Home Sources--The Key to Discovering Mattie Culver's Past
Napkin Rings
These three napkin rings help define family relationships. They were located at a home in Spokane, Washington where Mattie's sister's family, the Alstons, resided. Following Mattie's death, daughter Theda was raised in the Alston household. Mattie's mother, Elizabeth Shipley, also spent the last years of her life with the Alston family group.
The surviving trio of rings show the importance of generational movement.
Mattie's Autograph Book
Autograph books were a way of exchanging messages, sentiments and remembrances. Mattie's book made its way to the Alston home in Spokane. This home source was instrumental in locating Mattie's family, friends and movements from her early days as a mill worker in textile industry of New York and Massachusetts.
Family Members
Two important family members to sign Mattie's book were her older brother William and younger sister Lida.
William's thoughts are instructional and show a powerful influence he had on his sister.
Family Members
Lida's entry is beautifully penned and suggests that the two sisters might not always be in the same location.
Home Source Images and Newspapers
Compare and Identify
Comparing photos from home sources and newspapers helped to identify Mattie's daughter Theda and niece Grace. This image of the cousins was compared to home sources that identified Grace, who is on the right.
Theda is several years younger than Grace. Both girls had photos in the Spokane newspaper at the time they graduated from high school.
AI Technology at Work
This image of Theda from a Spokane, Idaho newspaper, pictured all the graduates from the school year. This is the best resolution.
I used an AI generator to produce a life like photo based on the newspaper image.
Although the face shape is not quite the same as the newspaper version, this is close to what Theda may have looked like.
Please do not share this image. It is meant only as a reference to what Theda, Mattie's daughter may have looked like.
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