Divided back, used, Real Photo Postcard. Postmarked February 3, 1908 from Chicago, Illinois.
Price: $12.00
This card has been hanging around: I’ve been meaning to get it posted forever but by a nice coincidence, the date it’s going up here at LCG is the exact date on the outgoing Chicago postmark, plus 109 years.
Pretty Elsie, who provided her photo to cousin George, was not identified in records. An in-depth search would be needed to trace the cousinship. (Is this a word? Yep!) She writes:
“I say ‘Hello’ George do you know you[r] loving cousin, How are you old chap, I thought perhaps you might want you[r] little cousins picture, what do you think of my boys coat, classy ‘heh!’ Love to all the family, and also you[r] cousin in Dubuque the one I like. I am with love Elsie.”
Funny how Elsie drops the “r” in “yours” each time, and don’t we get a sense of who she was, from her handwriting, the note itself and the photo? I think she was fun to hang out with. As far as history and fashion it’s always nice to have a dated reference but it’s doubly nice to have the wearer’s comment about what they were wearing. And not that it, by any means, took 109 years for the bow to go out of style, but we can appreciate the irony in the coat being the main subject for comment while today it’s the hat with the huge bow that jumps out at us!
Card addressed to: “Mr. George Letch, Jr., East Dubuque, Ills.”
Our girl Else, wasn’t found in records but George Leroy Letch, Jr., was born September 19, 1887 in East Dubuque, IL, son of George L. Letch and Theresa Erdenberg. The 1910 Federal Census for Dunleith Township of East Dubuque finds George, Jr. with parents, George L., born IL, October 1864 (occupation freight train conductor) and Teresa, born IL, April 1867 and George, Jr.’s sister Roena, born IL, August 1889.
Sources: Year: 1910; Census Place: Dunleith, Jo Daviess, Illinois; Roll: T624_294; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 0021; FHL microfilm: 1374307.
(Ancestry.com)
Social Security Applications and Claims, 1936-2007. (Ancestry.com)
