Two Sisters & Two Others

Photo Friday
By Don Taylor

This week’s Photo Identification Project items included two of my easiest finds and one of my most frustrating. First, there were three photos showing two sisters. Very easy to identify.  So was a class photo. The last photo I looked at was very frustrating.

Lilla Parmenter

“Lilla Parmenter – Married Dr. Hayes” – Photo by H. M. Smith, 478 Congress St., Portland, ME.

This was one of my easiest identifications ever. A search for Lilla Parmenter with a spouse of Hayes on family search quickly found Lilla Sibley Parmenter, born 15 October 1870 who married Daniel William Hayes, MD, on 3 October 1898. Her timeline on Family Search did not indicate any time for her to live in Portland. A search of the Portland City Directories did not result in any results. However, Family Search did indicate she had a sister Clara Maria Parmenter. Posted to Family Search.

“Clara Parmenter” – Photo by H. M. Smith. 478 Congress St., Portland, ME.

Clara Maria Parmenter was born on 4 Feb 1873. She married Isaiah Greenleaf Elder on 15 Apr 1926 in Polk County, Florida.  The 1895 Portland City Directory does not list Clara, however the 1896 directory indicates that Miss Clara Parmenter was a nurse at Maine General Hospital.

So, I believe she located to Portland about 1895. Posted to Family Search.

“Clara Parmenter” – Hanson Studio, 12 Monument Square, Portland, ME.

The second photo of Clara is clearly much more recent than the first. She appears in the Portland City Directory under her maiden name until 1925. So, this photo must have been taken before that. Again, I was able to post the photo to Family Search.

Florence Caroline Dot

“Florence Caroline (Dot) Wood, Rockland, Maine | Married William Smith of Bangor or Brewer 1923 – They have four children.” Class ’09.

 This appears to be a 1909 photo of Florence Wood. My search quickly found that Florence married William Burke Smith on 16 October 1912 in Bangor. Her parents were Charles P Wood and Margery E. Britt. She was born 21 Jul 1891 in Rockland, Knox County, Maine. She would have been 17 when this photo was taken. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be a Family Search ID for the individual. I did find 15 trees on Ancestry which include her.

The original of this photo is held by the Scarborough Historical Society, Linwood Dyer Photo Collection. I have a digital copy of the photo on my Flickr photostream (https://flic.kr/p/2iS8Lmn). – Don Taylor.

Helen Doyal

“Helen Doyal” – L & W.C. King Studio, Portland, ME.

A search of the Portland City Directories found Miss Helen S. Doyle, a nurse at Maine General Hospital in 1895. (She was not in the 1894 directory.) She was also listed in the 1900 at 20 Hill and 1901 Directories as a nurse at 19 Ellsworth, however she does not appear in the 1900 Census. Searches at both Ancestry and Family search did not yield results for Helen Doyle/Doyal. A search of the census indicated there were 35 women with the Doyle surname, none of whom was Helen. Likewise  search of women named Helen, yielded 126 individuals, none of whom was a nurse nor lived near the hospital.

Finally, I was able to find the residents of both 20 Hill and 19 Ellsworth in the 1900 Census. Neither of them nor their neighbors had anyone enumerated that appears to be Helen.

Likewise, a search of Ancestry Trees failed to yield a Helen Doyle that was a reasonable candidate to be this Helen Doyal. I will post Helen to Dead Fred in hopes of a family member discovering her photo there.

Final Note

If you are related to any of these individuals or can help confirm the identify them, I’d love to hear from you.

These photographs were “rescued.” I’m hoping to return the photographs to the family and would appreciate you contacting me if you are a member of one of these families, or you know someone who is.