52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #3 ~ Favorite Photo…That I Never Expected to See in My Life and Received From Someone I've Never Met in Person

 Written for Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52Weeks.

Week 3 Prompt:
“The theme for Week 3 is "Favorite Photo." This is one of my favorite prompts. Yes, I've used it in previous years, but it's too good to not use again! Tell the story of a favorite photo: Who is in it, when and where it was taken, and why it was taken. (That last part is often left out!)”

First just the facts:

Ancestor name: Ruth Penrose Evans

Birth: 12 September 1912, Broomfield, Colorado[1]

Marriage (first): 3 July 1932, Brighton, Colorado[2]

Death: 4 September 2005, Bellevue, Washington[3]

Relationship: Maternal grandmother
I am descended through:
- her daughter, my mother, Jacqulin Ann Quick (1935–2020)

 

Story:

I could never pick just one picture as my favorite!  Pictures are what got me interested in genealogy in the first place.  As a child, it fascinated me to see those old pictures and think I was related to those people.  So, instead of just my favorite picture,  I chose "My Favorite Photo That I Never Expected To See In My Life That I Received From Someone I've Never Met In Person." 

 

 The people in this picture are:

Far back: Jack H. Quick [my grandfather]

Middle Row (l to r): Dick Heflin, Nelle [Eickelberg, Nissen, Quick] Heflin [my great-grandmother], Harry Nissen

Front Row (l to r): William Eickelberg, Nellie Eickelberg, Helen Nissen

Far front/extreme right - Ruth [Evans] Quick.

 

This was probably taken sometime around 1932/1933.  I’m presuming after Ruth and my grandfather were married although they aren’t standing anywhere near each other.  It would

have been taken in Denver, but I’m not sure exactly where.  At some point I’d like to investigate all the known addresses I have for the family, but I haven’t done that yet. 

 

As to why it was taken, I couldn’t say.  This side of the family was very big on pictures.  My great-grandmother, Nelle, used to take my Mom to have her portrait done every year on Mom’s birthday. I have other pictures taken at various brick houses in Denver.  This picture, however, was not one that my Grandpa Quick had in his collection.

 

Ruth is my Mom's biological mother. Ruth and my Grandpa were divorced when my Mom was barely 2 years old. My Grandpa had custody, and Ruth did not remain in my Mom's life, so consequently, I had no pictures of Ruth as a young woman. I do have a picture of Ruth when she was in her 50s and briefly got in touch with my Mom [long story, not for here] but that was it.

 

I also have a baby album of my Mom's that has a picture of her with her Dad and a space labeled, "Mother and baby" but the picture in that space is one of my Mom at about 2 years old! Also in the album were 4 carefully cut out heads, all of my Mom - adorable baby that she was - so I have to assume that Ruth was in all of those pictures. How I wish I had them!

 

Through a contact I made through Ancestry, I began an e-mail correspondence with a man, Don, who is the grandson of my great-grandmother's [Nelle Eickelberg's] 3rd husband, Dick Heflin. Got that?!?  I’m including a partial family tree here with the people in the picture outlined in blue.

 

 

It turns out that Dick had been married before and had children from his previous marriage - something I hadn't known. Don and I exchanged e-mails for awhile and I mentioned that I had some pictures that included Dick. I sent Don scanned copies and then I put the originals in the mail. They were just snapshots, but I thought he might like to have them.

 

Don really appreciated them and told me that he had other pictures of Dick that he had been meaning to scan. I told him that I'd be interested in seeing them. Even though Dick Heflin was not a blood relative, he was the ‘Grandpa’ that my Mom grew up with. He and Nelle were married early enough that Dick was a big part of my Grandpa's life as well. So Dick was very much a part of the family stories and family life.

Some time later - I'd actually forgotten about it - Don sent me a whole raft of scanned images. I was looking through them thinking how fun it was to see pictures of Dick in his army uniform (WWI) and just having fun looking at all the neat old pictures.

Then, this one came up and I gasped. The young woman sitting right in the front was staring at me with my mother's face! At least the eyes and the smile were the same. I could easily identify everyone else in the photo, but this woman in the front - could it really be Ruth? I shot off an e-mail to Don asking if there was identification on the picture. I told him that I knew all the people - and named who I thought they were - except the woman in the front on the right. He came back almost immediately, thank goodness, and told me that it said, "Ruth Quick."

Amazing~

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[1].    Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment, certificate of live birth, File No. 1051912012485, (1912), Ruth Penrose Evans; Bureau of Vital Statistics, Denver.

[2].  "Colorado Statewide Marriage Index, 1853-2006," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GB2X-3KB : 11 January 2024), J H Quick to Ruth Evans, 03 Jul 1932, Brighton, Colorado; citing no. 11200, State Archives, Denver; FHL microfilm 1,690,123.  

[3].   Washington State Department of Health, certified copy of death certificate, Local File No. 08704, (2005), Ruth E. Ditsch; Bureau of Vital Records, Jefferson City; copy issued 30 November 2015.