Results--Who Are the People In the Photo!

Results--Who Are the People in the Photo

OOps!  I failed my math test.  I miscalculated the date of the photo.  It should be 1903 vice 1893 (in my original blog).  Thus, I have modified the original posting as follows:

As a follow on to yesterday's blog, in which I displayed a photo with 26 people and the caption had 22 names.  I spent a couple hours today and think I have done as much as I can to identify the people.  I still have some holes; but not sure with what I currently know, I can improve on it.  If I can find a cousin with some insight into the photo or individuals in the photo that might help.

Dean Jones Family Photo (circa 1903)
The JJ Ranch on the Purgatory River by Frances Bollander Keck

I started by going to my Family Tree Maker program and listing the birth years for all the people in the photo that I could find.  Then I found the youngest person in the photo who I thought I could correlate with a name--that was John Blaine, third from the left in the front.  Since his birth year was 1898 and I estimated him to be about 5 years old (I wavered between 4 and 5), that made the date of the photo 1903.  Based on that, I wrote in the ages of the people whom I thought I could correlate with a name.

In the front row one of the two girls on the left is Mary Ruth Moran; but I don't know which.  I am guessing Marshall either overlooked the other girl or didn't know who she was.  Minnie Davis is listed to John's left; but I believe Marshall Dean, whom I believe wrote the caption, got the sisters reversed.  My files indicate Minnie would be 7 and Clara 5.  In between them is Jeannie, age 13.  The remainder of the names agree with the caption, with the exception that I am speculating Marshall didn't know the names of the three small children on the right.

The center row of elders is easy and includes my great-great grandparents Spear and Sarah Dean.  In the back row, I don't have an age for Lou Blaine, the husband of Minnie in the front right.  The next two are as in the caption; but I am not sure of the next two, Alma (a woman's name; but the photo is of a man) Baxter and Cousin Mary.  I will have to work further to try and resolve them.  The remainder of the row are as listed in the caption.  

I earlier speculated that my 2nd cousin, Ed Dean, wrote the caption for the photo because he was listed as the provider of the photo; but I now believe it was his father, Marshall Dean.  The reference to cousins and aunts would match for Marshall; whereas, they would be great aunts and cousins once removed for Ed. 

I feel comfortable with the 18 people I have noted with ages, plus Lou Blaine.  That leaves me just three, of the 22 people in the caption, to try and resolve.  I plan to replace the caption with my estimates and send it to some of my Jones and Dean relatives who might be able to help complete or correct my efforts. 

I had thought of taking a survey on guessing John Blaine's age and would still solicit your comments about my estimate of his being 5 years old!