Fruits of One Tree

  L-R: Laura Eloise Ludlow (1871-1950), William Todd Ludlow (1841-1905), Ida Victoria Ludlow (1877-1900), Sarah Elizabeth Laing Ludlow (1838-1911) My mother gave me this photo of her grandmother, the girl on the left, and her family. On the back, it says “Grandma and Grandpa Ludlow.” The two girls seen here were the youngest of six children born to William Todd Ludlow and his wife Sarah Elizabeth Laing. The two oldest were boys, Matthias and Lewis, and the two middle children were twins who died at birth. [1]   I always wondered why the older brothers aren’t in this photo. Was another photo taken of the parents with just the two boys? From left to right, the photo shows Laura Eloise Ludlow; her father, called Billy; her little sister Ida Victoria Ludlow; and her mother. Ida was born in October 1877, and she looks about six here, so this was taken about 1883. [2] The family lived in Rahway, New Jersey, just west of Staten Island, New York. Ida looks a little bit the way I reme...

                                                                       Elizabeth Rhoda Craven Jobe Those of you who are related to the Jobe family will remember seeing this old photograph which frightened many of her very youngest descendants. Her granddaughter Maye told us that this was her father’s mother, Elizabeth Rhoda Craven. She only lived to be 57, but (except for her hair color) she looked older than that in this photo. Because she was a poor woman in a poor part of the United States, there are not enough records to answer some basic questions. And since her son, Maye’s father William, ran away from home, his children grew up without knowing her family. But they did hear the story that when she fixed that gaze on him, he knew he was in trouble! Luckily, DNA matches from one of...