Friday's Photo: Henry Benjamin Giddens and Margaret Jane Vann

These photos were sent to me by another Giddens researcher. Henry was a cousin to my 2nd great-grandfather, George Lullen Giddens. George and Henry were probably well acquainted. Their mothers were sisters, their fathers were brothers, and both Henry and George were merchants in Sampson County, North Carolina. 

The couple above was not identified, but the researcher who shared the photos suspected them to be Henry Benjamin Giddens, a jeweler of Clinton, and his wife, Margaret Jane Vann. Already familiar with Henry and Margaret as the older couple on the right, I could easily see Margaret in both photos. The younger Henry's eyebrows, nose shape, cheek lines, and ears in the above image and the photo on the right showed a resemblance. I don't doubt that this is a much younger version of Henry and Margaret seen in the large group photo posted on 26 August 2022. Margaret, age 18, and Henry, age 32, were married on 21 September 1865 in Sampson County. Could this photo be a wedding photo?

If not a wedding photo, it was probably taken soon after. Martha's clothing reflects some styles seen in the 1860s. Hats were smaller, and some were modeled after those worn by men. Dresses were high around the neck, and sleeves were narrower at the wrist and broader at the elbow. Henry's clothes are difficult to see, but in the 1860s, men wore white dress shirts, loose slack coats, and pants that usually did not match the jackets. 

This photo, also not identified, is clearly Martha Jane Vann and appears to 
have been taken sometime in the 1860s or 1870s. 

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Diana

© 2022 

Family Gathering in Sampson County, NC, photo, about 1900; scanned images, from the privately-held collection of Gus Grubba, NC, 2022.

Henry B. Giddens and Martha J. Vann, NC, photo, 1860s; scanned images, from the privately-held collection of Gus Grubba, NC, 2022. 

Martha Jane Vann, NC, photo, about 1860s; scanned images, from the privately-held collection of Gus Grubba, NC, 2022. 

Maureen A. Taylor, Fashionable Folks Bonnets and Hats 1840-1900 (Picture Perfect Press.com, 2011).

Maureen A. Taylor, Finding the Civil War in Your Family Album (Picture Perfect Press.com, 2011).

"Women's Clothing," Landscape Change Program UVM (https://glcp.uvm.edu/landscape_new/menu.php: accessed 3 Oct 2022).