From Buffalogen's photo collection - 7

What uniform is this man wearing?  Who is he?

No photographer identified

Three Virginians called Edward Marks Sr.

   

Virginia

    In the late 1700s and early 1800s, there were three men in southeastern Virginia called Edward Marks Sr.  They were residents of Brunswick, Prince George, and Surry Counties.
    Edward Marks Sr. of Brunswick County, was born circa 1747 and died in Brunswick County before 26 March 1787.  He married Lucy Bailey in Surry County on 21 June 1768.  The couple had six or seven children.
    Edward Marks Sr. of Prince George County, was born before 1761 and died in Prince George County after 7 August 1820.  His wife Sally, whose maiden name is unknown, did not share in the division of his land and preumably pre-deceased him.  He had four children.
    Edward Marks Sr. of Surry County, was born in 1757, possibly in Brunswick County, and died in Surry County before 26 June 1837 when his will was proved.  He married Elizabeth Bishop in Sussex County on 24 February 1782.  She was not mentioned in her husband’s will, so presumably died before 21 September 1835.  Only one son has been conclusively identified, but there were probably other children.
    Many of the records of these counties have been destroyed, leaving large gaps devoid of land, probate, and vital records that could clarify the ancestors and descendants of these three Edwards.  Although no connection between them has been discovered, it is likely they were related.
    Is anyone interested in a DNA project encompassing known male descendants of these three men?

From Buffalogen's photo collection - 8

Who are these men?  They were probably residents of Buffalo, New York.

Tintype in Lydia Maybach's photo album

Abigail Fillmore & her namesake DAR chapter

NSDAR marker, Forest Lawn Cemetery, 2014

    Abigail Powers was born in Stillwater (Saratoga) NY on 17 March 1798, daughter of Rev. Lemuel Powers and Abigail Newland.  She was educated at New Hope Academy in New Hope (Cayuga) NY and subsequently taught there.  She met Millard Fillmore when he became one of her students in 1819, and the two married in Moravia (Cayuga) on 5 February 1826.
    The couple moved first to Buffalo (Erie) New York, and then to East Aurora, a community southeast of Buffalo, where Millard practiced law and Abigail continued to teach, the first First Lady to hold a job after marriage.  Their house, built by Millard in 1826,  is still standing, although not in its original location.  It is now the Millard Fillmore Museum.
    The Fillmores moved to Buffalo in 1830 and Millard rose to political prominence.  In 1848 he was elected Vice-President to serve with President Zachary Taylor and the family moved to Washington, D.C.  After Taylor’s death on 9 July 1850. Fillmore was sworn in as President and the family moved into the White House.  Abigail established the first library in the presidential mansion.
    The Fillmores had two children, Millard Powers  (born in East Aurora in 1828) and Mary Abigail (born in Buffalo in 1832).  Millard, a lawyer, was a lifelong bachelor.  Mary Abigail, who often served as her father’s hostess while he was president, died from cholera at 22 years of age without having married.
    Abigail, never in good health, died from pneumonia shortly after her husband left the presidency in 1853.  She was buried in the large Fillmore plot in Buffalo’s Forest Lawn Cemetery.
    After Abigail’s death, her widower returned to Buffalo to practice law.  He married, as his second wife, Caroline (Carmichael) McIntosh, a widow, and the couple lived in a mansion on Niagara Square in the center of Buffalo.  Among his many accomplishments, Millard founded the University of Buffalo, the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society (now the Buffalo History Museum), and the Buffalo Club.
    Abigail Fillmore Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, was established  in Buffalo in 1925.  The chapter’s gavel was fashioned from a newel post from the Fillmore mansion that was salvaged when the dwelling was razed.
   

Fillmore plot, Forest Lawn Cemetery, 2014

One of the first projects of the chapter was the erection of a memorial monument to Abigail Fiillmore in the Fillmores' cemetery plot.  Later the chapter donated a large flag pole on the site, which is high on a hill.  The chapter also donated a collection of antique toys to the Millard Fillmore Museum in memory of Abigail Fillmore.
      Every year representatives of Abigail Fillmore Chapter hold a brief memorial service at the Fillmore plot and place a wreath at Abigail’s commemorative marker.   


Photos by Buffalogen

From Buffalogen's photo collection - 6

Who are these people? 

Possibly a group from Pine Hill Methodist Episcopal Church, Pine Ridge Road, Cheektowaga NY 

The man in the dark suit in the center of the second row  is holding a football.  The face of the woman in front of the man on the right in the top row has been scrached out.

Photo by L. Duwernell, Cheektowaga NY, 1906

In only three years . . .

1986

     I have a friend, a genealogist for hire, who has authored many articles about our area’s defunct graveyards and done a lot of gravestone transcribing.  Not too long ago, he photographed and transcribed the stones in a local cemetery.
    When I asked him if he planned to post the photos on one of the several online cemetery or grave sites, he said he had destroyed the images after he was through using them to verify his transcriptions.   His explanation was threefold:  the photos weren’t very good, he didn’t have time to contribute them to an online site, and he took a dim view of sites that accept undocumented genealogical information along with photos. 
    A transcription is certainly better than nothing, but “a picture is worth a thousand words.”  Any photograph, even if badly composed and/or badly exposed, can be a treasured link to the past. 

1989

    Old stones are deteriorating and disappearing at a rapid rate and even new ones are subject to vandalism, mowing damage, weather conditions, and more.  What a shame to lose forever a photograph that might have been someone's visual link to an ancestor.
    See what can happen to a gravestone in only three years!
   
    Share your cemetery photographs.  Contribute them to an online grave site.
  

Rachel Hall's marker in Washington Street Cemetery, Middletown (Middlesex) CT from Buffalogen's photo collection

From Buffalogen's photo collection - 5

Who are they?

Possibly Maybach/Mayback or Rupp relatives, perhaps Beuermanns









Cabinet card by Heckel Studio, 1565 Genesee Street, Buffalo NY