These two photographs have been somewhat of a mystery to me for sometime. I received them about 1983 from Ed Grinnell of Medina, NY, who was sent a small package of Grinnell Family photographs from Lawrence H. Walkinshaw of Holt, Michigan. Walkinshaw was my dad's cousin. Ed sent them to me because the photographs were generally of my direct line of Grinnells and the Grinnell Family Association wasn't really in the business of collecting photographs.
The images were identified, but at the time I wasn't sure how they were related to me. My first Grinnell ancestor to migrated from New York to Michigan was Ezra Grinnell (1817-1897). Turns out the guy labeled "Uncle Joe" was in fact his older brother Joseph Grinnell. Uncle Joe was one just a few of Ezra's siblings that would remain in New York and not migrate to Michigan. He lived in Wethersfield, Wyoming County, NY. But, two of Uncle Joe's daughters did. Elma was his youngest daughter and following her mothers death in 1864, she became the homemaker for Uncle Joe. Following his death, Elma moved to Michigan to be close to the remaining members of her immediate family.
For a longtime I speculated that the women in the picture with Joe might have been Elma. But, she was definitely older than the other pic of Elma and this just didn't seem possible. Also, the image that was labeled "Uncle Joe and Daughter" was taken by a studio in Hastings, Michigan. Hmm? that was puzzling, at least until today. I did some searching on Joe and Sylvia's oldest daughter, Caroline. Caroline married James M. Stone and moved to Michigan sometime after the Civil War. It appears that James Stone became a minister in the Church of the United Brethren In Christ denomination and the family spent the remainder of their lives in Sunfield, Eaton County, Michigan. Well, pulling out some maps this all began to make sense. Sunfield was a neighboring community to Hastings, Barry County, Michigan. So, I'm pretty sure that the "daughter" must be Caroline M. Grinnell Stone.
Its such fun putting these puzzles together.
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