I am back with another Mystery Photo of the Week. Can you help us identify these children? How about pinning down the time frame?
This one comes from the collection of my cousin, Bobbie. Three children beautifully attired and very serious and we have no idea who they are. Bobbie is related to both sides of my tree, so that doesn’t exact narrow it down. Her grandmother was, Marie Gloria (Bonita) Medeiros, a native of Kauai whose family moved to Monterey County, California in the mid-1900s. Marie Gloria raised her family on E. 25th Street in Oakland.
It is said that the girl on the left is Marie Gloria. Marie Gloria was born in 1897 on Kauai, Hawaii. Her family lived there until moving to California ca. 1907. They lived a couple of years in King City, Monterey County. Marie Gloria raised her family on E. 25th Street in Oakland, Alameda County.
The girl on the right and the little boy are a mystery. I’ve compared the countless photos but cannot come up with any matches. They appear to be siblings. They have the darker complexion of the Andrew Medeiros/de la Cross family, but those families don’t have children of the right age.
If the light hair girl is, in fact, Marie Gloria, then this photo would have to have been taken before 1910. Just to be sure of the date of the photo, I asked a friend for help with a date range. Based on her knowledge of the clothing and hairstyles, she believe the photo was taken between 1900-1910. If so, then Marie Gloria is of the right age for our light haired girl.
Knowing the time period helps narrow things down. I’m at a loss for the other children. Are they Bonita, Medeiros, de Braga, Pacheco? There are plenty of possibilities within the Pacheco family, but I have most of those families represented in photographs. I don’t see a resemblance.
There is one family I have no photographs of. That is, Marie Gloria’s aunt and uncle, Victorino Bonita and his wife Rosa Maria Rocha Pavao (aka Rose Pavon). It is possible this portrait represents cousins. They could even be someones godchildren.
If anyone recognizes these faces, please let me know! I would love to know who these children are.
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Photographs are so important to family history, don’t you agree?
There are so many secrets locked inside each photograph. The most obvious is identity. But, we can learn about time periods through clothing styles and hairstyles. We can learn about family structure. We can find clues about the places our ancestors lived. Analyzing photographs is an important part of genealogy.
