SURPRISE PHOTOS OF MY GREAT UNCLE AND AUNT FROM A FELLOW GENEALOGIST

       GREAT Uncle Arthur Wright and Aunt Melinda (McCormick) Wright, seen in circa 1895 photo. They were married in 1879.

I have found that genealogists in general are a fraternal bunch. We literally wet our pants over the penetration of brick walls and unanticipated research discoveries. We not only doggedly trace ancestry, but with rare exceptions we share a common inclination, or willingness, to share findings with equally like-minded and keen history and genealogical buffs.

With almost 25 years of conducting family research under my belt and membership in a number of historical societies and ancestor branch groups, not to mention DNA testing that has taken on a life of its own, I have made countless friends and exchanged bundles of information and priceless photographs.

It is this giving and taking spirit, coupled with occasional peer acknowledgment, that is the icing on the cake for a genealogist.

Possible wedding photo of Arthur
(with hair) and Melinda Wright
taken in 1879.

This past week I engaged in an interesting dialogue on the Essex County Branch of Ontario Ancestors  Facebook group site with a chap by the name of Rick McCormick. He is a resident of St. Catharines, a dedicated family tree researcher and host of an impressive McCormick family web site. It just so happened that Rick had discovered a number of Wrights in his ancestral mix, a fact that I was well aware of -- a brother (Arthur) of my grandfather Wesley Wright having married a McCormick in 1870 and the daughter (Deborah) of my great, great grandfather Philip Wright having exchanged marital vows with another McCormick much earlier, in 1820.

Several other Wright/McCormick marriages would follow throughout the 1800s in the small, relatively tight-knit Essex County pioneer settlement of Colchester South on the Detroit River, giving Rick and I reason for follow-up communication. The bonus for me coming when he sent me two photographs of the aforementioned great uncle Arthur Wright and his wife Melinda Jane McCormick, circa 1880 and 1895 (see above). Rick originally obtained copies of the photos, along with other records, from the extensive files of the HEIRS group in Harrow.

The photographs were particularly well-received by me because heretofore the oldest image of any Wright ancestor in my collection was of grandfather Wes, undoubtedly taken at the time of his marriage to grandmother Louise Reddick in 1896 (see below). It was the third marriage for my grandfather, his previous two wives having passed away at extremely young ages. Wrights were low-key by nature and obviously camera shy.

Arthur and Melinda lived out their lives on a family farm in the Colchester area while Wesley left farm life after the death of his 18-year-old first wife, Mary Klie, and moved on to Dresden in 1877.  

Upon receipt of the photos I reciprocated with three sheets of relative lineage, complete with birth, marriage and death dates, to help Rick fill in gaps on his already substantial family tree.

As I say, experiences such as this are the periodic payoff for untold hours of mind-numbing research and sleepless nights on a computer documenting it all. Only a bonafide genealogist would appreciate that fact.

Grandparents Louise and Wesley Wright in a photo taken soon after their wedding in 1896.
*If interested you can view further Wright family history at https://mywrightstory.blogspot.com/