A Strange Valentine's Day Tale

The following article was published in The Franklin Times on 22 January 1904 about the remarriage of Felix Von Briesen and Daisy Penland. They were first married in 1893, divorced in 1902 and remarried in 1904. Their love story was also published in several other newspapers around the country.

Won Fortune and Wife Who Had Divorced Him

"The mountain city of Asheville is the beginning and end of a romance in real life which is as full of incident and interest as any theme of a novelist.

A dozen years ago Felix Von Briesen, a talented young German went there to work in carving the stone for the quaint gargoyles and other ornaments of George Vanderbilt's magnificent chateau at Biltmore. He was born in Macon, Ga., but no native German has more sentimentalism, with a leaning toward the tenderest love, and so it happened that when he saw Miss Daisy Penland it was a case of love at first sight.

One of the "quaint gargoyles and other ornaments" on the
exterior of the Biltmore; personal collection

Marriage quickly followed and for five years they lived in Asheville, Von Briesen all that time working at the chateau.

When the latter was completed the sculptor had to go elsewhere for employment, and he went to Arizona and New Mexico, but found no work sufficiently permanent to justify him in sending for his wife. He wrote her from time to time, sending money, but the periods between the letters grew longer and finally the letters ceased entirely.

His wife spent two years without a word from him. Then she secured a divorce on the grounds of desertion. Two children had been the fruit of the union, but one, a boy had died, leaving a little girl with all her mother's beauty. Mrs. Von Briesen became a trained nurse and so supported herself and daughter, seeking no pity and putting aside the memory of her husband, who it was thought by her family and friends had tired of his love and deserted her.

One day last October a letter came from Santa Fe, N. Mex., assuring her that his love had never failed, but that failure to secure profitable employment had disheartened him and he feared to write, but sunshine had come by the death of a relative, who had left him $25,000, and he was prepared to take care of his family.

So startling was this letter that the wife could hardly credit it, but replied and correspondence was resumed. Von Briesen wrote that he would give his wife and child a large portion of his inheritance. The wife wrote him to lose no time in coming to Asheville. He came a few days ago and complete understanding was effected. He gave his wife a certificate for a large sum of money and on Monday of last week they were re-married by the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Asheville."

Biographical Sketch of Felix Von Briesen

Felix Von Briesen was the third known son of Oscar and Susannah (Wagner) Von Briesen. He maintained on various documents he was born on 10 June 1870; however, he appeared on the 1870 census as a three-year old boy. So my assumption is he was born on 10 June 1867 in Macon, Georgia. His family had lived in Macon earlier in the decade when his father taught music at Wesleyan Female College, now Wesleyan College. His father was thought to have been of German heritage and immigrated to the United States about 1846 from the area of eastern Europe that was variously under Polish, Prussian, and Russian rule. His mother consistently stated on source documents that she had been born in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany.

In 1870, Felix's family lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where is father taught school -- perhaps at another college -- but by 1880, his family had been torn apart. His father, Oscar, lived in Austin, Texas, making pianos. His mother and brothers, Edward and Robert, lived in Baltimore, boarding with the William F. Schwarze family. Susannah was a dressmaker and Edward worked as a bartender. The whereabouts of Felix's younger brother, William, is unknown to me at this time. Twelve-year-old Felix was an inmate at the Home of the Friendless.

The Home of the Friendless was a private social services organization, which began its work in Baltimore in 1854 when the Home of Friendless Vagrant Girls was chartered. Its purpose was to provide a "refuge and Christian home for homeless, friendless, and worse than friendless vagrant girls with the objective of preparing their residents for service in Christian homes." A boys' home was constructed in 1871.

In 1888 Felix lived in Baltimore and worked as a stonecutter. The next year George Vanderbilt, a grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, began constructing a 250-room French Renaissance chateau, known as the Biltmore, in the Blue Ridge mountains near Asheville. Felix moved to Asheville and worked on the Biltmore for five years before the mansion was opened to Vanderbilt's friends and family for Christmas in 1895.

Biltmore mansion in Asheville, North Carolina; personal collection

He married Daisy Penland, daughter of Noble and Nancy (Stevens) Penland, in 1893 in Buncombe County and they had two children, Oscar A. and Felicia Nancy, though Oscar died on 24 November 1895 just days after his first birthday.

Soon after their son died, Felix went west to look for work. In 1900 he lived in Holbrook, Arizona, which was then a territory, in a large boarding house along with several other stonecutters and day laborers. I suspect the craftsmen had gathered there to build the now historic Navajo County Courthouse. Holbrook was known as "the town too tough for women and churches." In 1902, Felix was registered to vote in Graham County, Arizona.

Historic Navajo County, Arizona, courthouse; courtesy of Wikipedia

Meanwhile back home his wife filed for and received a divorce in 1902 in Buncombe County. Felix returned to Asheville and the couple remarried on 14 December 1903. A few days after their second marriage, they moved to Washington, DC, where Felix had secured, what the local newspaper described as  "a good position."

While in Washington, Felix pursued a civil suit against Congressional and Mexican Mining Company to recover $10,500. It appears judged ruled against him and his attorney filed a motion for a new trial. What happened to this motion is not clear. Then on 7 August 1906 a creditor of the mining company sued several stockholders, including Felix for not making their installment payments for stock. The outcome of this lawsuit is also unknown.

He and Daisy purchased a 140-acre farm in Clifton Station, Virginia, and took in boarders during the summer months. Felix's mother, Susannah died on the farm on 28 October 1905. Daisy had a son in 1907 while they lived in Virginia. Felix sold the farm in 1910 and by 1912 he and his family had moved to El Paso, Texas.

Felix and Daisy's love story did not last. They divorced in January 1916. Both of them remained in El Paso. Daisy worked as a nurse and Felix worked at various jobs with the Army, a milling company, and a mining concern. In 1921 he went to Sinaloa, Mexico, on a prospecting trip for a mining company.

Felix died of heart problems on 26 July 1928 in El Paso. Daisy never remarried and died on 25 April 1964, also in El Paso.

Their children:

• Oscar A. Von Briesen, born 11 November 1894 in Buncombe County, North Carolina; died 24 November 1895; interred at the Newton Academy Cemetery in Asheville, North Carolina.
• Felicia Nancy Von Briesen, born 18 July 1896 in Buncombe County; died 3 March 1984 in El Paso County, Texas; interred at Restlawn Memorial Park in El Paso; married 1) Walter Vernon Haggard (1893-1927) and 2) John Graham Melton (1897-1972).
• Delphin Von Briesen, born 4 June 1907 in Clifton, Virginia; died 28 January 1970 in El Paso, Texas; interred at Restlawn Memorial Park; married Mary Emma Luckett (1912-1986).

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Felix Von Briesen, was the brother-in-law from 1913-1916 of the first wife of my second cousin three times removed, James Taylor. When Rose Etta (Poole) Von Briesen married my cousin, she was a widow. Her first husband was Felix's brother, Robert Von Briesen.

Cowhiding in Wake County 

The Mysterious Rose Etta (Poole) Von Briesen Taylor...

John Ronald Miller (1915-1952): The Uncle Most of Us Don't Remember

John Ronald Miller, who went by Ronald, was Aunt Ruth's first husband. He died before my younger Lange first cousins and me were born or were old enough to remember. According to Mom, he was born in Britain; never knew who his father was; and was raised by an aunt who had a bit of money but who died of cancer when he was young. As he cared for her in the final stages of her life, he became addicted to the morphine her doctor's prescribed to manage pain. Eventually after a 12-year marriage to Aunt Ruth, he committed suicide.

Not long ago, I looked at the information I had collected about Uncle Ronald (it seems weird to call him that), and realized there were a lot of gaps in the paper trail. So I went digging.

John Ronald Miller (1915-1952*); personal collection

Ronald was born on 16 September 1915 in Grimsby, England, also known as Great Grimsby, a large seaport on the Humber estuary close to where it joins the North Sea west of Leeds. Britain makes birth records available to genealogists and family historians after 100 years. I should be able to find the registration of his birth, but I have not. I am left wondering if John Ronald Miller was his birth name or one assigned to him later.

On 22 March 1930, 14-year-old Ronald boarded the Cunard Line's RMS Antonia along with thirty other boys from the National Children's Home (NCS), which had been established in 1869 by a Methodist minister. By the time Ronald lived at the NCS, the organization operated a number of homes across England, including one in Leeds, which may have been where Ronald lived. There was always pressure on the NCS to find homes for the children in its care so their would be space available for new arrivals and emigration played an important role in achieving that end. Many of the NCS administrators believed the children would have the opportunity for a better future in Canada. Ronald arrived in Halifax on 31 March 1930. He indicated to immigration officials, his foster father was Sidney Rogers of Grimsby and he had been a student in the UK but intended to work on a farm in Canada.

On 27 July 1932 Ronald joined the British Merchant Navy in London. A few days later he signed on to merchant ship Esperance Bay in Southampton. He indicated it was his first ship and previous to that he fished for work.  Ronald served as a deck boy.

Merchant ship Esperance Bay; courtesy of State of Victoria Archive

By 1939 Ronald lived in Montreal and worked as a sales manager. On 6 November he arrived in Burlington, Vermont, by plane. He told immigration officials he intended to reside permanently in the U.S. and his destination was New Orleans where he would visit a friend. Interestingly, the building listed as friend's address is now known as the Maritime Building.

Ronald married Ruth Hedwig Lange on 16 September 1940 in Washington, DC. She was the daughter of Gustav Lange and Wilhelmina Schalin. She was born in Winnipeg in 1916 but had been raised on a farm in Prince George's County, Maryland. At the time of their marriage, Ruth worked in a bakery in Washington. Surpringly, neither Ronald or Ruth were listed in the 1940 census, which was enumerated earlier in the year. A month after their marriage Ronald registered for the Army draft. He was a Canadian citizen, as was Aunt Ruth, and they lived in an apartment in a row house at 1201 C Street, NE.

1201 C Street, NE, Washington, DC; courtesy Google Maps

Ronald worked for the Standard Drug Company, which had been established in 1919 in Richmond by two pharmacists. Stores were later opened throughout Maryland and Virginia and the chain thrived for decades before it was purchased in 1993 by the company now known as CVS. The remainder of the records I have for Ronald are border crossings returning from trips to Canada in 1943 and 1945. He and Ruth continued to live at 1201 C Street, NE, during that time.

Mom said Ronald and Ruth would move around the country frequently so that he could obtain prescriptions for morphine. When a doctor discussed a detoxification clinic, it was time to move. They were in Pelham, New York, when a doctor convinced Ronald to be institutionalized in order to withdrawal from morphine. However, after a few days, he called Ruth and begged for her to get him released. She did after seeing his terrible physical deterioration. According to Mom, Ronald committed suicide in 1952 in Pelham, New York, a few days later. The New York death index for that time period is available and I have found one record that could be Ronald's but have been unable to verify it. If it is for "my" Ronald Miller, he died in 1956 in Poughkeepsie.

Ruth (Lange) and J. Ronald Miller in happier times; personal collection

Ruth married Robert Riffle Meek in a 1960 civil ceremony in Stamford, Connecticut. He was a divorcee with one adult son and worked as a real estate broker. Soon after their marriage they moved to DeLand, Florida, and purchased an apartment complex, which they managed for several years.

I can't help but think after spending several days researching and learning more about Aunt Ruth's first husband that his life began with hardship which continued through much of his childhood. Even though his adult life seemed normal to most casual onlookers, his demon's conquered him in the end.

Altha Alice Queen: Mother of the Largest Family in the District

Altha Alice (Paxton) Queen was my Aunt Katherine's great great grandmother. She was born on 15 September 1807 in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Many public trees indicate her parents were William Paxton and Ruth Ann Sellman, but I have found no source documents which identify her parents. On either 6 February or 2 June 1831 in Washington, DC. They had eight children. Mr. Queen died in 1885 and Mrs. Queen in 1907.

On 4 June 1905 a Washington Times page 2, full-page article and photo spread about Mrs. Queen entitled, "A Queen in Name and a Queen of Mothers" was published.

Page 2 of The Washington Times, 4 June 1905; courtesy of Chronicling America

Washington Woman 98 Years Old Has 153 Living Descendants and Mourns 51 Dead

Mrs. Alice Queen, Mother of Largest Family in the District

Four People Needed to Tabulate Her Many Descendants

Feels Young and Expects to Live Many More Years

In an old-fashioned country home near Tenleytown, surrounded by a splendid growth of flowering rose bushes, nestling between hills sown with sweet-scented clover and timothy, and undisturbed as yet by the rapid growth of the city's streets and buildings, lives Mrs. Alice Queen, ninety-eight years old , the mother, grandmother, great grandmother and great great grandmother of descendants so numerous and increasing so rapidly that it took four members of her family hours to properly tabulate them. Even now the four express fears that they have overlooked a number of them.

Of children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren, as far as she and her offspring are able to discover, there have been 204. The living of these, of which the oldest is seventy-three, are at least 153.

A Times reporter found this remarkable woman sitting on the wide piazza of her old-fashioned house. It is her custom to spend many hours to spend many hours in this shady corner these warm days quietly enjoying as it were the secret of eternal youth. From her place of vantage she watches over her numerous progeny and descendants, noting carefully their comings and goings, giving advice, always shrewd and to the point, and backed up with the experience of years, giving sympathy those that need it, and giving love to all.

A Mother to Them All

She has been a mother to them all in turn, even down to the fifth generation, and the absolute mistress over their lives. For she is a woman of much force of character and has always been looked up to as the head of the house, her husband having died many years ago. She is familiar with the daily habits of each and every one of her huge family, the clothes they wear, the money they earn and spend. She does not allow her grandsons or her great grandsons to drink, smoke or stay out late at night. Her granddaughters and great granddaughters may remain away from her but a short time without giving an account of themselves.

When The Times reporter called upon her he found her in her usual comfortable seat on the veranda, talking to her grandson, Dorsey Queen; her granddaughters, Mrs. Grigsby and Mrs. Harry, surrounded by a number of her great grandchildren. It was Mrs. Queen who welcomed him to her home first. When she discovered his mission she seemed greatly amused. She took the matter with much more tranquility than the rest of her family.

"Will I let you take my photograph and write me up?" she asked. "Certainly, if you like. There is no harm in a photograph, and if people want to know of me I am quite willing they should. I believe I'm rather old and my family a rather remarkable one."

It was in this remark, as in other things, this wonderful old lady showed the strength of her mind and character. The timidity of the others over what seemed a trying ordeal vanished at once.

"Grandmother thinks she's a little girl again," said her grandson, smiling, "And why not? She is younger and has more sense than any of us to this very day."

Expects to Live Years Longer

"I certainly do feel young," said Mrs. Queen, "and if your readers wish to know how long I will live , just tell them it will be another fifty years, or at least until I hold one of the sixth generation on my knee." And she laughed.

"She will live until that time, too," said the grandson, "and she will treat the sixth generation just as strictly as she treated us. We all depend upon her so much more that we often wonder what will become of us when she is gone."

"Rightly, too," said the grandmother, with a note of scorn in her voice, "because you do not know how to live. It takes the old folks to teach you."

The snow-white head shook slightly as she made this emphatic assertion. She did not say that she thought young people are too much accustomed to think that they know everything under sun, but she left the impression that she spent much time convincing two hundred odd boys and girls that there were many things they did not know. Mrs. Queen looks twenty years younger than she really is. Her hair, which has been white for many years, is growing thin over the temples, and there are scores of wrinkles in her fine old face. Her slate-blue eyes, uncovered by glasses or spectacles, are bright and quick. Little goes on about her escapes her keen glances. Perhaps it is her mouth that betrays her true character more than any other feature. It is a large, kind, humorous mouth, showing, too, much strength of character. She is neither very tall nor very short. A slight sloop, the result of the last few years, it is the only clue to her great age.

Active as a Girl

Mrs. Queen is remarkable in more ways than one. Her mind is as bright as that of any of her descendants; her memory is even better than theirs; and until recently, when, in chasing a runaway granddaughter across the fields, she slipped and fell, she was as active on her feet as any of her grandchildren and never had a day's sickness in her life. She has never used spectacles, and sees as clearly as the best to thread a needle and sew. Suffering from rheumatism now as a result her recent fall she refuses to take what would be the first medicine for her, and defies her children boldly with the statement that "patience is the best curative." Patience she must have had all these years, to be the splendid old lady she is. Meantime, she uses a cane.

"First, of a Second Dozen"

Alice Paxton, afterward Mrs. Queen, was born 15 September 1807 in Emmitsburg, Frederick county, Maryland.

"Ours was a large family," said Mrs. Queen. "But those were the days of large families. I remember a story which was told of an aunt of mine that lived in New England, and reared a large family. Her husband was a lawyer, and when a judge of that circuit stopped at their house for a night's lodging he found my aunt in the garden with a small baby in her arms. Seeing the pretty woman, a flush on her face and graceful as a girl, and wishing to compliment her, the judge congratulated her on her fine baby and by chance said:

"Your first, Madam?"

"The first, yes," my aunt laughed and blushed, and added, "of the second dozen."

When she was only nine years old Mrs. Queen's father and mother moved to the District of Columbia and settled on a farm not far from her present home. She remembers the events of those days almost as well as she does those of the past year. Her father was drafted for the army in the War of 1812, but he was unable to go to the front because his wife and young children demanded all his care. But Mrs. Queen remembers distinctly the march of the United States troops past her father's house on the old Baltimore pike during this war, and how she was thrilled by the sight, and how occasionally a tired soldier would stop to ask for a drink of water.

Her Early Life

She has kept an exact account of everything of importance which has happened in or about Washington ever since those old days, and she can tell perhaps better than anyone now living of country life in the District of Columbia when Washington was in its infancy, and it was thought that Georgetown would always be the great city. The old lady laughed as she told how as a girl she carried her stockings and prunella slippers in a bag almost to the church door on Sundays and then sat herself down, and taking off the coarser homespun brown stockings and heavy shoes, pulled on her finery. Such was the custom of all country belles in those days of muddy roads. She can tell of the quilting and spelling bees and the country parties.

She remembers well the long winter nights when her family and friends sat about the great open fireplace and cracking nuts or told stories while the wind whistled down the chimney and the snow fell about the home that stood in what was then an almost trackless wilderness. Or she can tell the curious inquirer of the long summer days when the young girls rode behind their lovers on horseback, going to picnics or country fairs. She can tell too, of the radical changes which have occurred in Washington and of its interesting early social and political life.

Girls Outlived Boys

While still a young girl Alice Paxton married Electurus Queen, a young farmer living near her home. It was a happy marriage and for years the Queens led a quiet happy life in the country. Eight children were born of the union, four boys and four girls. It is a strange fact that today all of those boys are dead while all of those girls, old women now, are still alive. Mrs. Queen has outlived her husband by twenty years, the one regret she has in her young life. Not that she wishes she were dead for she is a most optimistic soul and expects to live for many a year longer, but she is sorry when she thinks that her husband is not here too.

It was immediately after their last son's death that Mr. Queen died. He had often declared that he would not survive his sons. The four living daughters are Mrs. Emily Burroughs, Mrs. Abne Stauff, Mrs. Sarah Harry, and Mrs. Rosina Barnes. Mrs. Harry is now living with her mother.

Mrs. Queen is not the only member of the family who is long lived. Two of her numerous brothers, both well on toward ninety years of age, are living in Tenleytown today, and still take an active interest in business. They are Thomas and Joseph Paxton. Strange as it may seem, out of Mrs. Queen's two hundred descendants few, if any, have taken to the professions or have entered the army or navy. Nearly all of the men of the family have stuck to farming in Maryland or Virginia. Mrs. Queen spoke as if she had taken little or no interest in the civil war. Largely through her efforts her sons did not enter either of the contending armies, but stayed on the farm. Consequently, she feels no bitterness now, nor did she lose, as so many other mothers in this section of the country, a son or a husband in the war.

Too Much Worry Now

Mrs. Queen was brought up strictly and according to to the ideas of the old Methodist church. She was never allowed to dance or do many of the things which her own daughters and great granddaughters have done. But she was broad-minded enough to see that merely because she had not done certain things those things were not necessarily bad.

Her life is not by any means centered in the past alone. Her mind has kept young with each succeeding generation, and she has a fund of common sense, wit and humor, that is not surpassed by that of any of her grandchildren, clever though they may be. She has no choice between the old days and the new, but thinks that each has its good points. But she does believe that the people of former generations had stronger minds, better habits, and did not grow worldly-wise too soon, as so many young persons do today. In face, she explains her own youthfulness at such an advanced age by the fact that she remained a girl a long time leading a simple and quiet life. She firmly believes that the world moves too rapidly today and that, though she herself is able to keep pace with it, it is entirely too fast for the younger members of the family.

"They worry too much," said Mrs. Queen. "I have worried, too, but always for others, not myself."

A Family Reunion

Notwithstanding her fears for the present generation, it appears that her line will not suffer as the years go by. The rapidity in the increase in the family is certainly keeping pace with the age. Many of the grandsons and granddaughters have large families, and even the great grandsons and great granddaughters are not far behind. In fact, as Mrs. Queen humorously remarked, the babies are being born into the world more quickly than she can count them.

There has never been a reunion of the Queen family, or rather that branch of it of which Mrs. Queen is the progenitor. Perhaps because of the very number of her descendants such an undertaking as rounding them all into the same house has not been attempted. Some of them meet every year, on Christmas or some other holiday. Usually there is talk of a big reunion, but so far nothing has come of it.

"No house would be large enough to hold us all," the old lady remarked, "and when the reunion does occur we will have to hire a hall big enough for all. We are waiting until we can afford it. But it will come in the next fifty years, I am sure, maybe after I have held a child of the sixth generation on my knee."

Aunt Katherine's Father: Millard Aloysius Walter

Millard Aloysius Walter was born about 1900 in the City of Baltimore to William Gunza and Mary "Effie" Christina (Knott) Walter. I believe he was born after 11 June 1900 as he was not listed with his parents on that census. His parents had been married three years and his mother had not yet had children when the 1900 census was enumerated. He was their only known child. The family lived at 824 West Pratt Street and his father worked as a cigar maker, an industry in which he would continue working the remainder of his life.

824 West Pratt Street is about 10 blocks west of the Baltimore Basin, what we now call the Inner Harbor. On Sunday, 7 February 1904, a fire was spotted just northeast of where the Walter family lived. It raged out of control for two days, destroying nearly the entire business district, before over 1,200 fireman from several states extinguished it. In its aftermath 35,000 people were left unemployed and caused $150,000,000 million in damages (1904 dollars, which would equate to $3.84 billion today).

Great Baltimore fire aftermath; photograph courtesy of the Library of Congress

In 1910 the family continued to live in Baltimore at 874 Columbia Avenue, which was the home of Millard's paternal grandparents, so perhaps the family had been displaced by the fire. Millard's family moved to Washington, DC, sometime during the 1910s. They lived at 820 C Street, SE. Millard's father owned a cigar shop and continued to make cigars. Millard was 21 years old when the census was enumerated and worked as a manager at a newspaper. He had completed the 8th grade before he no longer went to school.

The next year Millard lived at 1612 A Street, NE, and worked as the circulation manager for The Bulletin. He married Alva Rae Carroll, daughter of Charles Wilkerson and Emma (Barnes) Carroll during this period. On 24 June 1924 they had a daughter, Mary Emma, at the A Street address.  The tiny infant died the next day.

The family moved around a bit in Prince George's County and lived in Cottage City and Colmar Manor, before settling permanently in Clinton. During this period, Millard continued working as the circulation manager for United Publications Company, the likely owner of The Bulletin..

The family lived in Prince George's County in 1940. Millard continued working as a circulation manager for a newspaper. Millard owned his own home, which was valued at $6,000.

Millard Aloysius Walter, Sr., died in 1976. He was interred at Trinity Memorial Gardens in Waldorf, Maryland.

Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness: Saved from Goodwill

At last summer's Lange Cousins Reunion, my 94-year-old Aunt Katherine (Walter) Lange asked me to "look into" her father's family. She knew his name and the name of his father, but that was pretty much it. The Walter family was extremely interesting to research and I was able to trace the family back to Nicola Walter (c1720-1804). He immigrated to Philadelphia with his wife and children in 1751 aboard the Rotterdam from the Rheinland-Pfalz area of what is now Germany. I was even able to locate a book entitled Nicola Walter and His Descendants by Helen B. Walter and Robert J. Walker. A wonderful fellow Ancestry.com member sent me a digitized copy.[1] I was able to send Aunt Katherine a copy of that book, a report about the Walter family from my database, and several blog posts I wrote about interesting family events.

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by another Ancestry.com member. She had found a photograph at Goodwill in Oregon, which she purchased. She did her research and discovered I had Ethel Marie (Callan) Andrews and her daughter, Betty Jane, in my family tree. She messaged me and asked if I would be interested in the photograph. Of course I would! And several days later the photograph arrived in my mailbox.

Ethel Marie's parents were William J. Callan and Mabel E. Spencer. Mabel's parents were James D. Callan and Virginia Marie Walter, who was a great granddaughter of Nicola Walter, making her daughter, Ethel, my aunt's 2nd cousin once removed.

Photograph of Ethel Marie (Callan) Andrews and her daughter, Betty Jane Andrews

Typed on a sticker affixed to the back of the photograph:
February 1930 - Ethel Marie Andrews holding daugher, Betty Jane - 10 mos. old,
Shore Rd., Brooklyn, NY

Ethel Marie Callan was born on 10 December 1905 in Washington, District of Columbia. Sometime before 1930 she married Byron Franklin Andrews and they lived in Brooklyn, New York, when the 1930 census was enumerated. Byron worked as an accountant. In 1940 their family moved to Queens. Byron Andrews died on 31 January 1989 in Loudoun County, Virginia. Ethel Marie (Callan) Andrews died on 12 January 1999 in the same county. They had two children:

1. Betty Jane Andrews born about 1929 in New York
2. Byron Franklin Andrews born 12 April 1933, died 28 October 2004

While I am thrilled this lovely photograph was saved from Goodwill, if a closer relative of Betty Jane Andrews (maiden name) would like the photograph, I am more than happy to send it. It is framed. I have also digitized it and added it to my online family tree.

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The full text of the book has also been microfilmed by the Family History Center and the microfilm may be ordered and sent to your local center.