Friday's Photo: Howell Albritton and a Revisit to Last Week's Photo

Howell Albritton 1828 - 1900

Unknown Couple

Last week, I posted a photo of an unknown couple that had been squirreled away on my computer since 2001. I suggested that it could be a Bryan, Albritton, Regan or Hammett. 

I was contacted almost immediately by my brilliant second cousin, Jane, who said that the man looked an awful lot like a photo of Howell Albritton on Ancestry.com. Well, I won't post the photo from Ancestry as I haven't yet received permission from the owner, but the above photo of Howell is mine and was in bible that once belonged to Terrell Bryan and his wife, Harriet Albritton Bryan.  Howell was Harriet's older brother. 

The different profiles of the men pictured in this side by side comparison makes it a little difficult; however, they have the same nose, head shape, and the same large mustache. The distance between his eyes and eyebrows look to be about the same. The hairstyle on the tintype of Howell from the family bible may have been taken in the late 1850s or early 1860s. The hair over his ears and the puffy hair on top date that picture. The photo of the unknown couple probably dates around 1890. 

The woman in the photo of the unknown couple looks quite a lot younger than the man. That made me wonder if it was a father - daughter photo instead of a married couple, but this week, I brushed up on my Albritton history.  Howell was fourteen years older than his wife, Laura Irene McDaniels!  And, a Xeroxed copy of a photo of an older Laura (at Ancestry.com) looks as if there might be a match -  a better photo is needed. 

While I cannot definitely say that the unknown photo is of Howell and Laura Albritton, research in that direction is certainly warranted. If not Howell, what about other men in that family. My great-grandmother, Harriet, had several brothers. 

Diana

© 2015

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn.

Family photographs from the collection of Judy McAlister. Used with permission.

"Men's Clothing." - 1850s. Web. Accessed 2 July 2015. 
<http://www.uvm.edu/landscape/dating/clothing_and_hair/1850s_clothing_men.php>.

"Moments in Time, A Genealogy Blog: Friday's Photo: An Unknown Couple." Moments in Time, A Genealogy Blog. Diana Bryan Quinn, 31 July 2015. Web. Accessed 7 Aug. 2015. <http://momentsintimeagenealogyblog.blogspot.com/2015/07/fridays-photo-unknown-couple.html>.

Taylor, Maureen Alice. Family Photo Detective: Learn How to Find Genealogy Clues in Old Photos and Solve Family Photo Mysteries. Cincinnati: Family Tree, 2013. Print.