"Bovina Families" Album now on Flickr

Early in the last decade, I started a project to transcribe a transcription which is loosely called 'Bovina Families.' Some background: Early in the 20th Century, starting around 1914, Bovina native David Fletcher Hoy (1863-1930) created a very large card file to document all of Bovina's families. In the 1980s, David's nephew, Fletcher Davidson (1895-1987), took the files and created a large set of notebooks transcribing the information from the cards. Starting in September 2001, I took on the task of transcribing Fletcher's Davidson transcription, completing the project in February of 2003. I estimated that there were about 12,000 entries when the project was done. This is on the Delaware County Genealogy website at http://www.dcnyhistory.org/bfindex.html (And note, these families often go beyond just Bovina.)

As a companion to the Bovina Families transcription, I have started a collection on Flickr, unimaginatively called 'Bovina Families.' You can visit it at http://www.flickr.com/photos/30793716@N06/sets/72157624363530008/

The first set of pictures that I have uploaded come from the family of Jack Hilson. His children graciously allowed me access to two albums that had belonged to their grandmother, Helena Strangeway Hilson. The albums date from the late 19th/early 20th centuries. Someone, likely Helena herself, had written names on the portraits in the albums. Helena probably did these later in life, since the notations were done in ball point pen. I scanned the images from these albums and added further information, pulled from the Bovina families transcription and Bovina cemetery information provided by Ed and Dick Davidson. For a few of the pictures, I could find no information that would help confirm who the person was beyond the name. I would welcome any comments identifying the person. And I also will welcome further information and/or if I have a picture mislabeled.

The families represented in the albums, as well as the Strangeways, include Doig, Coulter, Gladstone and Burgin.

I hope to start regularly adding to this Bovina Families album. David Fletcher Hoy's grandson provided to me several years ago scans of a number of portraits from his family. I have similar portraits from my family and have access to some Russell family portraits. And I'm always looking for other such albums to scan so the images can be shared much more widely than they can sitting in an old album. Watch for further announcements on updates to the on-line Bovina Families Album.

And enjoy!