Ancestry indicates that Binford is an English habitational name from Binneford in Crediton, Devon, based upon the personal name Beonna and Old English ford (ford).
Geographical
Forebears indicates there are only about 3,136 people with the Binford surname globally, with 3,115 of them living in the United States. In the United States, nearly half of the Binfords live in Texas. Virginia, where our ancestors were from, contains 92 individuals with the Binford surname. Interestingly enough, although Binford comes from Crediton, Devon, England, there are no Binfords in England.
6th Great-grandfather: 138 – Thomas Binford (____-bef. 1754)*
7th Great-grandfather: 276 – James Binford (____-____)*
8th Great-grandfather: 551 – Anthony Binford (____-____)*
(* = Ancestors of Betsy Kinsey Binford are tentative.)
Historical
Our Binford ancestors lived before US censuses were enumerated. Figuring about 25 years between generations, my earliest known Binford ancestor, Anthony Binford, was probably born about 1664. I don’t know which of our Binford ancestors first migrated to the Colonies.
Direct Binford Descendants
We have 284 known descendants of Anthony Binford; 50 Howell, 36 Binford, 33 Pankey, and 16 Boseman. Two hundred three of those descendants are known descendants of Betsey Kinsey Binford. I have previously written about 5 of them.
Among famous Binford’s is Julien Binford (1908–1997), painter and professor of painting. Julien was born in and lived much of his life in Powhatan County, Virginia.
Our Binford family are from Powhatan County and the counties Powhatan was descended from. So a relationship to Julien is entirely possible. It will be fun to do a “quick & dirty” tree for Julien and see if such a relationship exists.
Julien Binford has a Facebook Page “to celebrate both his life and his amazing art.”
[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.]
Beatrice Harriet Johndro, Nursing Student, circa 1937.
The envelope this negative was in says, “Miss Beatrice Johndro, St. Barnabus Hospital #945.”
Beatrice Harriet Johndro, Nursing Student, circa 1937.
Why I believe this to be the individual.
Last week, in Ethel Wight Collection – Part 66, I took a look at another photo package for Miss Beatrice Johndro. In it, I reviewed negative package 529. This photo is from negative package 945 taken several months later.
This photo is of Beatrice about 1937, while a student at St. Barnabas Hospital.
Ancestry has 26 public trees that refer to Beatrice Harriet Johndro. Family Search has a profile for Beatrice. So, I uploaded one more photo of her to profile L5NX-7K6’s Family Search Memories.
Pauline Johnson, circa 1934 & 1935
Pauline Johnson, Nursing Student, circa 1937.
These photos are from the Ethel Wight Studio, Portland, Maine. They are from two negative envelopes, one labeled “Miss Pauline Johnson, Children’s Hospital, #294” and the other “Miss Pauline Johnson, Exeter Hospital, Exeter, N.H. #538.” The two different numbers suggest the photos were taken several months apart. Additionally, in the first photo, Pauline is wearing a student nurse uniform, while in the later images, she is wearing a nurse uniform.
Why I believe this to be the individual.
Pauline Johnson, circa 1935
The 1940 Census lists Pauline Johnson as a nurse at the Exeter Hospital. She was 27 years old, born in New Hampshire.
The 1940 Census also lists Pauline M Johnson, born about 1912 in New Hampshire. She was the daughter of Charles H and Winfred G Johnson. Pauline M was a nurse. Exeter is about 13 miles south of Lee. It also indicates she was living in the same house as in 1935.
Pauline Mary Johnson was born 22 April 1912 in Nottingham, New Hampshire, the daughter of Charles and Winifred Johnson.
Alternative individuals
The 1937 Portland City Directory lists a Pauline Johnson, employed by LDCo at 148 Middle and residing at 52 Myrtle. The 1939 City Directory lists her working at 149 Middle but living at 207 High. She was a stitcher and not a nurse.
Conclusion
I believe this is Pauline Mary Johnson about 1934 as a student nurse and again about 1935 as a nurse.
Ancestry has three public trees that refer to Pauline M. Johnson; Family Search has a profile for her. So, I Â have uploaded two photos of her to the Family Search Memories for GDLZ-ZGG.
I also uploaded one additional photo of Pauline to my Flickr photostream.
Ruth Johnson, Nurse, circa 1935
This negative envelope says, “Miss Ruth Johnson, ME Gen. Hospital #285.”
Why I couldn’t fully identify this individual.
Ruth Johnson, Nurse, circa 1935
The 1934 and 1935 Portland City Directories list Ruth Johnson as a student nurse at 22 Arsenal (Maine General Hospital). Also listed is Ruth A M Johnson, a nurse working and residing at 46 Spruce.
The 1936 Portland City Directory only lists Ruth A M Johnson at 46 Spruce, suggesting that Ruth, the student, either graduated or married or both.
The 1940 Census lists Ruth A Johnson, a nurse and the 29-year-old daughter of Robert and Bessie Johnson. Further searching of the 1940 Census indicates she is the only Miss Ruth Johnson who lived in Portland during 1935. And this is not the correct Ruth Johnson.
Searches for a Ruth Johnson who married between 1935 and 1940 in Maine were unsuccessful.
This photo is of Ruth Johnson, who was born about 1914 and was a student at Maine General Hospital about 1935. The 1930 Census indicates there were 58 Ruth Johnsons in New England who were born about 1914. Researching each of those individuals is beyond the scope of this identification project.
Ancestry has one public tree that refers to Shirley Warren. Family Search does not appear to have Shirley (Warren) Johnson’s profile. So, I have added her photo to Dead Fred. I also uploaded one additional photo of Shirley to my Flickr photostream.
Ethel Irene Johnson, circa 1937
The negative envelope says, “Mrs. Ethel Johnson, 28 North St #1045.”
Ethel Irene Johnson, circa 1937
Why I believe this to be the individual.
The 1937 Portland City Directory lists three different Ethel Johnsons.
Ethel B Johnson, the wife of Albert W Johnson, lives at 11 Sheridan.
Ethel M Johnson, wife of Summer W Johnson, residing at 21 Longfellow.
Ethel V Johnson, a single nurse, residing at 75 Capisic.
However, the 1937 Portland City Directory does indicate that Mrs. Annie II Johnson lived at 28 North Street.
The 1940 Census lists Annie Johnson, a widow living at 28 North Street with her 18-year-old daughter, Ethel.
Based upon the ID (#1045), the photo was likely taken about 1937, when Ethel was about 15 years old. Ancestry Family trees suggest Ethel Irene Johnson was born 19 February 1922 in Portland.
Ancestry has four public trees that refer to Ethel Irene Johnson. Family Search does not appear to have a profile for Ethel, so I have added her photo to Dead Fred.
I identified four of five Two of them have Family Search profiles, so I uploaded their images to their Family Search Memories
One individual I identified did not have a Family Search profile but did appear in Ancestry trees, so I posted her image to Dead Fred.
Another individual did not have a Family Search profile and did not appear in any Ancestry trees. I uploaded her photo to Dead Fred and to my Flickr Photostream.
Finally, there was one individual I was unable to identify adequately. I uploaded her photo to Dead Fred.
For all of the Ethel Wight Collection analysis, please see here.
Final Note
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.
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.
For this week’s Treasure Chest Tuesday, I’m looking at another clipping from the Donna Darling Collection. This photo is of Donna in her stage cloak. I’ve seen the image in several newspaper articles as it was a signature costume for her. The print itself is in terrible condition, torn, faded, just generally in awful, unusable condition.
I’ve known about MyHeritage’s photo repair capability for some time, but I hadn’t used it. As such, I figured I’d give it a try and see if it could help this image.
Donna Darling in her white cloak, circa 1926
I uploaded the image to MyHeritage then ran it through both the photo repair and photo enhancement. Zooming in on Donna’s face, I thought I’d see some improvement. Surprisingly, I did not see any difference. The repair smoothed the tear and some minor marks and tears, but nothing more than many other tools can do. That said, the process was straightforward. I’ve used Photoshop Elements and several other simple programs to clean up tears and marks. They typically do a similar job, but they take some experience to use and take more effort. It was the enhancement that I didn’t think the MyHeritage tool did much for my photo. I’ll try it again on something else and see if my opinion can be changed.
Donna in her coat – Original Scan
Donna in her coat – Enhanced and Repaired
The label on the back of this photo said, “Hokum ala Carte,” “Donna Darling,” and had a stamp that read “Darling and Clark Revue.”
Donna and Sammy were married in 1926, so this photo was taken after they got together, but probably towards the beginning of the Darling and Clark Revue in May 1926.
This photo is of Donna Darling in her cloak, circa May 1926.
I’ve determined 200 of my 1023 ancestors going back to my 7th great-grandparents, or 19.5% of those ancestors. That means I still have over 80% of my nine generations of ancestors to determine. I’ll say, I thought I was doing pretty good, but apparently not.
Indeed, my most significant breakdown is my maternal grandmother’s paternal grandparents. Actually, his name isn’t certain. Several records say her father was John Montran; other documents say his name was Robert Montran. And his parents are completely unknown; not identifying them exponentially affects all subsequent generations. I have a couple of other missing ancestors with my 3rd great-grandparents that I need to focus upon again.
I’ll retake a look at it in a couple of years. Hopefully, I will have been able to fill in quite a few names by then.
“Donna 100 years ago” is my reporting items relating to my grandmother, Madonna Montran (aka Donna Montran and Donna Darling). Hers was the exciting world of 1920s vaudeville. She crisscrossed the country with her many shows.
This week, I rely upon a previous Darling Darling Collection posting from 2018 (Part 25). In it, I learned that Donna played at the Chestnut Street Opera House in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, for three days, February 6th, 7th, & 8th, 1922.
 “Donna Darling & Boys” played at the Strand Theater in Ithaca, NY, the week before, had Sunday off and then traveled the 140 miles south to Sunbury, PA. Travel to Sunbury was probably difficult. There were no direct trains between the two cities. Only the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad[i] and Pennsylvania Railroad[ii] (later part of Penn Central) serviced Sunbury, and neither went to Ithaca in the 1920s. She, and the troupe, probably changed trains at Pittston or Wilkes Berre.
Sunbury was growing in the 1920s. Settled in 1772 and made a borough in 1797, Sunbury was incorporated as a city in 1920. Its population had grown from 14,000 in 1910 to nearly 16,000 in 1920.[iii] Since then, its population has slowly declined to just over 9,000 today (2019 est.).
The Chestnut Street Opera House was a small theatre with a seating capacity of only 971.[iv] There were two newspapers in Sunbury at the time, “The Sunbury” and the “Sunbury Daily Item.” Newspapers.com has a limited number of the “Sunbury Daily Item,” however, it is missing papers from 4 February until 18 February 1922. Likewise, Chronicling America, Genealogy Bank, Newspaper Archives, and the Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive have no newspapers from February 1922.
So, if it weren’t for Donna’s Scrapbook collection, I wouldn’t know she was ever in Sunbury.
After three days in Sunbury, the cast and props headed the 19 miles along the Pennsylvania Railroad to Shamokin, PA, and the Strand Theater, for another three-night show (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday).
One hundred years ago, February 6th through 8th, 1922, my grandmother was the headliner in her vaudeville act, “Miss Donna Darling.” She played at the Chestnut Street Opera House in Sunbury, Pennsylvania.
Endnotes
[i] The Philadelphia & Reading Railroad went into bankruptcy in the 1970s and its operations merged into Conrail in 1976. (Source: Wikipedia-Reading Company)
