One of the pictures from Linda was (relatively) recent. It was of Martha Forry Davis, Daddy's aunt and the sister of Effie Forry Lilley.
Aunt Martha Forry Davis
I know some facts about Martha Forry Davis.
1. She was the sister of Effie Forry Lilley and therefore our great aunt (or great great aunt or great great great aunt, dependent on the generation of the reader.
2. She was born to Andrew Sylvester Forry and Emma Hosler Forry on August 4, 1894 In Schuylkill County, Pa. ; possibly in Mt. Carmel or Pottsville.
3. She married Claude McBee Davis, maybe in Pennsylvania, maybe in North Carolina BECAUSE their first child, Claude McBee Davis, Jr., was born on 28 December, 1915, in Concord, Cabarrus County, North Carolina, She lived in Pottsville, Schuylkill County, PA For most of her life. She and Claude were separated, though I do not know if they were ever divorced.
4. She kept her fur coat on the back of her bathroom door. (I saw it there on my one and only visit [at least that I recall] to her home in Pottsville.
Some things that I was told about Martha Forry Davis.
1. She was fun to be around (Aunt Gin-Gin)
2. Even though she and Claude were separated, he took very good financial care of her. (Daddy said he bought her a house or she kept the house, or he built her a house. (I don’t remember the specifics but Claude was president of a construction firm, Schnieder and Davis, so building or buying are a possibility)
Things I wonder about regarding Martha Forry Davis and Claude Davis.
1. How in the world did she and Claude meet? I saw in my research of the family that Claude was in the Armed Forces from 1911 to 1914 and served in the 11th Cavalry Company D, and was initially stationed at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia. In Claude’s obituary it stated that he served on the Mexican border and afterward was a member of the Pennsylvania Mounted Police and was stationed in Pottsville.
o Martha lived initially in and around Pottsville until the death of her father, Andrew, in 1900, when her mother Emma and sister Caroline moved to Lebanon County to live with her brother William. She lived in Lebanon until she somehow met and married Claude.
o Did Martha go to South Carolina to meet Claude, or did they meet in Lebanon and get married and then move for a short space of time to North Carolina where Claude, Jr. was born? They returned to Lebanon after 1915 because in 1917 Claude registered for the US World War I Draft Registration there. In the 1920 census they were living in Lebanon. In the 1930 census they were living in Pottsville, as they were in 1940.
I have some pictures of Aunt Martha. I am not sure of the exact time frame of the first one, below. The people in the photo are, left to right, Levi Lehman and his wife, Ella Forry Lehman (aunt of Effie Forry), William Lilley (Papa) , Effie Forry Lilley (Grandmom) and maybe Martha Forry Davis and Claude Davis. I always thought the picture was about 1905. If it is 1905 I do think it is Martha in the picture. She would only have been about 11 in 1905. No way is Martha 11 in this picture. So revising upward it could have been, at the earliest, 1913 if the man is Claude, because he was stationed on the Mexican border until 1913. Effie would have been 31 in 1913, which looks impossible from her picture. Papa would have been 35, which also seems impossible. But Martha would have been 19, and she looks older than 19. SO, maybe it is not Martha. But if you compare the noses in the first and second pictures below, they look the same, IMO. (The second picture is of Martha Forry Davis in 1968, the relatively new one I spoke of in the introduction.
Note the similarity of the noses in the above two pictures. | Although the photo was tagged as being from 1969, I believe it has to, be at the latest 1968, because Aunt Marha died in January of 1969 and it is definitely not winter in this photo. I think it must have been taken at Aunt Gin Gin and Uncle Rays in West Reading, Pa, since it was in the photos Linda gave me. |
Another possibility is it is her sister Lizzie and brother-in-law James Liddle. I have a pictures of Lizzie from 1902 at the wedding of her cousin Rebecca Bobbs. (See the picture below) She is with her future husband, James Liddle, standing in the back row. She was born in 1886 so the age would fit better than the 1894 birth date for Martha. It would allow for a younger Effie and William, too. However, I can’t see any resemblance to the woman in the pictures, or the man, to the second picture. And who could I ask at this point? I need an algorithm to identify people in old photos through comparison. Will Ronco, can you do that for me?
I know I have a photo of Effie and Martha together at a later date in the 1920s. I can not find it today. If I find it maybe I will revisit this identification issue.
I have one other picture of Aunt Martha when she was 8, around 1894. (Below)
So there you have it. A maybe mystery. Is Martha the woman in the photo with Papa and Grandmom and Levi and Ellie Lehman (who, FYI) was Effie Forry’s aunt.
As an aside: She was also the Aunt Ellie I remember from my childhood as having a cat who was her familiar, or so it seemed to me. The cat was HUGE and Aunt Ellie was very old and she lived with her niece, Mary Wanner and her husband in a very old and creepy farmhouse, I think in Lebanon County. I am not sure how often I saw her. Maybe only one time, but that is the memory that has stayed with me my whole life. But that might be a story for another time.
Another aside: for the sake of future generations of family genealogists, label your pictures!
Love and hugs to all.
As an aside: She was also the Aunt Ellie I remember from my childhood as having a cat who was her familiar, or so it seemed to me. The cat was HUGE and Aunt Ellie was very old and she lived with her niece, Mary Wanner and her husband in a very old and creepy farmhouse, I think in Lebanon County. I am not sure how often I saw her. Maybe only one time, but that is the memory that has stayed with me my whole life. But that might be a story for another time.
Another aside: for the sake of future generations of family genealogists, label your pictures!
Love and hugs to all.