A recent look through Aunt Lizzie (Sinclair) Morcom's photos and papers turned up a mystery Aunt that I must have passed over before. How appropriate that on American Thanksgiving weekend, I was able to discover a whole new Yankee branch of the family tree! Luckily, the Christmas card below was saved and started the investigation.
Address 85 Summit
Hastings on Hudson N Y12-21-1933
My Dear Niece Elizabeth,
I am sending a few Xmas cards and want to send you one as it has been some time since I heard from you all but hope you are all very well. I have been very poorly since I wrote to you last but I'll try to write you a long letter very soon. Hoping this finds you all very well. I hope your Father - Mother is all right and all your Folks.
With love from your Aunt Jeannie Oliver
The address helped me search her name and I came across the Find a Grave entry which also included an obituary from her death in 1944. It tells that Jeannie was born in Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, Scotland, October 15, 1857. On my tree, I had a Jane Kennedy Sinclair as a sister to my great grandfather James but Orkney documents give her birth year as 1853. They were 2 of the 4 children of William Sinclair and Jane Garrioch of Eastside on South Ronaldsay in the Orknys. She married William Oliver perhaps in Scotland and later arrived in the U.S. For many years they lived in Ansonia, Connecticut and also resided just south of there in Derby for a time. The 1880 Census has them at 65 Elizabeth Street in Derby and William is listed as a millwright.
The obituary lists her children as the daughter with whom she made her home Jean Lyon, Mrs. Laura Evans of Syracuse, N. Y. and two sons, William E. Oliver and Robert S. Oliver, both of Rome, N. Y.; three grandchildren and one great grandchild. She was buried in Ansonia beside a daughter Edith who died as a toddler in 1887 and her husband William who had died in 1929. Jeannie made her home with her daughter and son-in-law at Riverview Manor in Hastings on Hudson after the death of her husband according to census documents on Ancestry. It was during these years she wrote the Christmas letter to Lizzie. Ancestry user koliver53 had posted these pictures of Jeannie and William.
After going through more old papers and pictures I found the postcard collections below. The ones from Maine are postmarked 1945 from J.O.L. (Jeanne Oliver Lyon) and The New York collection predates Lizzie's marriage in 1930 and is also signed from Jeanne.
The photo on the left has "Your cousin Laura and her daughter Jean E. Evans 1952" on the back. The profile picture has no name but seems to bear a resemblance and was stamped with a photography company's stamp in White Plains, NY.
The photo on the left has "Your cousin Laura and her daughter Jean E. Evans 1952" on the back. The profile picture has no name but seems to bear a resemblance and was stamped with a photography company's stamp in White Plains, NY.
I am guessing the picture below with the writing copied from the back is of Jeanne Lyon in 1963.
Happy Thanksgiving to my Oliver cousins and I hope to hear from you soon! ssimms@escape.ca
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