Alfred Webster's photo album

Don't you just love these old photo albums? The embossed surface? The fancy clasps holding it shut? The sheer, weighty heft of them? 

And then, if you're lucky, you open it up and low and behold, the pictures are labeled with names.  Amazing. Now to figure out who these people are and if they have a Bethlehem connection.*

Alfred Webster

The first photo is an older gentleman named Alfred Webster.  We'll get to him in a minute because the real key to figuring out the album are the next two pictures.

It's labeled Alfred Webster father of Olive, Floyd, Raymond & Harold.

On the opposite page is this picture labeled Helen Florine Olmstead m. Alfred Cutler Webster.

A quick hop over to Findagrave and things begin to fall into place. 

Alfred Cutler Webster, 1870-1956, is buried in the Acra (Greene County) Village Cemetery along with his spouse Helen Florine Olmstead Webster, 1870-1942.  Finda lists their children as Floyd James (1896-1982), Raymond Willis (1899-1970) and Harold (1905-1928).  Finda does not have their daughter Olive here. According to the photo album, she married someone named Simpson or Simpkins and I haven't tracked her down. 

Finda lists Alfred's parents as James Leander Webster (1824-1905) and Maria Kniskern Webster (1828-1907).  When I looked up James on Finda, it lists his father as Russel Webster (1783-1870). This is most likely the old man pictured at the front of the album.  I'm thinking the photo was taken near the time of his death in 1870.

Also in the album are Jarvis Webster and The Rev. Erastus Webster. I found an interesting newspaper clipping in the legal case of Erastus Webster vs. Jarvis H. Webster in the case of land owned in Cairo by Russell Webster, deceased.  (Cairo by the way is right next door to Acra - Catskill Recorder Nov. 20, 1874)  I'm thinking these two are sons of Russell.  Check out the family resemblance.

In the album too is this picture of Maria Kniskern - might that be Alfred's mother who was born in 1828 and died in 1907? Probably. 

There are a bunch more labeled pictures in the album related to the Webster and Olmstead family.  But there are two of a man named Oscar Oatman.  In an admittedly quick look, I couldn't find anything about him.  And he looks so handsome in his uniform and with his bowler hat. 

So there you have it, a little exploration of what you can (sometimes!) find out if the pictures have names on them. 

*This little research project happened because I was helping out the registrar of the Bethlehem Historical Association figure out if this album should be accessioned into the BHA collection. I'm the new BHA president in case you didn't know and am officially retired as Town of Bethlehem Historian.