HIDDEN TREASURES

So there I was, rooting around in my mom's things the other day, looking for something else, and I found these two items. I knew they had to go up on the blog!

This is a formal portrait of J. R. Bader, immigrant from Hugsweier, Germany, proprietor of the Bader Furniture Company, father of Carl George (Sr.) and founder of our family line in America.

There's no photographer's mark or any other identification on the photo, but it says "J. R. Bader" on the back in Barbara's handwriting (the very careful script of her later years, when writing had become a challenge for her). And look at his face: his expression looks so much like our "Grandpa Bader," Carl Sr. (Except for the mustache, of course!)

Again, no date on this photo, but J. R. Bader died in 1929 at age 65, so I'd guess this was taken sometime in the  mid-'teens or early 1920s.

Here is a page from the Marriage Certificate of our McAfee forebears, George McAfee and Francis Elizabeth Cowell. 

As you can see, although they may have met on Prince Edward Island, they were married in Worcester, Mass, where they raised their family—Harold, Edna (future bride of Carl Sr.), Mary Ellen ("Minnie"), and George Wyman.

It's interesting that both sets of great-grandparents married in the same year. J. R. Bader married Emma Elsner  on May 25, 1887, at  Arlington, Nebraska; George McAfee and Francis Cowell married September 24, 1887, at Worcester.

Love must have been in the air in 1887! Fortunately for all of us.

McAFEE UPDATE

This just in: our founding McAfee ancestor was named George (not Harold) McAfee. This is the same person featured back in my very first blog, "Ancestors," and the rest of the info I posted about him is correct—including his marriage to Frances Elizabeth Cowell, and the births of their children. It's just the name I got wrong!

My bad—sorry, Team!

In the family history questionnaire that Barbara filled out a few years ago, she said her grandfather's name was "Harold." But in the letter/memoir, "My Mother," that I found among her things after she died—which was written around 1988—she refers to her grandfather as "George McAfee." I didn't know which name was correct until I was directed to info posted on genealogy.com, back on 2001, by Karen French, which I just discovered. (Thanks again, Daniel!)

Karen is a descendant of Edna McAfee's younger sister, Mary Ellen ("Minnie") McAfee and James Love. She also provides the dates of birth for all four children of George and Frances McAfee (which I have added to my "Ancestors" blog).  She says that George McAfee was born February 14, 1865, and that his parents were  John and Mary McAfee.

She doesn't say where George McAfee was born, but a U. S. Census document on FamilySearch.org, dated 1900, lists the birthplace of both George and Frances McAfee as "Canada Eng." Barbara was pretty convinced they met and married on Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, so it may be that they were both born there as well. I'm not sure now which generation of McAfee ancestors left Scotland for North America. But the plot thickens!

ANCESTORS

This is George McAfee, co-founder of our branch of the family, in youth and old age. The tintypes (actually printed on tin plates) of him as a child, and young man are not dated, but I found them wrapped up in a baggie with a note in my mom's handwriting definitely identifying him as her grandfather.

 

The older pictures of her "Grandpa McAfee" are dated 1910 (wearing a high collar and a dapper straw boater hat, above), and 1940. In the latter picture, he's carrying a box labeled as some kind of "Chocolate" from Dorchester, MASS.

 

 Barbara didn't know a lot about her McAfee ancestors, but she told me she thought George McAfee was born in Scotland (possibly Stirling) and moved to Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, as a young man.

On PE Island, George  married Frances Elizabeth Cowell in 1887. Barbara thought Frances' mother was a Graham and her father a Cowell, and that Frances might have been born on PE Island. Evidently, the young couple later moved to Massachusetts.

George and Frances McAfee had four children:

Harold McAfee, born 1889.

Edna Alice McAfee (Barbara's mother, our grandmother), born April 17, 1893, at Worcester, MASS.

Mary Ellen ("Minnie") McAfee, born 1895.

Wyman (George W) McAfee, born 1899.

In Barbara's things, I found a letter she wrote for me (but never sent) about her mother's life. Edna, Barbara reports, "had rather a double dose of church. Her father being Scotch Presbyterian & her mother Episcopalian, she attended services at one church in the morning & the other in the afternoon."

Barbara also writes, "My mother was brainy, beautiful, and talented. She sang, played the piano well, and wrote poetry," and "had a mischievous sense of humor. (She) was a lady—slightly dignified but fun-loving. Her sister "Minnie" (Mary Ellen) was 2 years younger, impish, and full of the dickens. The two sisters were pretty and popular."

Here's an early photo of Edna Alice McAfee (2nd from R, standing, in the lighter dress), and some other bathing beauties, ca. 1910.

I'll be referring to Barbara's letter for information about the courtship and marriage of Edna and Carl George Bader in an upcoming post. Next up: enter the Baders! Stay tuned...