Photo Friday – Curtis (née Pedneault)

Linwood Dyer Collection – Part 015
Photo Friday
By Don Taylor

This week, for Photo Friday, I analyzed the people in five photos from the Linwood Dyer Collection. This collection includes hundreds of photos, documents, and genealogies of people who lived in Scarborough, South Portland, Cape Elizabeth, & Westbrook, Maine. I like to analyze the images and, hopefully, reunite the photos with family members who may have never seen the image. The originals in this collection are held by the Scarborough Historical Society.

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Grace (Pedneault) Curtis, 1944 (age 26).

There is no photographer information with this photo.

Handwritten on the back it says: “Grace Pedneault Curtis – taken for & sent to – Pvt Newton G. Curtis – stationed in Paris – during World War II – About February 17, 1944 – Our anniversary.

Why I believe this to be the individual.

• A review of Ancestry Public Trees quickly found Newton G. Curtis, who married Grace Alice Pedneault on 17 Feb 1941 in Westbrook, Maine. Grace was born on 10 July 1917 in Westbrook.

I am confident this photo is of Grace (Pedneault) Curtis taken when she was 26 years old.

I uploaded her photo to my Linwood Dyer Collection Family Tree.

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Grace (Pedneault) & Newton Curtis, 1942 & 1944.

There were two photos in a single cardboard photo frame. Photo identifying information includes:

• Photo 1 – “Taken in South Portland – 1942.” In another pen and hand, it says “Aug 30, 1942.”
• Photo 2 – “In So. Carolina, July 1944, Camp Craft – Grace & Newton Curtis.”

Why I believe this to be the individual.

• Newton & Grace Curtis are already in my Linwood Dyer Collection family tree.

I am confident these photos are of Newton and Grace (Pedneault) Curtis taken in 1942 and again in 1944 while Newton was in the service.

I uploaded their photos to my Linwood Dyer Collection Family Tree.

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Newton Curtis, 1936 & c. 1942

Photo identifying information on the back reads:

• Photo 1 – “Newton G Curtis – 1936 or 35.”
• As I went through the photos, I discovered another photo of Newton (Photo 2). Handwritten inside it reads, “Pvt Newton Curtis – 1/9 94” I don’t know what the numbers mean, but this is clearly a photo of Newton while he was in the service, probably 1942.

Why I believe this to be the individual.

• Newton Curtis is already in my Linwood Dyer Collection family tree.

I am confident these photos are of Newton Curtis taken in 1935 or 1936 and 1942. So, I uploaded these photo to my Linwood Dyer Collection Family Tree.

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Conclusion

• I changed my process somewhat. Rather than taking the photos as they were, I started alphabetizing them and grouping them in folders. In this case, I was able to combine 5 photos all dealing with the Newton Curtis family. I’ll continue working with surnames in groups in the hope of reducing my research time.
• I identified the two individuals in these five photos. I have created entries for them in my Linwood Dyer Collection tree on Ancestry.com.

I would love to hear your reaction if any of these photos are of your family member. Especially if this photo is of a loved one for whom you hadn’t seen this photograph before.

Due to software limitations, the images uploaded to Ancestry have higher quality than those linked here.