Sleuthing the Kirkpatricks

It has been a very long time since I have posted. I have been researching, but apparently haven't felt like blogging in a long time.

With that being said, I am meeting with a DNA cousin tomorrow and I brought a ton of unlabeled photographs to share with him in the hopes he might recognize some people. I have also been posting photos on the Kirkpatrick Genealogy Facebook page, hoping maybe someone there might know the people. Alas, it seems that there are many Kirkpatricks which came to this country in the mid-1700s, but mine came over in about 1831, and I have yet to meet a Kirkpatrick cousin from that larger group. Whereas my family stayed in Troy, NY, the rest of the Clan seems to have headed south and west.

BUT, the person I am meeting tomorrow is absolutely a Kirkpatrick cousin and from the Troy, NY area. So I know he is family.

I recently had an "aha!" moment when I realized that I recognized a house in the background. Guessing on the children, I assumed the photograph was from 1900 and I looked at the census for that address and sure enough, the people I assumed were in the photograph were all living in the house together at the time.

The first photograph below I know all the people.

Nellie Jane Kirkpatrick Lee with sons Herbert "Herb" and Horace "Harry"

This photograph was labeled - and I do know the house - Kirkpatricks after the porch and fence taken.

And this third photograph was the mystery. But based on the known children above, the 1900 Census, and other photographs of the house, I think this must be Martha Jane Wright Kirkpatrick holding Harry with little Herb standing in front.

As of a few years ago, the house looks like this:

The house has seen some better days.

This was a house in my family for generations. Through the census documents, one can see first that Charles and Nellie Jane lived there with her brother and sister-in-law, and Nellie and Oliver are in and out a couple times, and then Martha Jane's father is there with them for a while before his death, and then Oliver and Nellie raise their children there. Must have been a sad day when the house was sold and Olive moved with her parents Oliver and Nellie to Bronxville, NY.

A much older human ancestor

If I had more patience I'd go through all my posts and see if I can place this article in chronology with all the others I have posted. Haven't we addressed this already? Haven't we been pushing our evolution and ancestors further and further back in time? Pretty amazing what scientists are learning.

A set of human-like footprints dating to 5.7 million years ago, discovered on the Greek island of Crete, challenge existing theories of how and when our species evolved. Prior to this discovery, the oldest confirmed hominin footprints were found in Tanzania and dated at a maximum of 3.65 million years. Anthropologists believed these ancient human relatives were isolated in Africa for several million years before spreading out to Europe and Asia. A new analysis of the prints found in Crete could complicate this evolutionary tale. “What makes this controversial is the age and location of the prints,” researcher Per Ahlberg tells ScienceDaily.com. At the time the prints were made, nearly 6 million years ago, Crete was still part of the Greek mainland and early human ancestors were theoretically still living in Africa and had ape-like feet. The fossils in Crete, however, have distinctly hominin-like features, including a predominant “big toe.” The animal didn’t have claws and walked upright on the soles of its feet—not its toes. “This discovery challenges the established narrative of early human evolution head-on and is likely to generate a lot of debate,” Ahlberg says.