The Payne Family : Part of the Merry Group

Back in 2016 I wrote a Mystery Photo post, "The Mystery of the Merry Group," where I pondered the possible identity of a group of people who appeared in some photos that all seemed to have been taken at the same event. The older lady in the group looked a bit like my great-grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Klein (Dixon) Payne, and the older gentleman certainly resembled her second husband, Thomas Payne. But I wasn't sure, and I had no clue who the other people were.

In recent months I've been in contact with three people who are connected with the Payne family in one way or another. Last week the granddaughter of Thomas Payne, Jr. contacted me. She was able to identify some of the people in these pictures. In fact, she wrote that she has a photo taken on that same day.

My step-cousin said that the photos were taken at Thomas Payne, Sr.'s farm in Massachusetts. I never knew he had a farm in Massachusetts! She also commented that he was very well-off and that at one time he owned a restaurant in New Jersey, and that my Great-grandmother, who she called Mrs. Dixon, ran the kitchen. [I've done some  preliminary research on the restaurant and will report on that eventually.]

So, a photo mystery gets closer to being solved, and I've got more fun things to research.

Here are the photos in question. My Great-grandmother died in 1938 at the age of 70. Andrew was born in 1905, and Thomas was born in 1910 and I would say that they look in these photos like they could be in their mid- to late-twenties. I'm going to guess that this was taken some time in the mid-1930's.

As far as I know, these are the only photos I have of my Great-grandmother that were taken after her marriage to Thomas Payne in 1927. According to my source, Great-grandmother raised Thomas, Jr. and he called her "Mother," and she remembers her father talking about my grandfather, Wallace B. Dixon, and his sister, Hazel. They would have all been children in the combined Dixon/Payne household at the same time.

Standing, from left: unknown; Mrs. Thomas Payne, Jr.; unknown; unknown; Andrew Payne; Mary E. (Klein Dixon) Payne.
Kneeling, from left: unknown; unknown; a dog; Thomas Payne, Jr.

I don't know who the fellow in the white shirt, standing third from the left, is but every time I see him in a photo I think "he sure looks like a Dixon!" He's in a good number of photos that I have with the woman standing on the far left, also unidentified.

From left: Thomas Payne, Jr.; Andrew Payne; unknown; unknown;
Mary E. (Klein Dixon) Payne; Thomas Payne, Senior.
And the dog.

From left: Thomas Payne, Jr.; Andrew Payne; unknown; unknown;
Mary E. (Klein Dixon) Payne; Thomas Payne, Senior.

Thomas Payne also had a daughter named Mary, from his first marriage, and I wonder if the young woman in this photo might be her. And then there's that Dixon-looking fellow in the back again! Who are you?!?
 

Andrew Payne

Still unidentified

 As always, if you recognize anyone in these photos, I'd love to hear from you!

Sources

Private E-mail correspondance with descendant of Thomas Payne.

All photos from Wallace B. Dixon Collection, privately held by the author. 

Family History as Art : Mary Sheppard Burton

For a little something different, today I'd like to share a find from the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress.

"When Pa Was Young - Skating the Bay
Edward Sampson Phipps"
Tell Me 'Bout Series, 1993-1994
Mary Sheppard Burton
Lib. of Congress / Folklife Center

When doing genealogy, we work mostly with records, either on-line or on paper. Photographs also provide clues and information about our ancestors and their lives. We make trees, write histories, generate reports. But there are other ways to tell our family stories.

Mary Sheppard Burton (b. 1922 - d. 2010) was a textile artist who worked in the medium of hooked rugs. She was a teacher, lecturer and author. But most of all she was a brilliant artist. She created a series of hooked rugs that illustrated stories from her family history, her "Tell Me 'Bout" series. These fabulous works are now housed in the American Folk Life Center, and can also be viewed online. Most of them have written commentary by Mary Burton that fill in the details of the story behind the rug.

My Grandpa (whom everyone called "Pa") would don his ice skates in the early morning hours, pick up his flask of corn whiskey, and step out on the icy Wicomico River at Salisbury, Maryland. Strong as an ox, he'd head downstream for the river's mouth, where he entered the Chesapeake Bay....

As a weaver of tapestry, I'm captivated by the idea of weaving my family's stories. How about you? Do you create visual art or craft that illustrates your genealogy?  Have you found any other examples of family history represented in art?

Resources

• The Mary Sheppard Burton Collection includes ten hoooked rugs that illustrate her family's stories.
  
• You can read more about Mary Burton, and view more of her work at marysburton.com.
  
• American Folklife Center
  
• Library of Congress