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Snippets for Aunt Sharon: “Widow or Wife?” Accidentally Married to Two Men at Once!

Image by rawpixel.com.   March is Women's History Month! It's time for the spotlight to shine on the ladies in our family trees. I'll be writing all month on women I've researched. I encourage all family history lovers to take the month to seek out the stories of our foremothers! They are often under-documented and yet, they have a lot to teach us. This week's post is serving double duty as another in the series of research finds for my Aunt Sharon AND a Women's History Month post.   Everyday women are frequently hidden in our family history stories. Relinquishing their maiden names at marriage, they are often referred to as "Mrs. (insert Husband's Surname)," or "...and wife," in historical documents, newspapers, etc. So, it is a real treat to find a source which details so much of a woman's life as did a newspaper article I found on one of my Aunt Sharon's great-grandmothers, Ann Jane Laughlin (Abt. 1838-1916), who went by Jane. ...

FAVORITE PHOTO

by Nancy Gilbride Casey


This favorite photo of many I have taken over the years comes with a special anecdote.

When our daughter Anne (then known as Annie), was preschool age, she dedicated great parts of each day drawing with markers, painting with watercolors, coloring in books. In summer, she drew with chalk on the sidewalk. 

Every gift-giving occasion was another opportunity to buy a new box of crayons or paints, and reams of paper, tablets large and small, and sheaves of manila and construction paper to feed her never-ending appetite to draw.

Her artwork covered our refrigerator, was sent on to grandparents, and hung on our office bulletin boards. 

Art was already ingrained into her little personality.

Each day Annie created literally a dozen or more creations, in a free flow of imagination, wild, exotic, and uniquely from her sometimes funny and observant perspective.

On the occasion of this photo, I captured her one morning, sitting at her little art easel, paintbrush in hand, engrossed in one of that day's many creations.

"Are you going to be an artist when you grow up, Annie?" I asked.

Without taking her eyes off her artwork, and without skipping a beat, she replied,

"But Mommy...I already AM an artist!"

To this day, I can't argue with that.

 

Until next time...
 
This post was inspired by Amy Johnson Crowe's 52 Ancestor in 52 Weeks Challenge

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