Last week I was given the most wonderful identification of the church that I thought was in Seattle circa 1918. It turned out to be First Congregational Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1917!!!
The young lady in plaid is a Culver, I’m sure. I don’t know who the other lady is. All dressed up for travel. What does the caption say? STARTING FOR SEATTLE AUG. 20, 1918. Hah, you can’t ask for anything better than that in genealogy and family history research. The actual answer–to the day–complete with new outfits and a Gladstone bag in the hand of the older woman. Look it up. It was named after Prime Minister Gladstone, and it’s a very specific and stylish type of luggage. I know this because . . . ta dum . . . I used to own a luggage store. Look at how crisp their clothing was. These poor orphanage girls, daughters of a woman who had to figure out how to make a living for her family of divorce, looks like they are doing pretty well. No idea why . . . .
Here are other photos. Tell me: what does it look like. Are these other people traveling with the Culver women? If so, why are they going to Seattle? Are they all planning to settle there? They seem to be “of a group” because the man is carrying a bag. But what if he’s holding the lady’s Gladstone for her? Maybe they aren’t all going. I’m confusing myself. What I do believe is that that is Jennie to our right (and their left) of her plaid-skirted daughter. And I think the boldly decorated young lady on plaid’s right (to us she is farthest left) is the other Culver girl. 
Remember that this date is before the end of WWI, which ended in November.
While I have solved the mystery of when the Culver women left for Seattle, I still do not know WHY or WITH WHOM.
Related articles
- What Did Lela and Rhea Culver Do at the Orphanage? (thefamilykalamazoo.wordpress.com)
- Is This Jenny DeKorn Culver in A Velvet Coat? (thefamilykalamazoo.wordpress.com)
- Why Did Jennie Move to Seattle? (thefamilykalamazoo.wordpress.com)
The Family Kalamazoo 
They don’t look too happy at having their picture take-in the top image. What a bonus to find it.
I think that is part of what makes the photo special, don’t you? Looks like the older lady has a nasty comment for the photographer ;)!
Yes there is something going on there that we will never know
I intend to find out a little more than I know now!
I’m not sure whether the women are happy or unhappy – but I definitely think that they look determined.
Love the detective work! What a great find. For me it was a NYTimes article 1878 and a book, both found by a cousin, that were breakthroughs in researching my great grandfather’s life. As to the why… that’s why I chose to write his life as fiction, so that I could speculate and make sense of things.
There is a lot of benefit in that speculation. Your book looks fascinating!
These things are solved one step at a time. Most of the time for each step you take new questions pop up. Love genealogy research.
It’s kind of like doing chores. The more I cross off my list, the longer my list grows. I do the dishes and then realize the drain cover needs special scrubbing. Then I realize the mat the dishes dry on needs scrubbing. By then the floor is dirty . . . .
What an amazing find! I think the woman to the right next to the man looks very much like the three women on the left. I’d be surprised if she wasn’t an aunt of the three younger women. What do you think?
I never thought of it until you mentioned it. Then I studied it. I can see where you are getting that. The woman to his right has wider set eyes, but there is a similarity. What is particularly important about your theory is that it makes me wonder if they went with any family members, that woman or other, or TO any other family members. Do you think it could be the father’s family? After all, even though the parents (Jennie and John) were divorced, maybe the girls were still close to the Culver family. Hmm.
Great Find. Now take the photo to your local gypsy lady and have her feel for the vibes… like in “The Red Violin”.
I just read Amy’s comment and got to thinking about that FB page where people post pictures and ask if anyone know who the people are. You should post the photo and see if anyone out there will say “That’s uncle Chalie and aunt Mimi”… Hey, you never know. Nice post as always. By the way I did a search for all the names Lela, Rhea, Jennie, Culver, Seattle in the Lib of Congress news site but did not get any good hits. In Chronicling America you can say where to look, and the date range. I did Aug 1, 1918 to Aug 31, 1918 in Michigan, in Washington, in all. I saw many Culver’s but not these, I saw many Lela daughter but not the right one. I was hoping to see “Mrs Culver and daughters are on their way to Settle to live after having lived here for so many years…” or something like that.
It’s funny you would mention that, Jose, but a blog reader did just that for me in the Netherlands regarding a couple of unidentified photos I’ve posted here. Keeping my fingers crossed on that!
As soon as I saw your name, I thought: newspapers! I am going to try to search a little in that time period just for something about Seattle, maybe without their names. Just to see. Maybe it was an organization that they went with? Thanks for your messages!!! I will work on that!
That picture of the two women leaving for Seattle is a classic, Luanne. And even the date written on it, too – that’s utterly amazing. I lived in Seattl for several years in the late 1960s so I understand the appeal but imagine those women doing that before WWI. i repeat: amazing.
This was one of my favorites!!
I think it’s one of mine, too! It shows so much more action than most of the photos–and is valuable in that way. The “yelling” at the photographer, the bag packed and ready to go, the traveling outfits, the readiness to get on the train. Seattle is a beautiful city, and I think before it became so built up as it is now (they are trying to ruin it, IMO) it must have been an exciting, adventuresome place!
Luanne, I posted a link to this blog post on my FaceBook page and asked the people to help identify the people in the photographs. I also posted it to these four closed FB groups.
Random Acts of Kindness Photo Restoration Group
Clarkston Area Genealogy Society
Genealogy
(Genealogy) I need your Help
Maybe you will get a message from someone on FB.
Thanks so much, Jose! I appreciate it!
What a treasure trove!
What a great find, and I so love the women’s outfits. (Kind of nut here for fashion shots from days of yore… 😉 )
Well, here’s another question – who’s the fellow hiding in the back of the photo?
I feel like it is a lady because of the light colored hat. What do you think?
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