Sunday, September 23, 2012

McGraths and Beckers?

Both photos are from the John Holly Williams Collection at LLF
The library has this as an "unidentified family group." At first I suspected it was of the Moretons, but on closer look, I think I see John McGrath in profile and perhaps a Becker or two.

See the woman and child are standing in the second row, far right, in the above photograph -- could they be the same folks as in this second picture?


I think I am going to need Bettie Hatcher Cox's help with this one. 

And help she did:  Here is Bettie's comment below, for those of you who cannot read the comments:
O my......I thought this photo might pop up one day. The info I have on this is from a statement made by Thomas S.J. McGrath in 1947. He had copies made of the photo and provided identification though it is hard to always determine who is "seen" as being on certain "rows." Ellen Flood McGrath and her husband, John , are seated in the chairs (which my sister, Laurie, and I have!) Their eight children and families are around them. The place is the porch of their home on Cherokee St. just south of "Teen Tavern." The year is 1900 or 1901 and the time is after second Mass one summer Sunday. Photographer is said to be named Fosby. My grandfather, Ferdinand V. Becker, is top left in the middle of window. He would have been 19 or 20. His father, F.F. Becker is just below him to the right holding child #11, Jasper/Jappie Becker. I am trying to determine if his mother, Mary McGrath Becker is correctly identified. This photo was replicated during a McGrath reunion in the early 1950's. Sister Laurie potrayed one of the blonde girls in the front center. The woman in the couple photo does look like the woman in upper right of group photo...will study the men with moustaches and the family tree! Thanks.


UPDATE: Re the couple with child photo:  After reading Bettie's comments below, the more I looked, and the more I compared the man's facial features with that of known photos of Dr. John Harvey Johnson, I no longer believe that it is this couple in the large family picture. Although, I will stubbornly insist that the woman certainly does look like the woman I initially latched onto as resembling a woman Bettie identified as Katie McGrath Johnson. 

According to Bettie, Katie McGrath Johnson and Dr. J.H. Johnson were the paternal grandparents of Phyllis Johnson Spearman, who grew up to be a respected educator and high school Spanish teacher extraordinaire.

3 comments:

  1. O my......I thought this photo might pop up one day. The info I have on this is from a statement made by Thomas S.J. McGrath in 1947. He had copies made of the photo and provided identification though it is hard to always determine who is "seen" as being on certain "rows." Ellen Flood McGrath and her husband, John , are seated in the chairs (which my sister, Laurie, and I have!) Their eight children and families are around them. The place is the porch of their home on Cherokee St. just south of "Teen Tavern." The year is 1900 or 1901 and the time is after second Mass one summer Sunday. Photographer is said to be named Fosby. My grandfather, Ferdinand V. Becker, is top left in the middle of window. He would have been 19 or 20. His father, F.F. Becker is just below him to the right holding child #11, Jasper/Jappie Becker. I am trying to determine if his mother, Mary McGrath Becker is correctly identified. This photo was replicated during a McGrath reunion in the early 1950's. Sister Laurie potrayed one of the blonde girls in the front center. The woman in the couple photo does look like the woman in upper right of group photo...will study the men with moustaches and the family tree! Thanks.

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  2. I have stared at the couple with baby and am not sure if the woman with baby at far right (Katharine/Katie McGrath Johnson) is one and the same. The woman in the couple photo seems larger, though could just be her clothes or maybe she weighed more at the time. In the group photo Katie's husband, Dr. John Harvey Johnson, is standing behind her. The man in the couple photo has a broad forehead and combed over dark hair which seems to match. Would be easier to tell if the beard in group photo was gone. Not totally sure! Katie McGrath Johnson and Dr. J.H. Johnson were paternal grandparents of Phyllis Johnson Spearman!

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  3. Bettie, yesterday I found a studio photo of Dr. Johnson and he does not resemble the man in "couple with child" photo. I still think I see a resemblance between Katie Johnson and the woman, however. I wonder if they were cousins or perhaps sisters. I wonder if Mrs. Spearman would know?

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