THE 2004 GUELFF GENEALOGICAL EXPEDITION: BORN IN EDEN VALLEY

I first came across a copy of this photo in one of many envelops of loose photos kept in a shoebox in my mother's closet. That version of the photo had nothing written on it. I first saw this version of the photo in July 2004 when visiting my Uncle Richard Christle in Rapid City, South Dakota at the end of the 2004 Genealogical Expedition. Uncle Richard was 95 at the time and had just returned home from having an operation. We saw him again last year on the occasion of his 100th birthday. He is still mentally sharp but has lost a little mobility.

The photo was displayed in an oval cardboard cut out in a frame that was hung from the wall in the living room. Nothing in the house had changed location since the death of Aunt Lucille Bell Christle in late 1983. I noticed the photo and asked Uncle Richard about it. He said it was something Aunt Lucille had bought at a store.  She had never gotten around to replacing the picture that came with the frame. He thought maybe she liked the look of the children and just decided to keep it the way she bought it.

I told him that the group looked familiar. If he wouldn't mind, I would like to take it out of the frame to see if there was anything that might identify them. Lo and behold! Scriveners at work again!

On the face of it, the block capitals could be in the hand of either my mother or Aunt Lucille.  Many of Aunt Lucille's photos, along with most of their belongings, perished in the deadly Black Hills flash flood. A dam burst and washed away their home on the banks of Rapid Creek on June 9, 1972.   More fortunate than the 200 who died, they got out and away just a few minutes ahead of the wall of water.

After the flood, my mother and others sent copies of photos to replace those that were lost. This may have been one of them. On the front of this photo, six of the Guelff children are identified, the younger ones perhaps not yet borne.  Turn it over, sure enough, it looks like Grandma Bell provided some dates and names, but this maybe not as though pasted on the backs of the subjects.   If that were the case, then the front and back names do not match.  The name assignments on the front clearly correspond to the relative ages of the children.  Elizabeth, sitting on the left, is three years older than Regina, sitting on the right.  Elizabeth's feet reach the floor, Regina's do not.  Nick, on standing on the right, is one year older than John Albert, standing on the left.