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Sunday, February 26, 2012

A PICTURE PUZZLE SOLVED & THE VALUE OF SHARING





Front L-R Leslie Fuller, P.J. West, Phonce West, Louisa + Jonathan
West, Winfield West

2nd Mary Chase, Lettie Douglas, Mrs, Hall, Aunt Villa West, Lillian

Ripley, Ripley girl, Margery Abbott, Eva West, Lewellin Hall, Charles
Chase.

‎3rd Alice Marquis, Phila Marquis, Mabel Warren, Ethel Warren, Gerogia

Pratt, Kate Coolidge, Carrie Lane, Ina Enman, Ida Warren, Mabel
Goodwin, Asa West.

 I first posted this picture last August when my cousin Lewis Wuori shared it 
and other family photos with me. My hope was that by posting it here it might
be seen by someone who could put names to the faces in it. The only two people
I recognized were my 2x great grandparents Jonathan Phelps West and Louisa
Amata (Richardson) West. 

I also posted it on Facebook on the Upton (Maine) Historical Society page with
the same hopes. Upton is a small town and it turns out a lot folks there are my 
cousins. But I had no ,luck until last night when cousin Melanie Farmer found a
copy of the picture with names of most of the people. She posted the information
on the Facebook page and made my day!

It turns out my guesses back in August on who some of the people were are incorrect.
The young boy with the hat is not my granduncle Clarence, and the person who I thought
was my great grandfather Philip J West turned out to be my cousin Winfield West.
That gentleman on the left with his arms crossed on his lap and that big grin is PJ,
The lady next to him, "Phonse" West,  is his second wife Alphonsene (Turgeon) West.
I'll have more to say about who's who in a subsequent post.

But I do want to point out that this shows the value of sharing things online and the
value of social networking. Cousin Lewis shared the picture with me, and I shared it
here and on Facebook. Cousin Melanie shared her information with me and I've shared
it with Lewis, my Aunt Dorothy and Cousin Diana, and my other West cousins. We're
all benefiting by our willingness to share what we have with each other. If you are 
debating whether or not to share your research with others, I urge you to do so. You'll
be surprised how much fun it is to share!

Thanks Lewis and Melanie!

2 comments:

DearMYRTLE said...

Didn't our grade schoolteachers say "Share and share alike"? So happy to hear about breakthroughs like this, Bill!

Harriet said...

So glad you connected with someone who had the names of the people in the photo. I have posted several pictures of my dad's family on the Kelley family group on Facebook in hopes of finding out the names of the unknown people. It is fun to share!