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Cousins having fun!

 

Let's start by saying, I love this photo! It's another photo given to me by Petra and I am fascinated by it.  The photo is undated, but I know it is of the Motier siblings and their children.  The date must be right before WWI, sometime between 1916-1917.  I have no idea where it is taken, but it must have been taken by a professional photographer using a tripod.  I am guessing this is at some family event, maybe a wedding or a holiday party.  Who knows? It seems to me it is taken in a banquet hall or a hotel, it does not look like a private residence or a church, but I'm just guessing. I'm quite sure it is taken in Chicago because they were all Chicago-based at this point. They are all dressed nicely and they look to be having a blast together!

Someone (I think it must have been Irma) tried to write the names of the people on the back, but due to the disorganized configuration, it's hard to tell exactly who's who even with the key.

Here is the "key" left for us by Irma:


 

 

The bottom line is this--these are the Motier cousins.  Eleanor was the youngest of ten children and these are the children of her siblings as well as a few of the siblings (I think).  Her sisters' married names included Lynch, Ward, Gillooley and Fayle and this photo is filled with those names. I believe Eleanor is in the photo holding a baby, I'm guessing it's John.  She is identified as Lillie Keating. The key also shows it's my grandpa (Louis) in the back row and on the far left his older brother, Edward M. Keating (who I think resembles my nephew Gavin in this photo). Grandpa's sisters, Bess and Mary, are in the photo.  Sadly, we know that Mary dies a few years later.

Several of the people in this photo would be heading to WWI shortly, including my grandpa and his brother, Ed, as well as Charlie Ward and a two of the Gillooly brothers.  One of their cousins, who is not in the photo, was a woman named Elizabeth Fayle, the daughter of Louise Motier Fayle who lived in Muscatine, IA.  Here's an article published in the Muscatine Journal on April 12, 1918

I'm struck by how this cousin group must have been quite cohesive and felt a sense of unity, enough to mention of their "cousin connection" in newspaper articles about their military service. Indeed, after the war, this cousin group had a party thrown for them and written about in a local newspaper, The Englewood Times on January 2, 1920:

A few of my grandpa's letters from the war make reference to Charlie Ward and my dad knew about the Dixons and had contact with Alice Stevens' son, so there was some contact with these cousins in later years.  

Do others have information about this cousin group?  I'm glad they had fun, I wish I could have been at that party!


Comments

  1. AnonymousJuly 28, 2023 at 8:17 PM

    Looking at the signatures on the back of the photo, I see Rose Ward Hertel. She was my grandfather, Charles H. Ward’s sister. The fact that she lists her name as Rose Ward Hertel means the picture was taken after the First World War. Rose got married on October 25, 1922.

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