Saturday, February 10, 2018

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Relatives with Facial Hair

I'm a big fan of facial hair on men, so I really like this week's theme for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun:

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music), is:

(1) This week we're going to look for men's facial hair in our photograph collections.

(2) Find one or more photographs of men in your ancestral families that have facial hair:  a mustache and/or a beard.  

(3) Show the photograph if you have it and tell us a bit about the person shown.   If you don't have a digital photograph, please describe the man and his facial hair the best you can.

(4) Write your own blog post, a comment to this blog post, or a comment on Facebook or Google+.


Even though Randy stated the theme as "facial hair", he ended up focusing on beards, so I will do that also.  I also restricted myself to my ancestors.  It turns out that all of the ancestors of whom I have photos with beards are great-great-grandfathers.

1.  James Gauntt (1831–1889) was born in New Jersey, probably in Burlington County, and died in Rancocas, Burlington County.


2.  Joel Armstrong (Abt. 1849–Abt. 1921) was born in New Jersey, probably in Burlington County, and probably died in Burlington County, New Jersey.


3.  Gershon Itzhak Nowicki (about 1858–1948) was born in Russia, probably in Porozowo (which is now in Belarus), and died in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York.


4.  Gersh Wolf Gorodetsky was born and died in Russia, years and locations unknown.  This is probably a colorized photograph of him.


4 comments:

  1. You have some great ancestral photos. I think Joel and Gershon won the beard contest. :)This was a fun theme this week, wasn't it?

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    1. They are great beards, aren't they? It was indeed a fun theme. I'm looking forward to when he decides to cover mustaches; I have some nice ones of those also.

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  2. What beards your ancestors had! I especially like the full ones on the last three men. I read "facial hair" so posted mustaches and one beard. I think it's interesting to see the differences in beards and mustaches based on time periods and localities.

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    1. I have to admit, I like the last three better also. I always think a beard looks a little odd without a mustache, which was James Gauntt's style.

      I know what you mean about "facial hair" versus just the beards, but since I had enough photos I went with what Randy did. I already have my mustachioed ancestors prepared for his follow-up!

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