Another portrait finds its way home.

Another portrait finds its way home.

Today, I was able to mail this fine portrait to a family historian for the Pilgrim Family.

Using the scant information on the reverse of this cabinet card I constructed a small family tree on Ancestry.com.

I reasoned that Lizzie (probably Elizabeth) had a brother, last name Dunton. I speculated that Lizzie married a man named Pilgrim. The picture was taken in Marietta, GA, I guessed around 1900. I put this guesswork in the Ancestry Search engine and several new pieces information turned up right away. My speculation was correct.

I added the new information and developed the tree forward a couple generations. Although lots of ancestors turned up, I carried the tree back only one generation; I was looking for a living connection.

It only took eight months. I was contacted by a family historian, a descendant of one of the Pilgrim children. I explained to her that I was not part of the Pilgrim family but only trying to place this picture into the hands of a family historian. And it turns out she is just that.

Here is the family tree as it looks at the date of the picture. The youngest, Hollis, born in 1859, in the photographs appears to be about two years old, making the picture date about 1897.

Three more children were born to the Pilgrim Family: Ernest Edward (1898-1955), Nancy Eunice (1901-1919)and Troy Eldridge (1904-1928).

So James Robert Pilgrim and wife Elizabeth Dunton had nine children. I was able to find reference to 20 grand children and at least as many great-grand children.