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Anna's pagesMary Ann was my grandmother Anna's youngest sister. She was born in 1901, and was only about 4 when she came to North America. I hadn't really known much about her until recently.
A few months ago, I answered a post on the McAnsh board, by Jeanie Adams. It turned out that Jeanie is the neice of Mary Ann's husband. Mary Ann married a navel musician, James Horace Adams. Jimmie played the clarinet, and his brother John Quincy Adams (Jack) was also a navel musician, and played flute.
Mary and James seem to have lived in Norfolk, Virginia. Anna and Carl lived there also, between 1917 and 1919, and I think perhaps the senior McAnshs, John and Jessie, also lived in the vicinity. Certainly, my mother ended up inheriting some land from there.
It seems James was posted to the west coast, and that may be why he married Mary in Washington state in 1925.
James Horace Adams / Mary Ann McAnsh
Midsummer, 1925
The photos at the top are from their honeymoon, and were taken on the 21st of June, which is midsummer day. They honeymooned at Black Lake. James was then posted to San Pedro, California, and that is where Mary died, in 1926.
Jimmie later (in 1936) married Dorothy (Dottie), who was the sister of the wife of his brother Jack. Jimmie and Dottie had two children. Unfortunately, both died, one at birth, and the other of pneumonia when he was about 14 months old.
Jeanie Adams is the neice of Jimmie and Dottie, related by blood to both. They were close, and ultimately whatever photos Mary had, passed to her. When she found I was a relative of Mary, she passed them to me. I'm immensely grateful, since I have very few older photos, and had none of Mary.
These are the series of photos I received. Some are members of my family. Others may be members of James' family, or friends of the couple.
Of the photos, few are labeled, and there are few people who can now identify the people in them. I am posting them in the hope that relatives who see them can help identify them. The web can be wonderful that way.
Mary's father and mother lived until after her death. They lived for a time in Canada from around 1905, and seem to have moved to the US sometime before 1915. Her half-sister Maggie Thompson lived in Edmonton, Alberta, and there is at least one photo from Canada. Her parents, John and Jessie McAnsh may have lived around the District of Colombia around 1920, though I am uncertain and cannot find them (or any of the family) in any census up to and including the 1930 one.
I think she was fairly close to her brother William, who lived in Atlanta Georgia. Mary lived in Norfolk in the early 1920s before she married James Adams. Her sister Anna also lived in Norfolk until 1919, while her husband Carl was in the service there. They may have lived there at the same time, and may have lived together, or nearby. Anna and Carl had a child there, and another in 1924 when they moved to Ohio. Some of the photos come from Ohio.
I think at this picture may be Anna, my grandmother. If so, the baby may be my mother Jessie, who was born in 1924. The young girl in the back would then be Hazel.
Anna McAnsh and children(?), ~1924
Mary Ann had a fair collection of photographs, covering a period from about 1918 to 1925. Some have cryptic captions, some are apparently of the same people or the same period. I've tried to group them with common elements, and will include whatever clues there are.
All photos are thumbnails for ease of loading, and will open the full-scale photos for identification. Anyone having any idea, please send me a message at:
If anyone has any information, my address is above. The first word is "firegrrl".