Rescued Photo Album – Ward and Pettyjohn Families of Randolph County, Indiana [Genealogy] –

Up until now, I’ve focused entirely on the southern part of Randolph County, Indiana because that’s where most of my knowledge and experience are concentrated. My own ancestors settled along the border of Wayne and Randolph Counties and didn’t venture far from there. We’re going to take a leap over to the northern parts of the county now to discuss some folks who were not my own ancestors but were rather the subjects of photographs rescued at an estate sale.

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This content was originally shared on a very short-lived blog I had several years ago but quickly neglected.

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Posted November 16, 2012:

Several years ago my parents purchased an album of very old photographs at an auction.  The people in the pictures are not related to us (not that we know of anyway, but it’s Randolph County, so you never know), but my parents couldn’t bear to see this beautiful album go to the trash heap.  Fortunately, the subjects of the portraits were mostly labeled, so I was able to piece together bits of the family history.

I posted on a couple of different genealogy message boards saying that I had the album if anyone would like to see the pictures, and I ended up mailing a CD of the photos to several researchers.  Then I had a computer crash, and I still haven’t been able to find my backup CD of those photos.  I recently took the time to scan all the photos again because I’ve had a number of researchers contact me about them.  I’ve decided to focus this blog on the Ward & Pettyjohn Photo Album for the next several posts, since blogging about the photos seems like a simpler way to share them with many people.  I don’t know how much time I will be able to devote to blogging through the holiday season, but I’m going to make an effort to post photos regularly.

I’ve decided to start with Margery (or is it Marjorie?) McKew simply because I received an email about her a few days ago.  The notes written on the photo seem to indicate Mrs. McKew was the sister of both Eleanor Ward and Joab Ward (I think Joab Jr. would be this lady’s brother).  Perhaps Margery was named after her grandmother, since many family trees on Rootsweb have the senior Joab Ward’s mother listed as Margery Piggott (while others list his mother as Margaret Piggott).  Stay tuned for more photos and a family tree of the Ward & Pettyjohn families of Randolph County, Indiana!

 

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Am I the only one who thinks her ears look like elf ears? Maybe she was really an elf but hopefully not an angry South Pole elf.

Additional Recent Research on Margery (Ward) McKew

Much can be discovered about the family of Margery (Ward) McKew in E. Tucker’s History of Randolph County, Indiana 1882. It seems Mrs. McKew was the wife of Arthur McKew. Arthur was a prominent man in the Ridgeville community and one of the founders of the Ridgeville College. Did you even know we had a college in Randolph County? Perhaps we’ll explore that a little further one of these days. The history of the college at Ridgeville is actually pretty fascinating.

Of course, E. Tucker doesn’t have nearly as much to say about Margery as he did of her husband. She was a lady, after all. Under Arthur McKew’s biographical sketch on page 409 of Tucker, it states,

His wife is a worthy and estimable lady, a fit companion for her respected husband, though for some years feeble as to bodily health.

I have many other photos of Margery’s parents and siblings, and I will be sharing those eventually. Her father, Joab Sr., apparently had quite the scuffle with a “vicious Indian” at one point in the early 1800’s.

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Let me know in the comments if you connect to Margery (Ward) McKew.

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Bloomingport Livery Stable and Carlos City to Carlos Mystery Solved

J. H. Bales Butter, Eggs, and Poultry Wagon

Other genealogy posts can be found under the Genealogy tab on the toolbar!