Hubby\u2019s parents didn\u2019t know much about Grandma Dru; their knowledge was that she was a seamstress in Chicago and that she had arrived there via Conestoga wagon from upstate New York with her husband.\u00a0 She was supposedly the youngest of 21 and her father, John Hicks Williams, a sea captain, died from a bad shave in the Orient.\u00a0 \u00a0Turns out much of that story isn\u2019t fact.\u00a0 Some of the wrong information came from an undated letter written by a family member who though Drusilla’s sister was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and the Mayflower Society.\u00a0No one in the family questioned the accuracy of the information until the early 2000\u2019s when a second cousin decided to join the DAR and found their was no link in the line.<\/p>\n
I came into contact with the cousin\u2019s daughter via an internet posting on Rootsweb Gen Forum seeking info on Dru and I agreed that I would help research the family.\u00a0 Separately, the cousin, her daughter and I made several trips to Long Island and Troy, New York seeking records as back in those days, internet searching was difficult.\u00a0 We were able to prove descent from Dru\u2019s paternal grandfather, Wilson Williams, and that Wilson was a member of the Hempstead Harbor, Long Island Militia during the American Revolution.\u00a0 Along the way we discovered another cousin via the internet who filled us in on her line.<\/p>\n
We had documentation from the family, census, military, church and civil authorities but what we longed for was a picture of Drusilla.\u00a0 Dru died in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois in 1898 so it was probable that she had been photographed in her lifetime.\u00a0 I have all of the pictures of my husband\u2019s family and none were of Dru.\u00a0 The cousins had no picture, either.\u00a0 We decided to search collateral lines.\u00a0 Dru had one son, John Calvin, with her first husband, Calvin DeWolf, who had died in 1852.\u00a0 John Calvin had 4 children, Sadie, who died in 1953 had no children. Caroline died as an infant in 1883. Nellie died in 1908 during childbirth and Henry, who died in 1924, was unmarried.\u00a0 The cousins and I would joke that the best chance of finding a picture would be for me to search antique shops locally as Sadie had died not far from where I live.\u00a0 Instead, we decided to search other collateral lines.<\/p>\n
Dru had 3 birth children and 1 adopted child with her second husband, Thomas Coke Thompson.\u00a0 The adopted child, Nellie, seems to have vanished after age 11 so we assumed she had died.\u00a0 Dru\u2019s oldest child, Lewis Warren, died in 1883.\u00a0 He married twice and had one child, Louisa, with his second wife.\u00a0 Louisa also married twice but her only child died at age 3 in 1910 so this was another dead end.<\/p>\n
Dru and Thomas\u2019 second child, James, had 2 children.\u00a0 Daughter Rose died as an infant in 1883.\u00a0 Jeannette, their other child, died in 1944.\u00a0 She married but had no children.\u00a0 No picture would be found here, either!<\/p>\n
If a picture existed it would be in the possession of a descendant of Dru\u2019s youngest child, Mary, who both my husband and his internet found cousins’ descend.\u00a0 Mary and Andrew Cook had 7 children but we could quickly eliminate 6 of the children\u2019s descendants from having a photo.\u00a0\u00a0 Lulu May, who is my husband\u2019s grandmother, can be eliminated since I have all of the family pictures.\u00a0 To be sure, I double checked with all of his living relatives and no one could recall ever seeing a picture of Dru.<\/p>\n
Oldest son, John Thompson, who one of the cousins is descended from, and second oldest son, William DeWolf Cook, who the other 2 cousins descend from, can be eliminated as none of those families had a photo.\u00a0 Three of Mary\u2019s children died without marrying \u2013 Drucilla in 1897, James Andrew in 1906 and Whitney Calvin in 1924.<\/p>\n
This left one of Mary and Thomas\u2019 children to find \u2013 Grace Gertrude Cook, the author of the undated family letter.\u00a0 This was our last hope!\u00a0 We knew that Grace had married John Honaker and they had 2 children.\u00a0 I had met one of their children, John Sheridan Honaker, who had retired not far from where my husband and I lived when we first married and my in-laws would visit John when they came to see us.\u00a0 He had 2 children we had never met.\u00a0 Grace\u2019s second child, Anne Virginia, married and also had 2 children we had never met.\u00a0 My sister-in-law thought the family lived somewhere in the midwest.<\/p>\n
Finding an obituary for John Sheridan Honaker, the cousins were able to get a phone number for one of his children.\u00a0 This newly found cousin hadn\u2019t ever seen a photo of Dru, either.\u00a0 She doubted anything was left as a tornado in 1974 had blown the roof off her family\u2019s home and there were only a few pages of the Family Bible that had survived.\u00a0 She promised to check with her uncle who had been the one to clean up after the tornado.<\/p>\n
It took several months for the cousin to be able to convince her uncle\u2019s son to look in the attic.\u00a0 The son insisted that everything had been lost and he really didn\u2019t want to climb around his dad\u2019s attic as the uncle was too old to look himself.\u00a0 She volunteered to look but was politely told no.<\/p>\n
I had moved on to other lines and really wasn\u2019t thinking about Dru when I dropped off at Walgreens a baggie filled with undeveloped film and disposable cameras I had found while spring cleaning in a spare closet.\u00a0 It was a Sunday afternoon and I knew I had too much for the harried clerk to develop in an hour so I told her to call me whenever she got the film developed.\u00a0 As I turned from the counter I ran smack into another customer who I hadn\u2019t known was standing close behind me.\u00a0 I apologized and asked if she was okay since she clearly looked rattled.\u00a0 She said she was fine but she certainly didn\u2019t look it; she was scowling and tense.\u00a0 I told her that I hoped the rest of her day would be calm and beautiful.\u00a0 As I walked past her she asked if she could have a word with me.\u00a0 I turned and she sputtered that she was psychic and did I know that I had a lot of dead people surrounding me.\u00a0 The store clerk was taken aback but I just laughed and told the customer that I was a genealogist and that they were most likely all my relatives.\u00a0 The woman told me she had never seen anyone surrounded by so many dead people.\u00a0 I laughed again and told her I had a big family and that I hoped they were all listening because I really needed their help in finding their records, especially their pictures.\u00a0 I shared what happened when I got home with my husband who shook his head and remarked that the strangest things happen to me. Every time I see this cartoon I think of that experience:<\/p>\n
![\"90c28bcfbe8cc5ef61e05a0b6e3c0b42\"](\"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/90c28bcfbe8cc5ef61e05a0b6e3c0b42-300x226.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
I got a call several days later from Walgreens to pick up my photos.\u00a0 While I was gone my husband was checking email.\u00a0 When I returned from the store hubby was excited and told me there was an email I just had to read right away \u2013 it was from the Midwest cousin.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a transcription of the email dated 5 April 2001 but\u00a0 I have used initials only as I don\u2019t have permission to use their names:<\/p>\n
\u201cFound it!!!!! Actually J. found it.\u00a0 It is very faint and has some water damage.\u00a0 I will send you all copies (I\u2019ll take it in tomorrow).\u00a0 I have never been to Graceland [Cemetery] but there is a tall white stone with what looks like an urn on top.\u00a0 On the left side of the picture is a young girl with a fancy dress.\u00a0 Seated next to her is a bearded man with a top hat.\u00a0 To the right of him is a girl with her head resting on her hand.\u00a0 Two boys are seated on either side of the monument.\u00a0 On the back in a flowery script it says:\u00a0 Graceland\u00a0 Cemetery 1870 Thomas Thompson Drusilla Thompson Lewis Thompson James Thompson Mary Thompson.<\/p>\n
I will have the back photocopied so that I can send that along with the prints.\u00a0 Hope this does it for you.\u00a0 I actually jumped up and down when Uncle B. handed it to me.\u00a0 He did not want me to take it from the house, but I insisted\u2026 Congratulations! S.\u201d<\/p>\n
I shouted and jumped up and down, too and thanked all the dead people who supposedly were following me.\u00a0 Later that evening I received the following email from the Midwest cousin:<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a long talk on the phone with Uncle B tonight about Aunt V. and we were rejoicing over the good news from the doctor.\u00a0 Then he says, \u201cS., did you pray about this picture?\u201d (He is a religious man.\u00a0 I don\u2019t pray about pictures.)\u00a0 I said, \u201cNo, but it means a lot to I. and her daughter, and to Lori.\u00a0 Why?\u201d\u00a0 And he says, \u201cJ. didn\u2019t go up to find the picture.\u00a0 He was just going through some old things cleaning up.\u00a0 Then he came upon a box that he had never seen that had been up there before the tornado because it had water damage.\u00a0 He went through it and found old clothes and things, and there in the bottom of the box was this picture.\u00a0 The only picture in the box.\u00a0 Somebody\u2019s prayers must have been answered.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I\u2019ll leave that last part for you to decide.\u00a0 But this is very weird because J. has been through those attics time and time again and he said this box was just sort of sitting there.\u00a0 This makes the tape thing* of mine even spookier.\u00a0 Anyway, J. brought the picture down not eve (sic) knowing what it was because it was so faint, and wouldn\u2019t you know.\u00a0 It\u2019s the picture.<\/p>\n
Just thought I would share that part of the story with you.\u00a0 You can make of it what you will. S.\u201d<\/p>\n
And you, dear readers, can make what you will of this odd story that happened to me.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the picture:<\/p>\n
![\"dru\"](\"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Dru-300x225.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
From a later email, here\u2019s further information about the photo:<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026I asked what they [the photography shop] could do to make it clearer and they said that I would be pleasantly surprised because it was made before there was film so there is no grain and should enlarge perfectly.\u00a0 I had them make a 5 x 7 with some cropping of tree tops from the top; a\u00a0 5 x 7 that focuses on the family and the monument and an 8 x 10 that includes as much of the picture as possible in the original, which is about 7×6\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
The miracle of this picture is that it survived not only the 1974 tornado but also 131 years of no heating or air conditioning, the Chicago fire (1871), and several moves across three states.<\/p>\n
But the story doesn’t end there….<\/p>\n
Six months after the photo was discovered my eldest child was inducted into the DAR; it was her senior year in high school as my mother-in-law, long dead, had predicted would happen.<\/p>\n
As I was writing this blog I decided to take a break and look at some of the hints that had popped up on ancestry. I have disabled most of the hint feature so when I get some, I tend to take a look. \u00a0I can’t explain how there was a hint for Find-a-Grave for Uncle B, the man who had the picture in his attic. \u00a0I didn’t even know he had died 3 years ago. \u00a0Someone had posted his and his wife’s gravestone photos just 2 months ago. \u00a0I have no idea who made the memorial or the relationship of the person who posted the photos. \u00a0Why that hint showed up a few hours after I had written most of this blog I can’t explain, either.<\/p>\n
So just maybe all those dead people behind me in Walgreens are still around helping me keep my tree updated. \u00a0I don’t understand how it all works but I certainly appreciate the help!<\/p>\n
*I\u2019ll save that strange story of the tape for another day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 25 Oct 2015. Hope you enjoyed the genealogical synchronicity links in my last blog.\u00a0 For some reason, many of my strange experiences tend to revolve around photos and I\u2019m going to share 2 odd occurrences that happened in the same week which completed a prediction made 18 years earlier. The … Continue reading “A Phenomenal Photo Find – A Picnic in a Chicago Cemetery”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[187,92,186,43],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-stories","tag-chicago","tag-drusilla-williams-dewolf-thompson","tag-graceland-cemetery","tag-serendipity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions\/210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}