Every so often I check Google Images to see what sort of new Henritze images are out there. Most of them are recent photographs labeled with some particular Henritze’s name. This older style photograph was different and so it caught my eye. Several branches of the Henritze family were in Welch, West Virginia around the turn of the last century, including Harriett Beatrice Henritze born in 1890 in Virginia.
Harriett Beatrice Henritze Wallace 1890-1975
Exploring further, led me to this eBay offering:
It tracks that in 1903 Hattie was in Welch, West Virginia. According to Grace Henritze’s notes, her father Samuel Buchanan Henritze died there in 1902. I haven’t found a grave stone or burial record yet. The family was enumerated in Brown’s Creek, McDowell Co., West Virginia in 1900.
By 1910 they had moved to Roanoke, Virginia. The caption seems off, in 1903, she would have been 13 years old, not yet married to John Clarke Wallace, whom she married in 1913. I want to know what the back of this photograph looks like, and why the year seems reasonable but the name is off. Had someone labeled it mid-century?
Further exploration on eBay brings up another much more indepth link, Vintage Photo Harriet Henritze Wallace Welch WVa 1903 Hand Colored 3 X 4.
This helps explain the naming issue in contrast to the 1903 date. Further on within the website more information is given about the seller, AJ’s Antiques in Christiansburg. Christiansburg is 35 miles from Roanoke. Harriett’s three children died in 1987, 2000 and 2008. I am fairly certain the last child had no children and was the last of the family. Her nieces and nephews probably had their own copies of this photograph made in 1976, so none of them needed their aunt’s copy. Still I wonder.
How could this possibly help in genealogical research? It narrows down the time, anything with a date and place between census years cuts down the time to be reviewed in newspapers, deed books, court records, etc. for more information about the whole family.
2 Comments
anne blackwell March 02, 2016
Would love to buy a copy of this photo of Hattie Henritze Wallace. My Husband and I(4 kids)live in the home in Roanoke that she built with her husband, John Wallace. Our records indicate that the home will be 100 in 2020.We have lived here for almost 22 years and had the pleasure to know Miss Ruby Henritze who lived next door to us on Mill Mountain until she passed away.
Thank you, Anne Blackwell
Pat Bolan February 15, 2017
This was my grandmother on my birth-father’s side! As my mother remarried and we lived in another state, I didn’t spend much time with Grandma Hattie. Last time I saw her was probably around 1956-ish, when I was about 8. I am at this moment wearing the only relic I have of her – a silver pin with her initials.