FamilyHistoryFiles.com - Another Recently Discovered Cache of Old Family Photos

July 2008 -- was sorting through some stuff & found these old photos that I had squirreled away at some point in the dim & distant past. There are some precious ones here. Most precious of all is --

Photo 1: An 81 year-old yellowed crinkled photo of what I'm 95% sure is John Delehanty & Genevieve Sullivan Delehanty on their wedding day!

A lower-resolution scan appears at right. Click on this thumbnail

for a high-resolution scan (2.4 MB).

Aww Grandma you look GREAT!

Grandpa D. you DO look just like Clark Gable!

They look to be a happy & hopeful couple, though each also seems to carry a kind of weight in their eyes & countenance. This was the second marriage for each -- Genevieve's first husband Ray Reilly died in 1921, and John's first wife Bridget McDonough in 1923. Genevieve, age 36, is wearing a formal dress and jacket, with matching hat, gloves, scarf, and floral arrangement. John Delehanty, age 41, is wearing a suit with a tie and some kind of corsage. His left ring finger wears a ring, as seen at right. This has to be their wedding day!

There's one more thing -- the setting. Where are they? St. Paul? Ramsey County? Washington County? They look to be standing along the side of a road that runs in front of them (where the photographer is). Behind them is what looks to be a timber-and-wire fence (on the right) and stone or brick fence (on the left) that runs along the road. Beyond the fence is a kind of kind of pasture or open field, with a series of tracks or paths, at the far side of which sits a house. The building in the background on the left looks to be some sort of public structure -- a city hall? The Ramsey County Courthouse?

Wherever it is it's pretty rural. It's not Minneapolis, that's for sure. The time of year looks to be spring -- there's no leaves on the bush behind them, but no leaves on the ground either. Plus the floral arrangements . . . it has to be spring!

A public building at left?

Fence, open field & house at right?

So they marry in spring 1927, conceive Betty around the first day of fall of that year (21 Sept 1927), Betty's born early the following summer (22 June 1928), and John Delehanty dies in mid-winter seven months later (21 Jan. 1929). Wow.

2a. Uncle Ed and Liz? strolling downtown Minneapolis, 1940s? (for full-size high-resolution photo click on this thumbnail )

This is another great photo, made into a postcard -- it really captures Uncle Ed's downtown bachelor persona -- out strolling the streets all spiffied up in a suit & tie & shiny shoes & puffin' on a cigar. His female companion's all dolled up too, with her fancy hat & shoes & handbag & the white gloves she's about to put on. Aunt Maime? I doubt it. Not known who she is, but she resembles the "Liz" in the photo below (Photo 2c). I don't think she's a Sullivan (certainly not Aunt Grace!).

On the rear is written "For Tim Sullivan 19856" (the number probably his prisoner number; was he in Stillwater MN State Prison, or was he in the federal penitentiary Walla Walla WA by now? Unknown).

2b. Ed Sullivan with his brother Neil? & an unknown man at a Tavern, Minneapolis, late 1930s ( thumbnail: )

This is another great shot, showing Uncle Ed partaking in one of his favorite recreational activities -- drinking beer in the local tavern. We don't know who the man on the left is, but he looks like a Sullivan -- maybe Ed's brother Neil? He seems distracted, purposely disinterested in the photograph being taken.

Uncle Ed, on the other hand, seems to be having a grand ol' time; the photo really captures his happy-go-lucky, devil-may-care, in-your-face persona. He looks to be around his mid-40s (b. 1894), so the photo likely dates to the mid-to-late 1930s. Man on the right unknown; he looks to be of a higher social class, and seems mildly amused at the fact he's being photographed in a tavern with these two guys. A curious & intriguing social moment.

Photo Cluster 3: Uncle Ed, Liz, Young Boy, and an Unknown Man in NE Minneapolis (thumbnails: and )

Both of these photos were taken in the same backyard on the same day, in what looks like NE Minneapolis. It appears to be the late 1930s.

The man on the left in both photos is the same person, and bears a strong resemblance to Uncle Ed; I'm almost positive it's him. The woman on the right looks a lot like the woman Uncle Ed is strolling with in downtown Minneapolis in Photo 2a, above. (The name "Liz" popped into Sue's head when I borrowed these pictures from her years ago, and I wrote it on the back.)

Who's the boy Ed's holding? Bernard Conway? Unknown, as is the man on the right in the bottom photo. Maybe that's Ed's brother-in-law Conway? Another one of History's Mysteries!

I'm almost positive this is Grandma's sister Ella (Aunt Nell, or "Toots") and her two children, Bernard and Eileen ("Dolly"), taken around 1928-29, right before Nell died and Grandma took in the two children.

(The 1930 federal census, taken in early April, shows Grandma (Genevieve Dellihanty), age 38, widow, head of household, no occupation; Edward Sullivan, age 36, single, laborer for the city; daughter Betty Dellihanty [Mom, age 1], Eileen M. Conley [Conway] (age 8, niece), and Bernard Conley [Conway] (age 6, nephew), and a female boarder, all living together at 817 4th St. in Ward 1 in the City of Minneapolis. The Minnesota Historical Society Death Index shows "Ella Conway" died 6 January 1930.)

Here Bernard looks to be around 5 and Dolly around 7. He looks pensive & sad and she looks sassy. This must be the year Aunt Nell died. She doesn't look well, though it's hard to tell. She also bears a very strong resemblance to Grandma.