was Mary Henderson, so I started with her family -  this may be a first cousin to Sallie.   Mary had 4 brothers that I knew of, but I had not researched their families in detail.  After finding two of them and coming up with nothing I turned my attention to Robert Henderson, born abt. 1861 in West Virginia.  I could not find a marriage record for Robert on the on WV vitals site so I turned to the census records in search of Dora.    I found a Dora E - age 15 in 1920 with Robert and Minnie Henderson.  Living in the same town that I know this family to be from.  But Dora was listed as a son.  So I then looked at 1910 and found the children of this couple listed as Benjamin, Lottie, Emma, May and Dorie - age 5 (again listed as a son).  I know at this point I have the correct family as I also have a postcard here from his sister Lottie.    So what I thought was a postcard from a little girl, turned out to be from a little boy, and it was written around 1910.  A check of the births for Hampshire county I found a son Dorey Henderson born to Robert in 1905. 

Obviously this card appears to have been written for him, and it reveals another puzzle - he mentions playing with a little sister, who I have yet to identify.  In 1910 there were no younger sisters in the home with Dorey, and I have not (in the past few hours) found a death or birth record to verify who this child was.  

The other post card from Lottie appears to have been written in the same handwriting.  Lottie would have been 13 at the time this postcard was written - possibly she penned both of them.   I'll post hers another time.  In the meantime, can anyone out there make out what the card above says after "... I play with my little sister _______ baby ________  cousin"    

2 comments:

  1. "I play with my little sister. I am _____ Baby from your cousin Dorie Henderson.
    Just guessing here.
    I have an old Christmas card from a little boy to a girl that I searched out. He lived down the street from her and she was about age 10 to his age 6. I guess he had a crush on her. It was so sweet.

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  2. Beautiful card with a mystery....what fun! Sorry I can't figure out the baby's name.

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