Back in 2008 we saw this cool photo album in an antique shop in Columbia, South Carolina, I had heard about people who rescue old photos and then search to reunite them with the descendants, I had to buy it. So after all these years I am not going to try very hard in writing this article, I want to list the facts and get it online so I can refer to it on RootsWeb boards and such.Merge3

Now I have been carting it around with me all these years, kicking myself because I don’t make the time to find it a home.

I found a book written by Charles Frederick Robinson, one of the men in the photos, called the Weld Collections it is a Genealogy of the family that was published in 1938 here to read it at FamilySearch. They also have a supplement done by a guy in 1984 here. Maybe these will help someone discover if they are related.

 

We are looking to find a new owner for this antique collection of photographs-

album

 

This album seems to have been created for “cabinet card” type prints, each page is a sleeve with a slot to insert a print for display.

It has 17 photos, 9 of them with no names but with some hints like the city of the photographer

 

I call it the Weld Album but there are other surnames of course:

 

  • Albert H. Weld – on back “AH Weld Cohocton 52 years old” in fountain pen, in the same hand as note on wife’s photo
  • Mrs Larissa Weld (Larissa Haight is what I found in RootsWeb WorldConnect trees and it looks like Larissa in the 1880 census) – back of the photo is written “Mrs AH Weld Cohocton NY” in fountain pen, same hand as note on Albert’s photo
  • G. E. Robinson (possibly-hard to read) –  60 yrs 9 months Dec 1891
  • Will Coff – Some previous owner wrote Will Coff on an album sleeve (the photo could have changed slots over the years, or may not be in the book at all anymore)
  • Annie M. Sanborn – written on the back and 1892-17 (Found at WorldConnect, Emily Weld Sanborn’s daughter Annie Maud born in 1874 )
  • Aunt Vina or Vira Weld – Some previous owner wrote Aunt Vina Weld on an album sleeve (could have changed slots over the years, or may not be in the book at all anymore) (Maybe Vira Weld? Albert had a sister Alvira who was unmarried at 23 in the 1860 census in Charlestown, Mass, she was still a servant in the house in 1900, a spinster) the back of the pic looks like a date NOV?? ’89)
  • Henry Robinson ? – Some previous owner wrote on the album page Heny Robinson, maybe this is Maurice Henry Robinson the nephew of Albert Weld born in Meredith NH
  • Charles Frederick Robinson b1866 d1932 – Nephew of Albert H. Weld and Author of Weld Collections
  • WILD guess – Frank Henry Weld son of Albert and his wife Alma Meskimons Only because I found them in a census at San Bernardino, CA and the photographer was CL Sears in San Bernardino

Other names written on the sleeves with NO pictures in them:

Mrs. Joseph Robinson, Aunt Liza

Victoria Robinson

Mrs. Frank Robinson

Frank Robinson

Josephine Robinson

Charles Robinson

Henry Robinson

George Robinson

Ed Plummer

Linnie Mudget Plummer
(all the writing on the sleeves is in the same pen and handwriting)

 

Photographer Locations:

Laingsburg, MI  (Laingsburg Village, Sciota, Shiawassee, Michigan)

Boston, Mass.

Meredith, N.H.

Laconia, N.H. (near Meredith)

Charlestown, Mass.  (across the river from Boston)

Bath, N.Y.

Bristol, N.H.

Lakeport, NH

Lake Village, NH

Hanover, NH

San Bernardino, CA

 

Places the family lived that I have found in my research:

Hometown of Albert H. Weld – Cohocton, Steuben Co., New York

Syracuse, N.Y.

San Bernardino, CA

Boothbay, Lincoln, Maine

Wellesley, Norfolk County, Massachusetts

Guilford, Windham, VT

Charlton, Worcester, Mass

Albert H. Weld his wife and 17 other Welds buried at the Maple View Cemetery in Cohocton, Steuben Co., New York

 

What the heck was this photo album doing in South Carolina? I have no clue.

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