"The Royal Album" Endpaper of Photo Album 26 |
Unidentified Woman Album 26 |
Unfortunately, lots of photograph albums are thrown away and lost. But those of famous people are saved in archives and historical societies. If you are lucky enough to be related to someone famous, or locally famous, you should search out these treasures. I went to the Hawaii State Archives in Honolulu to see if there were any photo albums or single photographs of my great aunt Mary (Jones) Dominis, but didn't find any. In the finding aids, and in discussions with the archivists, I found many photos of Queen Lili'uokalani, her daughter-in-law, in official files. But they also told me that there were seven of her personal photograph albums in the vault. This was my best bet for finding family photos.
Photo Album 28 We photographed the cover, and tag, of each album They were old, fragile and historic, but the photos were in very good condition considering their age. |
"Mrs. William Lee" by Sarony's Studio, NY Photo Album 26 |
I had a phone consultation with genealogist Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective, about this photo. She is certain that it dates from the mid-1870s and shows a very wealthy, well dressed woman between 30 to 50 years old. Wife #1 was Anna M. T. Leavitt, born 1819 in Hampton, New Hampshire and died in 1883. She married William Lee in 1861, and in the mid-1870s she would have been about 50 years old. Wife #2 was Sarah White, born in 1849 in Hillsdale, New York and died in 1925. She married William Lee in 1888 and in the mid-1870s she would have been in about thirty years old. If anyone knows of a photograph of wife, I would love to compare it to this photo to see which wife this is! I've never seen a photo of either woman, so this would be a great clue.
"Georgie Holt" Photo Album 24 [George Hoonewaneewa Holt (1868 - 1929) son of Owen Jones Holt] |
My husband patiently photographed every page of all seven photo albums, and took closeup photos of the ones we knew or suspected to be relatives. In looking through letters in the archives there are many references to "I'm sending a photograph" or "Did you get the photograph?" and I hope to match up some of these, but it is an almost impossible task since I never met these folks, and they all died almost 100 years ago. But it is a project we can work on slowly over time, and hope that more clues will become available.
Hawaii State Archives http://hawaii.gov/dags/archives
All these photographs are from the Hawaii State Archives, Photographic Albums, Queen Lili'uokalani Collections, Albums 24 - 30, from the Lili'uokalani Estate 1921.
Maureen Taylor, "The Photo Detective" http://www.maureentaylor.com/
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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo
What a wonderful find, Heather! Kudos to your patient helpful husband, too!
ReplyDeleteYou did what I've wanted to do for years. My father and brother are named Owen Jones K Holt after Owen Jones Holt and my son is named for George "Ho`onewanewaonalani-o-lunalilo" Holt. So nice to see younger pictures than the ones I've seen. Mahalo!
ReplyDeleteThey are all named after my 5x great grandfather, Owen Jones, born in Wales. Thanks for your comment, Taryn!
DeleteI know... we've discussed that. Have you ever discovered anything about Boston's shipping industry involving Owen Jones, RW Holt and Cpt John Dominis? I've been curious about that for years. Also if James Robinson and Robert Lawrence were connected to them in NE. They are the 2 that ran the Hawaiian shipping co with RW Holt.
DeleteNo, I've never found any documents or newspapers about them. Perhaps that is another thing to look for in the Hawaii Archives?
DeleteThanks for posting these. I will have to check on the royal albums next time I'm there.
ReplyDeleteNice and very historical Picture Album. If you want to store and share your photos, there are free online sites where you can manage them.
ReplyDeleteLooking for pics of William (Billy) Holt Aldrich and Minnie Choate Brown.
ReplyDelete