Who's That Baby? Who's That Baby...

The title of the blog should be sung to the Isley Brothers' tune "Who's That Lady." (Click on the images for a larger picture).



Marion (b: July 1941) gave me this picture of my father (in the front with the striped shirt) Karl, Jr. (b: February 1936), his Great Grandmother (Margaret, b: April 1866), and his brother and cousins. It was taken in front of the kitchen entrance at the Old Lilacs on South Lane, where Grandma and Grandpa (Cyrus, b: October 1861) lived there with their daughter Chloe (b: September 1890).

From all accounts at Aunt Mitzi’s (b: August 1914) Memorial held on 8 – 10 August 2008, the tow-haired boy on the right, holding my father’s left hand, is William, II (b: September 1942). The girl with the dark-colored jacket sitting on Grandma’s right is Marion. The boy seated to Marion’s right is Robert (b: November 1940). The girl kneeling(?) behind Marion was identified as Janice (b: March 1935).

I find the photograph interesting for a number of reasons, but here is a list of a few:

1) It shows my father as a somewhat thin, gangly boy, not unlike me at that age and not unlike my son, his grandson, Erik (b: April 1994). (See previous posts).
2) The background of the picture is the entrance to the kitchen with the well in the table at the Old Lilacs. The house looks very much as it still does today.
3) I suspect that the children in the photo are Grandma’s grandchildren and great grandchildren. Judging by her smile, she must be very proud of these six lovely children out on the lawn in front of the house with her.
4) It is not obvious who the baby is in the photograph, which makes it something like a mystery.
5) There is a curious linear bright object running across the photograph, which looks like a dog chain.

There is no date on the photograph, so it would be nice to figure out when it was taken. Figuring out who the baby in the picture is might help nail down the date. Based on my father’s short pants and short sleeves and the jackets worn by the younger children, as well as the foliage on the trees and shrubs, I suspect it is probably late spring or early summer when the picture was taken (perhaps some time between May and July).

There appears to be a chain or something running across the lawn behind Robert. Is it a dog chain? Did they have a dog?

At the memorial we speculated the baby in the photo was either Mark (b: May 1946) or Edward (b: June 1945). Since Edward is older than Mark, I suspect it would be Edward in the photograph rather than Mark, though the baby does not appear to be tow-headed, as it is reported that Edward was (Mark's brother Robert does not think it is his younger brother). Additionally, since Janice is older than my father (she would be 10 years old and my father would be 9, if the photo was taken in July 1945), I think the girl behind Marion might be misidentified, since she appears slightly younger than my father in the photograph. Others have confirmed that it is indeed Janice and that she was smaller than my father. The ages of the others (if it was July 1945) would be: Grandma– 79, Marion – 4 years, William, II – 2.5 years, and Robert – 4.5 years, which appears to be in good agreement with the size of the children.

Since Edward was born in Framingham, MA it is conceivable that the family drove back to Granville to introduce everyone to the new baby. It seems like an ideal opportunity for such a nice picture. It would mean that Justine -- and possibly Karl, Sr. -- drove up from New Hartford with Karl, Jr. and Robert so that all the cousins could be together. But why would they meet in Granville rather than Justine and Mitzi's parents' house in Pine Meadow/Puddletown?

The baby might also be Marcia (b: March 1944, Winsted) or Dottie Lou (b: February 1944, Granville), which would reduce the ages in the photograph by about 1 year: Grandma – 78, Janice – 9, Karl, Jr. – 8, Robert – 3.5, Marion – 3, William, II – 1.5. These ages may fit a little better than if it were 1945. So, due to the location, I suspect of the two, it is likely to be Dottie Lou.

So perhaps the story goes, that everyone converged on Granville at the birth of Dottie Lou, first-born of William (b: October 1916) and Dottie (b: August 1921). That might explain why everyone came to Granville, rather than Pine Meadow/Puddletown.

If the photo was taken in 1944, which seems plausible, then Grandpa Cyrus would have passed away about 10 years before that. Chloe would be 52.5, Justine – 31, Karl, Sr. – 42, Mitzi – 24.5, and William, I – 31, William – 27.5, Dottie – 22.5. It is interesting to think of them in the primes of their lives.

So, I believe the baby is Dottie Lou, because it looks like her! Does anyone know or have other pictures of these three (Dottie Lou, Edward, or Marcia) when they were infants that might help definitively identify the baby?