Another Denman Treasure Trove

It started about 2 weeks ago, with a text from my cousin Daryl in Texas.  She had just found another stash of old pictures.  They include one of our great grandfather from the late 1800s, a couple of a young woman whose name she didn’t recognize, and one of a group of Denman cousins-labelled!  And she wanted to send them to me.  All she asked was that I scan them to share with her and her brother and sister.  (Her connection to her scanner  wasn’t working.)

A few days later we connected by phone and had a good time catching up on all the family’s doings.  I had two pieces of good news to pass along:  upcoming return to the East Coast of my youngest brother and sister-in-law, and upcoming marriage of my sister’s son.  The Texas folks are all doing pretty well she said.  She also said she had mailed the pictures to me a couple of days before and I should be on the look out for them.  I, of course, waited patiently (not!) and of course they didn’t arrive until Monday – making me wait through a long very hot weekend.

I couldn’t wait to open the box and see what she had sent.  A stash of old pictures indeed!  There are 23 pictures, ranging from formal photography to snapshots and from about 1892 through maybe 1977.  Most I have not seen before.  Most are labeled but a few are not and of the unlabeled ones there are a few people I don’t recognize (but my Texas cousins may) and a few places I also don’t recognize.  So the collection, all in all, is about par for the genealogy course.  It is actually better labeled than some others I have, both for names and years.  There are several pictures that expand my collection of Denman photos especially nicely.  The one of my great grandfather, F.A. Denman, said to be about 1892 is the earliest picture of him I have seen.  There is a lovely one of my grandfather’s older sister as a young woman.  And the bonanza is the group picture of thirteen people, numbered on the front and all named on the back with additional information.    

Apparently the first cousins, at least some of them, held a reunion in October 1945 and this picture was taken.  I think the writing on the back is my grandpa Lyle’s and I would guess that he sat with his father F.A. and did the numbering and names with help from F.A.  It is also possible that Lyle knew all of these folks and could have done the list of names on his own.  I now have images of some Denman cousins I had never seen before, so I am thrilled.

I also learned that my great grandfather F.A. was one of 42 first cousins (including his 3 siblings).  I have managed to figure out how to make my RootsMagic database show me a list of relationships that allowed me to create a list of all these cousins (and the spouses that I have so far).  It also helped me figure out which of 2 Lester Denmans it was likely to be, and therefore his wife’s name.  And I have only just started to dig!

Before I go much further with this picture though, I need to scan all the pictures and label them and put them in a folder on my computer.  I then need to figure out the best way to share these scans with the Texas cousins.  I think I might create a document with the images and notations about who or where, or the pictures I have questions about, and share the document.