Author Archives: Don Taylor
Ancestor Sketch – Johann Jakob Huber (1850–1926)
For eleven years, Johann Jakob Huber stood behind an impenetrable brick wall. A single page from the Bürger-Familienregister der Kirchgemeinde Stadel has shattered it. Now we know he was born 5 February 1850 in Pfündlauf, Zürich — a farmer, a father of seven, and the man who kept all but one child from leaving Switzerland. Continue reading
Faces from the Past – Meserve, Moulton, & Poland
Five cabinet card portraits from the SHS Photo Collection offer a glimpse into the lives of Scarborough families and their descendants in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Three Scarborough subjects — Charles Moulton, Hannah Libby Meserve Moulton, and (probably) Rosile Dolley Poland of West Scarborough — are joined by Portland physician Dr. Willis Bean Moulton, grandson of Charles and Hannah, and an unidentified young man from Lewiston whose identity remains a mystery. Continue reading
Posted in Photo Identification, Maine Genealogy, SHS Photo Collection
Tagged Unidentified Photographs, Webber Brunswick, Bowdoin College, Civil War Pension, Moulton Family, Alvin Poland, Willis Bean Moulton, Colpitts Lewiston, Hannah Meserve Moulton, Johns Hopkins, Charles Moulton, Photo Collection #11, Rosile Dolley Poland, Cabinet Cards, Conaut Portland, Don Taylor genealogy, West Scarborough, Broad Turn, Scarborough Town Farm
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Amanda Taft Whitney (1798–1872): An Ancestor Sketch
Born in Massachusetts in 1798 and carried west as an infant by her migrating family, Amanda Taft Whitney spent her life in Broome County, New York — raising ten children and outliving most of her generation. Her story is unusually well-documented. Read on to meet a woman the census records refused to forget. Continue reading
Posted in Ancestor Sketch, Family Lines, New York Genealogy, Massachusetts Genealogy, Roberts-Barnes, Geographic Genealogy, Ancestor Features
Tagged Partridgefield Massachusetts, Hinsdale Massachusetts, 1865 New York State Census, 1855 New York State Census, Amanda Taft Whitney, New England Migration, Chauncey Whitney, 4th Grand-Aunt, Ancestor Sketch, Sarah Whitney Taft, Broome County NY, 1800 Census, Sharon Schoharie County New York, Taft Family, Triangle Broome County New York, Asa Taft, 1850 Census
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Donna in the News – Bloomington, IN, April 1925.
Donna Darling and her “Bathing Girls’ Revue” brought a Hollywood-organized vaudeville extravaganza to Bloomington, Indiana’s Harris Grand Theatre in April 1925, dazzling audiences and earning recognition as the biggest vaudeville number ever seen on that stage. Continue reading
Faces from the Past – Clifford, Dana, Jordan, & Kinney
The Scarborough Historical Society’s Linwood Dyer Collection holds a remarkable family album connecting Portland and Cape Elizabeth families across three generations. Through studio portraits, wedding photographs, newspaper clippings, and a vivid 1927 memoir, we trace the Hinkley, Dana, and Clifford families from Thanksgiving gatherings in 1860s Gorham, Maine, to the elegant Portland weddings of 1939. Continue reading
Posted in Photo Identification, Linwood Dyer Collection, Faces from the Past
Tagged Ernest Cogswell Kinney, Thanksgiving Traditions, Marion Hinkley, Rufus Hinkley, Portland Maine, Smith College, Frances Dana Jordan, Gorham Maine, Scarborough Historical Society, Wedding Photography, Waynflete School, Westbrook Maine, Family Memoir, Howard Hinkley Dana, Bowdoin Street Portland, Margaret Kinney Photo Album, Eleanor Hinkley Kinney, State Street Congregational Church, Cape Elizabeth, Portland and Rochester Railroad, Ann Clifford Dana, Bowdoin College, Linwood Dyer Collection, Sorosis Women's Club, Jack W. Jordan, Studio Portraits, 19th Century Maine, Florence Hinkley Dana, Society Page, newspaper clippings, Stephen Hinkley, Preble Street Portland, 1930s Maine, Philip Dana, New England Family History, Hinkley family
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