It’s time for another one of my favorite genealogy blogs! This week I chose Marian’s Roots and Rambles. Even though I’ve been blogging since March of 2010, I’m still new to genealogy blogging. I’m still searching out blogs that I like and can relate to. Marian’s Roots and Rambles is one I’ve been reading for awhile. I can always relate to what Marian is writing and she’s another active twitterer.
Really I find all of Marian’s posts interesting and worth reading and it’s hard to limit myself to just 5 favorites. So just head on over and read some of Marian’s blog and leave her a comment telling her how much you enjoy it. I’m vowing to comment more this year and Marian’s going to be one I make sure to comment on regularly.
Can you tell I’ve been obsessed with city directories? Well I am. I’ve hit many roadblocks while researching my father’s side of the family. It comes from being the only person that I know of researching them. This doesn’t mean other people aren’t researching them, it just means they may not be googling me. I guess I’m not surprised at that. ha. One of the familial lines I’m going solo on is the Parkin side of the family. I have suspicions once I link this family to England, the heavens might open and I’ll be showered with information… No? Well a girl can dream.
1900 US Census, Newark, NJ
The way I’m preparing for my heaven opening experience, is that I’m gathering as much information as possible on the family. I’m scouring all the resources available to me to find out about their time in America. In fact, I’m going to start planning a research trip to Jersey and this family is on the top of my list. I have a lot of New Jersey families on my list in fact. I’m already looking forward to July. My first step in documenting the Parkins was to find them in the census records, which wasn’t easy. Their surname is often misinterpreted. I’ve found it under Parkin, Parkins, Perkin, Perkins, and Parker. Really it depends on how it sounded to the person doing the records.
Census records are great because they give you a great overall view of the movement your families may make. They can also give you little clues to try and flesh out where they came from. Whether is their parents birth place, or even a spouse’s birthplace. For me and my research of the Parkin family, even initials are a big find for me. It’s just one more step to finding out who these people were. I also have to face the facts, my family liked to name people William so a middle initial to me is a way of distinguishing one William from another. The family in the census above is Ann Parkin and her children. By 1900[1. 1900 United States Census. Newark Ward 11, Essex, New Jersey. Page 9B. Dwelling 133, Family 202], her husband William R Parkin is already deceased.
Holbrook's Directory - Newark, 1900
When looking up the Huff Photo Studio in city directories, I decided to look up the Parkin family since I was already there. The Parkins didn’t always live in Newark, so I wasn’t going after a complete history. Really I was just looking to verify the address given in the 1900 census and see what other information I could find. Much to my surprise, I found a little clue that will help me on future record searches.
Anne is listed as widow of Richard. This is big for me. William was only on one census before he died. The family immigrated to America in 1875[2. 1900 United States Census. Newark Ward 11, Essex, New Jersey. Page 9B. Dwelling 133, Family 202] (William in 1874), and he died in 1881. So the information on him was very scarce. Now I know that the R initial stands for Richard. This could help me distinguish him on all kinds of records! What if he went by Richard because he also had a son named William? Trust me, I’m well versed in the William dilemma. Think about the possibilities. Say I’m going through English parish registers and I find two William R Parkins born in the same month/year. What if one is listed as William Richard and the other William Robert. My William has a son named William Matthew Parkin. So if one of the father’s name is Matthew, I’ll have another hit. All this from one tiny mention in a Newark city directory after William’s death.
In my previous post, Mystery Monday: The Baby, I decided to research a little bit about the photo studio that took the photograph. I was hoping by researching the studio, I’d at least have a ball park figure for when the photo could have been taken. Little did I know I’d get immersed in looking up the studio in question!
The journey started when I found another photograph, from the same studio, but it’s name was slightly different and the address had changed. I decided my next plan of attack was going to have to be the Newark City Directory on Footnote.com. I’m posting my results not only because I found it fun and interesting but because I want other researchers to benefit from these dates!
F.L. Huff Advertisement, 1869.
It turns out Ferdinand L Huff was the successor of the Stoutenburgh & Rose Photography Company. He took over their location at 727 & 729 Broad Street around 1868. From the city directories, it looks like he had family members also working with him in the beginning. He stayed in that location from 1868 through 1874. Then something curious happens. It seems he leaves the photography business for the Restaurant/Hotel business (Kingston & Huff). I can’t be sure he left photography completely but there is certainly no Huff Photography Studios listed in the directory until 1881. I find this curious because in the 1880 census he lists himself as a photographer still. Maybe he had already gotten back into the business by then. I can’t be sure unless I dig deeper into newspapers and maybe real estate records.
When he comes back in 1881, his business is now located at 707 Broad Street. This is where I have a dated photograph from the studio. It actually has a dated printed into the logo. The date is 1890 and it specifically lists F.L. Huff as the logo. This is important for later. Even when he was listed in the earlier years, it was by his name. This continues at this location until 1895. It is in 1898 that Huff makes the move to it’s final location at 839 Broad Street.
839 Broad Street is a VERY popular address I found. When I started going through the directories, I wrote down two other studios I wanted to look up. When I say wrote down, I mean I typed it into OneNote. Sorry it’s a bad habit to break. I still reach for pen and paper too, it’s a process. 🙂 Back onto the subject, both of the other studios at one time were located at 839 Broad Street. I ran out of patience after looking in so many years, so I didn’t finishing dating the other studios. I will eventually have to go back to those I guess, but I know the subjects in those photographs so it isn’t as important that I figure them out. 839 Broad Street is the location listed on The Baby photograph. The year after the move, the studio’s name changes to Huff Photo Studio. This is important to me because that is what is listed on The Baby photograph. Llewellyn was born in 1899. So everything fits in for that. It’s not a positive ID but I have found out that it is possible for it to be Llewellyn.
Interestingly enough, in 1902 the studio starts listing F Newburger as proprietor. I decided to do a little census work and I found that Ferdinand Huff is on all censuses until 1900. However, in 1900 there is a 12 year old Ferdinand L Huff living with Ferdinand Newburger. He is listed as step-son. I can’t determine the exact relationships, only that the young Huff lives with Newburger for at least the next 30 years.
To sum up the numbers, here is what I now know about Ferdinand L Huff’s studio.
1867: Stoutenburgh & Rose – located at 244 Broad Street
1868: Ferdinand L Huff takes over – located at 244 & 246 Broad Street
1869-1874: Ferdinand L Huff stays in business – located at 727,729 Broad Street (same place as before, the addresses were changed)
1875-1879: Kingston & Huff saloons/restaurant/hotel – located at 16 Commerce (there was no listing for Huff as photographer)
1880: Huff’s Ladies Saloon – located at 16 Commerce (there was no mention of Kingston this year)
1879-1880: J Rennie Smith Photography – located at 727, 729 Broad Street; Huff’s old location.
1881-1894: Ferdinand L Huff Photography – located at 707 Broad Street; It is here that my first Huff photograph is taken of Lewis Thorward in 1890.
1895-1896: Ferdinand L Huff, Chas F Neilding & Co – located at 707 & 839 Broad Street
1897: Ferdinand L Huff – located at 707 Broad Street
1898: F L Huff, John Sherman manager – located at 839 Broad Street
1899-1900: Huff Photo Studio – located at 839 Broad Street
1901: Not found in the directory, but I might have missed it.
1902-1908: Huff Photo Studio, F Newburger proprietor – located at 839 Broad Street
1909: No mention anywhere that I could find, Newburger is listed in an ad for Essex Photo Company.
This was a lot of fun to look up, and it did help me to narrow down the dates my mystery photo could have been taken. All this information was taken from the yearly city directories for Newark on Footnote.com and census records on Ancestry.com.
It’s time for another Personal History entry from me! This week’s topic is:
What was winter like where and when you grew up? Describe not only the climate, but how the season influenced your activities, food choices, etc.
Winter is never really the same around here. We’ve had periods of snowy winters and periods of no snow.
When we do have snow, boy do we have it! As long as I remember, when it snows like that I would go into work with my mother. It was one of my favorite activities. The picture above was taken in 1996 and she was working at a drug store. After that it was a 7-11 just outside of Washington, DC. I have a lot of pictures of this year. I think it’s the year where we went without power for 2 weeks! That’s a record for us still.
What do you think you’d do if you were a mother of three with the neighborhood kids and no power? My mother taught us how to make candles! We’ve always had a gas stove, it’s just what my mother prefers. So even though we didn’t have power, we had the stove. So she taught us how to make candles, we played board games, and I’m pretty sure we did a lot of shoveling. I even remember one year there were six of us shoveling for hours! We wanted to make sure that my dad could get back in the driveway. We shoveled and shoveled, and we still had quite a ways to go when he got home. He ended up just driving over it, but it was the thought that counts right?
During that snow storm, I remember the camping out in the living room. We all got out sleeping bags and flashlights. We stayed up late telling ghost stories. I was the youngest, so I was tortured of course. As for the food, I can’t really remember that. I’m sure we had a combination of soups and chili. I do love my mama’s chili!
My tastes haven’t changed much, these days there’s nothing better than curling up with a cup of hot chocolate and a bowl of mom’s chicken and noodles! For me there’s nothing more relaxing then snow falling and having a movie day. If you haven’t noticed movies are big in our family. We don’t change much during the winter, it’s just we do more indoors, together stuff.
We’re supposed to get some kind of winter weather today, and I plan on spending it with my genealogy database! I’ve been so busy organizing and doing other things I haven’t had a “genealogy day” in awhile. Hopefully this entry doesn’t sound scatterbrained. I do have an attention span problem when it comes to writing.
This photo is obviously someone from the Moore/Thorward side of my tree.
This photo was taken at the studio of F.L. Huff in Newark, NJ
This photo was taken in the late 1800s early 1900s
Things I think I know about this photo:
I have no reason for believing that I’m right, but I think this could be Llewellyn.
Things I want to know about this photo:
Is this in fact Llewellyn?
When was this picture taken?
Next steps:
I’m going to research more about F.L. Huff and how long exactly he was in business. I did a little searching around and found a pdf on early New Jersey photography[1. http://gary.saretzky.com/photohistory/resources/photo_in_nj_July_2010.pdf] This gives me reason to believe Huff could have been just starting up around 1869. He is listed in the 1870 US Census[2. 1870 United States Census. Newark Ward 10, Essex, New Jersey. Page 362A. Dwelling 654, Family 959] as being 27 and from New York. Hopefully if I learn more about his business I can narrow down who this baby could be.
