Kenney, King, & Kingsbury

Photo Friday
Ethel Wight Collection
By Don Taylor

This week, for Photo Friday, I identify the people in five more envelopes from the Ethel Wight Studio Collection[i]. The envelopes contain the names who paid for the photos, not necessarily of the individual portrayed in the image. As such, it is vital to analyze the pictures and information to identify the individual therein.[ii] Ultimately, my goal is to reunite the photos with family members who may have never seen the image.

Lorraine Kenney, circa 1934

This negative envelope says, “Miss Loraine Kenney, 219 High St #272.”

Why I believe this to be the individual.

• 

  Lorraine Kenney, circa 1934

  The 1934 Portland City Directory lists Lorraine Kenney, a waitress at 572 Congress and living at 219 High St.

• The 1935 Portland City Directory indicates that Lorraine Kenney, a waitress, moved to Boston.
• Lorraine does not appear in the 1933 Portland City Directory. A Charles S Pennell lived at 219 High street in 1933.
• A Lorraine Virginia Kenney was born on 29 Jan 1918 in Springfield, MA. She lived in Cummington, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, during 1930 with her parents Frank Henry and Pauline Lorraine (Remillard) Kenney. Lorraine Virginia married William Davis Young on 18 Jun 1939 and lived with William and his parents during the 1940 Census. She is the likely subject of this photo; however, there are alternative individuals it could be.
  • Claire Lorraine Kenney was born on 18 November 1918 in Massachusetts. She died in 2002.
  • There are several other women about the right age whose middle name was Lorraine. However, none of them appear to have had connections with New England.

I feel that the subject in this photo is likely Lorraine Virginia Kenney, who is found in 22 Ancestry public trees and whose FamilySearch ID is GQCL-P58. However, I cannot be sure. Hopefully, a relative can provide identification of this photo. In the meantime, I have added this photo to Dead Fred.

Rena Kingsbury, circa 1935

This negative envelope says, “Miss Rena Kingsbury, Children’s Hospital #312.”

Rena Kingsbury, circa 1935

Why I believe this to be the individual.

• I have not found Rena Kingsbury at the Children’s Hospital in Portland; however, the 1933 and 1935 Barre, Vermont, city directory lists Rena Kingsbury, a nurse at Barre Hospital. She also appears in the 1936 and 1937 Barre directories as a nurse.
• The 1930 US Census lists 15-year-old Rena Kingsbury living with her parents Albert & Ethel Kingsbury in Waitsfield, Washington County, Vermont. (Note: Barre is about 14 miles east of Waitsfield.)

Although I couldn’t associate Rena with the Children’s Hospital in Portland, she is the right age and profession to be Rena Kingsbury of Waitsfield, Vermont. So I believe the photo to be of her.

Ancestry has four public trees that refer to Rena Kingsbury of Waitsfield, Vermont.  Family Search has a profile G933-WW9 for Rena Lorraine Kingsbury. So, I uploaded a photo of her to her Family Search Memories. 

Ruth E King, circa 1936

This negative envelope says, “Miss Ruth King, 71 West St #517.”

Why I believe this to be the individual.

• 

  Ruth E King, circa 1936

  The 1935 Portland City Directory lists Ruth E. King as a maid working and residing at 71 West St. It also indicates that Emery D Smith, Petros D Mills, and Walter M Lovejoy lived at 71 West.

• The 1936 Portland City Directory lists both Ruth E King, the maid, and Ruth King, a student nurse.
• The 1934 and 1937 Portland City Directories do not list Ruth E King.

The 1935 & 1936 directories prove the name on the envelope is correct. However, it failed to provide enough clues to the woman’s identity to identify her properly.

Alternative individuals?

There was a Ruth E King who lived in Bath, Sagadahoc County, Maine, during the 1930 and 1940 Censuses. She was born about 1921 and appears to be too young to be the woman in this photo.

I failed to find any Ancestry public trees that refer to Ruth E King, who lived in Portland in 1935 & 1936. Likewise, I unsuccessfully searched FamilySearch for a profile for Ruth E King.

I added her photo to Dead Fred.   

Ruth King, Nurse, circa 1937

This negative envelope says, “Miss Ruth King, St. Barnabas Hospital #1017.”

Why I believe this to be the individual[i].

• 

  Ruth King, Nurse, circa 1937

  The 1937 Portland City Directory lists Ruth King[iii], a student nurse at 231 Woodford (the address for St. Barnabas Hospital. The 1938 Portland City Directory available at Ancestry is missing pages 434 & 435, the pages that would include Ruth King[iv]. The 1939 Directory has no Ruth King listed.

• The 1940 Census lists Ruth King, age 24, a registered nurse in a private home, apparently Carroll B & Josephine Allen.
• The 1940 Census also lists Ruth King, a 23-year-old nurse in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Alternative Individuals

Ruth A King was born on 26 December 1917 in Monmouth, Maine. In 1940, she lived with her parents, Victor and Fannie (Berry) King.

Ruth Virginia King was born on 27 May 1915 in Bath, Maine, to Howard and Vara (Rackliffe) King. I have not found her in the 1940 Census.

Ruth King was born about 1914 to George & Helen (Mayo) King.

The 1940 US Census indicates there were at least 39 nurses named “Ruth King.”

Because of the plethora of Ruth Kings, especially nurses with the name, I have been unable to identify the Ruth King in the photo. I uploaded her picture to my Flickr Photostream to provide a higher-quality image online. 

Charles Harmon King, circa 1937 (age 5)

This negative envelope says, “Mrs. Harmon King, 173 Brackett St #1014.”

Why I believe this to be the individual.

• 

  Charles Harmon King, circa 1937 (age 5)

  The 1940 US Census indicates that Jens Hendrickson and his wife Minnie lived at 173 Brackett. Their daughter Edna M King and her husband, Harmon P. King, lived with them. Also, their eight-year-old grandson, Charles King, was living with them. This photo was taken about 1937 when Charles King was about five years old.

Charles Harmon King, son of Harmon Phillip and Edna May (Henricksen) King, was born 7 August 1931 in Portland, Maine.

Ancestry has 33 public trees that refer to Charles Harmon King. FamilySearch does not have a profile for Charles, but his mother, Edna J. M. Hendricksen, is ID LRBV-4NB. (It would be best if a family member added Charles to FamilySearch. I have added Charles’ photo to Dead Fred.

 Conclusion

• I fully identified three of the five Only one of them has a FamilySearch profile to which I could upload a photo.
• Two of the identified individuals did not have a Family Search profile but did appear in Ancestry trees, so I posted their images to Dead Fred.
• Of the two unidentified individuals, I could partially identify one of them whose photo I uploaded to Dead Fred. The other I couldn’t identify. To avoid confusion, I did not upload that photo anywhere except here and my Flickr Photostream.

If any of these photos are of your family member, I would love to hear your reaction. 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 Family Search, Dead Fred, and Flickr are a higher image quality than the images here.

For all postings of the Ethel Wight Collection, please see here.

Endnotes

[i] The Wight Studio was in Portland, Maine. Many thanks to Ethel Wight’s family for access to and permission to use the collection of their great aunt.

[ii] These images were converted to positives using a lightbox, a Nikon camera and computer software.

[iii] I learned much about Ruth King the nurse while I was researching Ruth E King, the maid.

[iv] If you have access to a Portland City Directory which contains pages 434 & 435, I would like to learn what entries exist for Ruth King.