Ahh...Young Love

[MrsArmstrong]

Years ago I bought a Cdv of a young man and he signed the back "Compliments of Mason Hatch". What young lady was he enamored of that he would give her his likeness with his compliments? Ahhh...young love!
He had this taken by WM. Clark's gallery in Griggsville, Pike County, Illinois. No date :( He gave this to someone....I picked it up in a little antique shop in California.

So I went searching.
I've found some information about the photograper by the backmark and used that to find Mr Hatch in the same area. If I'm on the right track he was born in 1847, Pike County, Griggsville IL. That would make him 14 in 1861. I'm a terrible judge of age but I think he is in his late teens, possibly 20 in the picture. I've just started looking (free sites) so have a ways to go yet. He is still listed in the 1930 Census which would put him in his 80's and still in Griggsville IL. I wonder if he had brothers, sisters, did he fight in the war....so many questions. Off to the library today.

How often do you find a full signiture on the backs of Cdv's?
Has anyone found interesting information in tracing a signiture?

Susan Armstrong

[MrsArmstrong]

[QUOTE=MrsArmstrong]Years ago I bought a Cdv of a young man and he signed the back "Compliments of Mason Hatch". What young lady was he enamored of that he would give her his likeness with his compliments? Ahhh...young love!

Well from what I could find today it seems he didn't get married. :( He lived with his mom, till she died. Then a cousin and his wife moved in, at last cound he was still head of house in 1920's. I haven't found when he died yet. It was and interesting search.
Now he did have a younger brother and his dad was 44 in 1860, I wonder if he fought in the CW? Where might I go to find that out?
Thanks Susan Armstrong

[vmescher]

[QUOTE=MrsArmstrong]Years ago I bought a Cdv of a young man and he signed the back "Compliments of Mason Hatch". What young lady was he enamored of that he would give her his likeness with his compliments? Ahhh...young love!

Thanks Susan Armstrong

I did a search through for Mason Hatch on Heritage Quest through the Fairfax County Library (since you are in Fairfax Co., its free) online database and came up with several Mason Hatches in IL but none match the one you came up with. There were a couple of hits in Pike Co, though. In the 1900 census, the database says he was 54 but the census image of the census page says he was born in 1860 and was 39, married with 2 children. In the 1910 census, he was listed as 63 and unmarried. The same in 1920 but he was 73 and he was not listed in the 1930 census.

The ProQuest Ancestry database that is only available at the libraries has more information and also military records.

[MrsArmstrong]

Virginia,
I used Heritage at the library and home, only the ProQuest has to be done at the library.
It is tricky to follow but I back tracked most of the time. I did find his mothers name first then his fathers. Most of these data bases go by head of household. I did find at one point the census had both brothers names spelled differently but the parents names and the town were correct. Dates also differed by a year or two depending on who took down the information. They were from Griggsville. I used the town and county as guides.

Does anyone find many signitures on the backs of pictures?

Susan Armstrong

[cookiemom]

Susan --

If you haven't tried it yet, check out --
www.genealogysource.com/startingpoints.htm -- which lists several other online sources (some $$ free.) You may already be way beyond this in your research, but I've found it to be helpful , especially the Mormon (LDS) family research site (which just came up with 49 hits for "Mason Hatch"). Happy hunting!

Carole

[welder]

I usually sign all my CDV`s on the back just so I can put poor researchers through the trouble of finding out that it is just a fraud.