Jennie Tucker's 1881 Photo Album Returns "Home"

I first became interested in family history and genealogy as a child while visiting my grandmother. She worked many hours to document our family history and had hand-written family tree pages spread across her kitchen table as she discussed the details and stories with me. 

Decades later, it is so much easier to search records online and to view scans of documents to help fill in the stories of individuals and families. As I search online, sometimes I find other interesting details. I have added information to the Ancestry and Find a Grave websites to help others who may be researching. And, when I found family letters and photo albums for sale on Ebay, I posted or sent messages to individuals who might be interested in obtaining them. In antique stores, I have purchased photos with names written on them and posted them online to "save" their history. I have made connections by reaching out to an individual about photos he posted on FamilySearch, and a woman contacted me to discuss Shelby County, Indiana history when she noticed the information that I had posted on Find a Grave. These all led to interesting conversations and to learning more about local history.

As I have tried to document history to help others, a stranger has now helped me. Recently, Billie McNamara in Tennessee, sent a message to me via Ancestry to let me know that there was an 1881 photo album posted for sale in Georgia. The photo album had once belonged to Jennie Tucker in London, Indiana. Billie could see that Jennie was in my family tree research on Ancestry. This led to quite an interesting "find." Without Billie, I never would have known about the album. The album has now returned "home" to Indiana. Billie wrote about this in her blog. She hopes that her sleuthing brings "good genealogy karma." Thanks to Billie!

Jennie Tucker's 1881 photo album

Martha Jane "Jennie" Tucker (1865-1887) was born and died in Shelby County, Indiana. She was the daughter of John "Jack" and Mary Dake Tucker. She was the oldest child in the family and had three brothers and three sisters. 

Based on her writing in the front of the book, Jennie likely received the album as a Christmas present in 1881 when she was 16 years old. There are 26 photos in the album; many of them are tintypes. 

Jennie married Martin Yearling on 8 Aug 1886, and she died 10 months later on 26 June 1887. Her obituary lists her name as Jane. She is buried in London Cemetery.

Now that the photos have returned "home," I will continue to research them and will share them with the Fairland Historical Society. If you have historic photos to share with the historical society, please let us know. 

- Anne Hardwick, long-time volunteer history researcher and President of the Fairland Historical Society