Lost Gallery: The Hostetter Search

Some time ago, in Wichita, Kansas, these two photographs were rescued from a huge heap of overpriced cabinet cards, cdv cards and curly snapshots. Finding two photographs that seem to be related in some way is always a bit special and these two were good examples. They included the same unusual name on their reverse.

While the name Hostetter is probably not all that uncommon, it's not like Smith or Jones, so finding it twice in the same pile of photographs is intriguing. It prompted a search on Ancestry.com to find the relationship of the two.

Here is a greatly simplified and edited tree to show the relationship of the two photographs. The two girls, Ivah and Rhoda, were sisters of William A. Hostetter's Brother's wife, Rebecca Ann Lucas. I'm not sure what that would make the relationship name. Wiki says the term would be Sisters-in-Law but not exactly or with an asterisk.

"Sisters of my mother Anna Lucas Hostetter"

This means that the inscription was written by one of the children of Samuel J. and Rebecca Ann (Anna) Hostetter, either Maye Hostetter (1900-1991) or her brother John Hostetter (1910-1992)

Finally, while I had all the facts handy, I decided to try to identify all the people in the William Hostetter family photograph.

Through a process of elimination and age comparison, here is my guess as to the identifications of the rest of that part of the Hostetter family.

The youngest pictured, Russell Jackson (1898 - 1964) appears to be less than a year old, putting the photograph session at about 1899.

Three more children:
Robert E. Hostetter (1900 - 1901)
Perry Allen Hostetter (1905 - 1905)
Edmond Hostetter (1907 - 1952)
had not been born yet.

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