A few days ago, I posted a little something here about the young lives of my great grandparents Curtis Florian (1892-1977) and Minnie Wise Florian (1892-1981), who were married at the age of 19 in Woodlake, Kentucky, on February 28, 1912. Well, I guess that post of mine inspired my aunt in D.C., who just dug into her archives and photographed the following items for me. Again, I don’t imagine any of this will be of interest to those of you who visit this site to talk about politics and the like, but, on the off chance that humanity survives climate change, nuclear proliferation and Donald Trump, and my children decide, against my advice, to have children of their own, I thought that I’d better upload these images to the digital archive and record them here. [If you’re reading this in the distant future, and you’re a descendant of mine, hello.]
Before we go any further, this is my aunt who sent the following photos. Her name is Betsy, and she’s my father’s much younger half-sister. [They share the same mother, Gladys Florian Phillips, the daughter of Curt and Minnie Florian.] That’s me in Betsy’s lap, so this photo probably would have been taken in either late 1968, or early 1969. To the right of us is Minnie Florian, who we called “Ma”. [In case you’re having trouble following along, Ma Florian was my great grandmother, and Betsy’s grandmother.]
OK, so here are the photos that Betsy just sent. This first one is of the 1912 marriage certificate of Curt Florian and Minnie Wise.
[I find it interesting that it’s not witnessed by my great grandmother’s father, Jefferson Davis Wise, but by her older brother, Grover Cleveland Wise, with whom, according to the 1910 census, she was apparently living prior to her marriage to Curt. On it’s own, I don’t know that it proves anything, but it’s one more piece of data pointing to the very real possibility that Jefferson Davis Wise was a deadbeat dad.]
And here’s the newspaper announcement of my great grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary in 1962, which happened to fall on my father’s 18th birthday. Betsy, who says she can still remember the party, would have been five years old at the time.
And here’s my great grandfather’s obituary from 1977, which confirms, among other things, that his parents were Laura Hutchernson and Oliver (Ollie) Florian.
And here’s my great grandfather with my father, who, for some reason, is carrying a gun. As I believe I’ve mentioned previously on this site, my father, between the ages of 4 and 11, was raised by his grandparents. And it looks to me as though this would have been during that period of his life.
And here’s a better photo of my great grandmother, Minnie Wise Florian.
6 Comments
Love this series, and we’re probably not even related! The pics are really wonderful, and I especially love the portrait of Minnie (and what a great name!). She looks wise in the way of the world, and that’s pretty timeless. Thanks so much for sharing.
Aloha. Your dad carrying his six shooter was pretty common. I thought I was Paladin , wore my six gun everywhere. I thought it was much cooler than the black powder muzzle. loader I carried when I was Davy Crockett. Given the hat I suspect your dad was being Dillinger.
They’re good-looking people.
We’re you adopted?
Let me state for the record that the last comment I posted here was meant as a joke. I know there are some people here that may not have understood that. Please understand that I make a lot of comments on this blog that are solely for purposes of humor and/or sarcasm. The intent is to parody the nastiness so common to anonymous commentary and to play in the irony that a person would come to another person’s blog and proceed to insult them. There is considerable irony in that, for those of you who haven’t heard.
For the record, I find Mark to be a very thoughtful, considerate, individual, of reasonable intelligence and attractiveness.
…not like the rest of you.
Jeff Davis Wise and Rebecca Bramble (Bramell etc) Clark Wise didn’t marry in 1926. I think without looking, married somewhere around time of my mom cause I doubt if many years passed before having a child.om was oldest of this branch….I think mom, there seems to be something amiss. Sylvia Beatrice Wise, their daughter, my mom, was born 1909. Seth Reese Wise, mother Tipton, was mom’s half brother. Minnie, maybe Onan is her mother, was half sister to mom. Mom’s whole sisters Chrystal Dee Wise, Ida Mae Wise (Midway cemetery info) or as Ida Elizabeth or Ada (mom refered to both names Ida and Ada) as this girl was killed in Lexington Fayette co ky by being hit at Fort Springs by an auto driven by a colored man, per newspaper Lexington herald newspaper article and Kirtley (Curtley) Wise. Look at your 1910 census cause I see 1900. Help me understand franniefarris@gmail.com hello to Charles Curtis Maynard cousin no matter what and Betsy Phillips too.