You Opened Up a Rabbit Hole

 

I wish this post would be conclusive but it isn't. A couple people mentioned that the above photo from a recent post looked like that of a boy. I get the feeling as well. But when I save a digital file, I always put any writing on the photo in the filename and so I wrote Elizabeth (Lizzie) Cogswell in the file name. So after reading the comments, I went and found the picture so I could scan the backside. I often don't publish these so I have proof of having an original photo in case others claim otherwise but I will make an exception in this case. Sure enough, "Lizzie" was written on the back in a script that I am familiar with.

The above picture was found in a box of family photos that I inherited from my great grandfather, which would be the son of Elizabeth. It only contains photos from his side of the family and so I'm reasonably certain that the picture is down that particular branch. As a bonus, while looking for that photo, I found the below picture among my digital archive of photos. It is written by the same hand and shows a younger picture of Lizzie. But I'm not sure where I obtained it. It isn't attached to my online tree so I'm fairly certain I have the physical picture somewhere. I'm just not sure where and from whom. It is another reminder that I should have taken more care in my early days of genealogy work and labeled sources, something I do now but not back then.

Because it came from my great grandparents, I figure it has to be either my great grandmother Grace or my 2nd great grandmother Elizabeth who labeled them. But which one. I thought I might be able to tell by handwriting along but that really hasn't helped me. 

The above signature is known writing from Grace.

The above writing is straight out of my 2nd great grandmother's letter to someone detailing her side of the family tree. Neither are conclusive in my mind but Elizabeth labeling them makes the most sense as she would have direct knowledge instead of my great grandmother who was only related to the family through marriage. 

But then my mind was blown. In looking through the scrapbook for handwriting, I also found the below picture, also labeled "Lizzie" and this Lizzie looks nothing like my 2nd great grandmother. The gentleman also looks nothing like my 2nd great grandfather either. But Lizzie is in the exact same script as the previous two labeled photos. 

So I looked immediately before and after the above picture in the scrapbook for context and found these two images that I scanned so long ago.

It is a card address to Lizzie Cogswell and on the back says Compliments of W. N. Gemmill (I think). It has a pressed flower and a black ribbon, I'm guessing from someone's funeral. But the writing on it certainly looks a lot like the previous Lizzie's. So does that mean the writing is someone else's? If so who? 

So who are the baby Lizzie's? I'm not sure right at the moment. My 2nd great grandmother went by the name Lizzie (as attested by the flower card above), but came from a large family with lots of other Elizabeth's both in first and middle name so it theoretically could be one of many cousins. Indeed, there are lots of pictures of extended family throughout. I'm not sure who W. N. Gemmill is or how they fit into this picture. I did a search for my 2nd great grandmother's scrapbook but can't find it at the moment. I'm not sure where it is and that means I really need to spend more time organizing things better. 

So after all of this, I'm not closer to an answer than I was when I started this journey posed by those two comments. A rabbit hole indeed!

For reference below, a youngish known picture of my 2nd great grandmother Elizabeth (Lizzie) Cogswell Kuck that looks like many pictures I have of her when she was older and is probably the youngest photo I have of her if the above two aren't her.