There were three brothers. Actually there were several more than three but these three ran together separated by only a few years. They were born in Georgia and went to Texas together and ended up in Natchitoches and Robaline Louisiana as merchants and lumbermen. Here are 2 of the brothers. The one on the right was either my great-great grandfather or my great-great uncle. Slowly whittling down the clues. For now I call him Mustache-man-McCook.

This Is my great, great grandmother, Kate Ward. There is a discrepancy as to when she was born in Arkansas. Her tombstone in Mindon LA says 1860, which would have meant she was married at 13 and had her first child at 14. So I will trust the census which has her birth closer to 1857 or 1856. Those 3-4 years would make a huge difference in her story I imagine. In 1860 she lived with her mother, Rebecca, and her two brothers, John and Lafayette, who were 17 and 10 respectively. Her father was not on the census and as I follow her through the records, he never reappears. Perhaps he died in the war? So I don't have her father's name yet or know what happened to him. Ten years later, Lafayette is gone from the family unit and they have moved to El Dorado Arkansas. John, now 27, works as a printer and I guess supports his mother and sister in a hotel where they live. Three years later Kate marries my great great grandfather, George English, who is 10-13 years her senior. Did they meet at the hotel?  He is living in New Orleans in 1870 but perhaps he was traveling? They met and married in 1873 in Arkansas and had their first child, Nora Douglass English, a year later. Unfortunately she died when only 2 years old.  In 1877  their 2nd and only other child was born, George Carlisle English, my great grandfather. They were living in Minden LA then and George Sr. worked as a telegraph operator. It is where they were buried, perhaps because the daughter had already been buried there.

It is 20 years later on the 1900 census where I catch up with them again and now they have made it to Natchitoches, LA where my father grew up. On the census, the occupation is commercial traveler. He precedes Kate in death just a year later at the youthful age of 53. She lives on another 30 years and dies in 1931 somewhere between 71 and 74 years old living not with her son but in a household of names I don't recognize.

For my composite image, I put her on the beach. She would be about 25-30 years old in this photo. My uncle took the turkey picture in his backyard recently as the male turkeys were strutting about in full plumage and regalia. The wood duck hat is from my mother's archive.  They are not worried about the ominous clouds, the storm has come through already. So I show them here as they rest in calm formality and we are happy to meet them.

His daughter wanted a better picture. Something showing her father in a more colorful and less stark setting: an image she didn't have to squint at to see his handsome visage.  His name was Joe Ray Fowler, born in 1929 in Winston-Salem, NC.  Died in Durham, NC in 2001.  He was a career solider, Army (82nd  Airborne paratrooper at Ft Bragg) and had 3 children. His daughter described him as "True Blue Carolina Boy", so the the historic Grove Park Inn became the appropriate backdrop.
 
From 2 small photos  taken when he was stationed in Nuremburg, Germany in the early 60’s to the larger and more colorful picture of a dapper man. From a photo album snapshot to a frame-able portrait to enjoy.