Too Many Edwards, Too Many Unidentified Faces

There are many problems associated with trying to organize and to make narrative sense of the boxes of family photos, letters, and other ephemera that my husband and his sister inherited after Mimi (great-aunt Mary Ophelia Nugent Armstrong) and, shortly thereafter, Mary (mother, Mary Nugent Robb Greene) and George (father, George Nystrom Greene) died. One is that all members except one of the older generations of this family are dead, and that one, an aunt recuperating from health issues in a Texas nursing home, was less interested in family history than her younger sister, Mary. So there is really no one to turn to for supporting information. Most of the people in the photos are not identified, and when they are, there are scattered duplicate photos with just one with identification. So I have to go through all the photographs looking for that one photo where someone is identified and then to match that photo with other photos in which that person's image might appear. I also look for other clues on the photographs, such as where the photograph was taken, if those clues are present. Photos taken in Bryan, Texas, are most likely people associated with Baker and Robert Armstrong after they moved to Texas. Photos taken in New Orleans are more than likely friends or extended family of the Nugents and etc. (However, since Perry Nugent's family also lived several years in Salem, VA, there are photos of Nugent family members taken by photographers of that city, too.)

Another problem is that family names occur over and over each generation, so if a photograph has, for example, the name "Edward McCarty Armstrong" on the back of it, the question remains: Which Edward? Dates and age of the photos offer clues, but, then one generation of Armstrongs had at least two Edwards. Edward McCarty Armstrong, Sr., named one of his sons Edward McCarty Armstrong (Jr). Edward, Junior, married to Margaret Moore Logan, named one of HIS sons Edward McCarty. And ANOTHER one of Edward Senior's sons, David Gibson Armstrong, named one of HIS sons Edward McCarty. So there were two Edward McCarty Armstrongs in the same generation who were first cousins to one another and who were also nephews of Baker White Armstrong, Sr.. Confusing?

Before I began reading the family letters and became more familiar with the Armstrong family tree, I came across this obituary for an Edward McCarty Armstrong. Click on all images for a larger view.

Fortunately, the obituary names the parents of THIS Edward McCarty Armstrong: David Gibson Armstrong and his wife Hannah. When Baker and Robert moved to Texas, other Armstrong relatives followed, including this Edward McCarty Armstrong, Baker's nephew. The only dates on this obituary are handwritten and identify the days, not the year, the obituaries (there are several) were published, Oct. 8 in the Houston Post and October 10 in the Press. However, I did a little online searching and found the Texas Physicians Historical Biographical Database, which listed Dr. E. M. Armstrong's birth as 1870 and his death as 1940. Baker W. Armstrong was but twelve years older than his nephew, the son of his older half-brother, David Gibson. So now there are more clues for the photographs. I can compare photographs that seem to have been taken around the same time and compare the ages of folks in one photograph with ages of folks in photographs taken about the same time and in the same place or by the same photographer. I can look at photographs accompanying obituaries and try to find the younger visage of that person in the earlier family photographs.

I look at the old face of Dr. Edward McCarty Armstrong, a physician for 45 years in Houston, Texas, and wonder, is that his face, too, in this photograph of three young men? I think so. The young man standing must be he.

Then who are the other two young men? After retrieving this photograph from the boxes of unidentified persons, I found another of the young man sitting on the right. On the back of that photograph is written these words: "Uncle Chas. Armstrong, Papa's youngest brother." This must be Charles Magill Armstrong at about ten or eleven years of age. 

And does that face match the face of an older Charles Magill in this photograph with a friend? (Charles Magill is on the right. Handwriting on the back of the photograph identifies both Charles and his friend.)

And who is the third young man in the photograph of three boys?

This week, while going through Mary's old steamer trunk, I opened a small packet of photographs, on which these words were written: "Uncle Paul Nugent, Mother's brother." Inside were several small photographs of Paul Cook Nugent as a baby and as an older boy. Here is one. Does the face here not resemble the young man seated at left in the photograph of three young boys?

When I first saw the photograph of the three boys, I assumed that they must have been brothers. But the evidence suggests otherwise.  And if the three boys in the photograph are, indeed, Paul Nugent; Edward McCarty Armstrong, son of David Gibson Armstrong; and Charles Magill Armstrong, son of Edward McCarty Armstrong, Sr.--what was the occasion for the photograph? See how the questions continue? Answer one and another one appears.

And, finally, who is this young man? Another photograph that I found in an album created by Baker Robb, my husband's uncle, identifies him as "Edward McCarty Armstrong." Which Edward? Well, I think he must be Dr. Edward McCarty Armstrong, son of David Gibson Armstrong and Hannah Gibson Armstrong, the younger version of the old man in the obituary.