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Deborah Livingston Downs Chamberlin Potter
and granddaughter Jennie Volora Ebaugh
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In the early 1900's, favorite photographs were often printed on postcards for mailing or sending. Sometimes, these photocards provide the only existing copies of photographs. This particular postcard is one of these; the photo itself can be seen here.
There are two fields on the postcard, the name/address field, and the correspondence section. In the name and address field stands just "To Grandma Potter" with no address; and there is no stamp on the card. The card was never mailed and was never intended to be mailed. It was GIVEN to Grandma Potter at some point. Assuming that "Grandma Potter" is Deborah Livinston Downs Chamberlin Potter, whose picture appears on the other side, whose "grandma" is she with relationship to this picture? Her daughter Laura is only 12 at this time.
The date of the photograph is clearly seen in the correspondence field: "taken Nov 24-- 1910" and the age of the child "4 wks old." Then we have a name: Miss Jennie Volora Ebaugh; and an address in Detroit. My hypothesis was that "Miss Jennie Volora Ebaugh" was the name of the baby. EBAUGH is NOT a common name, so I looked for matches in 1910 in Detroit, and I found Barney and Milly Ebaugh. They had been married two years; had no children. The census was taken April 16th. I followed the couple in 1920; they are still in Detroit, and they have five children. The oldest child is Jennie V. Ebaugh, and she is 9. In 1930, Barney is gone, but Milly, now given her full name Permilia (Pamelia), and the five children are together; Jennie V. is 19. It seems certain that Jennie V. is the Jennie Volora mentioned on the postcard.
The next step was to figure out WHY the card was addressed to "grandma" and what Deborah's relationship to the Ebaughs was. Looking at the names of the family.. Jennie VOLORA and MILLIE (PERMILIA), I remembered the name of Deborah's older daughters Milley and Volora, and it was an easy step to identify the Millie who married Barney A. Ebaugh with the Milley who was the daughter of Adrian and Deborah; Jennie then received her middle name from her mother's sister Volora. The dates all fit perfectly, and the postcard was the final piece of evidence!
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