When Was That?

Grandpa and Babies Photo

Todays photo has an exact date and photographers imprint, and two of the three subjects are identified. Our goal is to see if we can identify the third subject, simply referred to as ‘grandpa’ in the inscription.

Here is the image, a cabinet card, showing front and back:

As you can see, the photographer’s imprint is on front:

B Nauschuetz, No. 221 Sharer Street, San Antonio, Texas.

On back is the inked inscription:

Grandpa & babies
Allie Lee Weatherly
5 yrs and 14 days
Sydney Morrill Radliff
3 yrs 1 mo. 24 days
When Taken
Dec 14 - 1898

New Years Eve

That ‘New Years Eve’ is embraced in curlicues, and probably represents the date of the actual inscription, though that inscription informs us that the image was actually taken a couple weeks earlier.

So we have two young children, each with different surnames, and their grandfather. To find him, we simply have to find the children in the 1900 census, just two years later. But neither Allie Weatherly nor Sydney Radliff are listed in the census index. So we broaden our search.

A genealogy shows Allie Lee Weatherly born 3 Dec 1893 - San Antonio, Texas, parents Alexander J Weatherly and Ida Bell Radcliff. That certainly matches our information well, though we suspect right off that Ida Bell’s last name was Radliff, not Radcliff. The mistake could be in the photo inscription (which clearly lacks the ‘c’ — but more likely it is the genealogy that is wrong.

Continuing with that genealogy, we find Ida’s parents:

Alexander J Weatherly
Born: 1861-12-00 Tennessee
Died: 1895-07-16 San Antonio, Texas

Ida Bell Radcliff of Alonzo Radcliff (1833-) and Sarah Hutton (1838-1895)
Born: 1861-10-03 Warnerville, NY
Died: 1912-09-09 San Antonio, Texas

So we know Allie Lee Weatherly’s father was already dead by the time the picture was taken. The genealogy also tells us that Allie married Edgar William Boyd and they had three children, and was married to Lyle Metcalf, though it isn’t clear which marriage came first. Further details are suppressed to protect the privacy of living individuals. Two siblings are shown for Ida Bell Radcliff: Menzo Radcliff (1866-) and John Emery Radcliff (1868-1886).

So how about little Sydney Morrill Radliff, what can learn of him? Since John Radliff was dead long before he was born, he is most likely the son of Menzo Radliff, Ida Bell’s brother.

In the 1910 census for 1910 census Teague, Freestone, Texas we find:

M J Radliff 46
Sallie M Radliff 34
Sydney M Radliff 14

The M J Radliff could well be Menzo, but we would like further confirmation of that. Then in the 1930 census for Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas we find that confirmation, but finding Menzo listed with Sallie M again, even though by that time Sydney was out of the household.

Menzo D Radliff 64 NY NY NY married at age 27
Sallie M Radliff 54 TX TX TX married at age 18

So now we know Sydney Radliff and Allie Weatherly share one grandfather in common, Alonzo Radliff. Indeed, when we search for him in the 1900 census, we find not only his daughter and granddaughter in the same household, but his son and grandson nearby, and even the photographer, Bruno Nauscheutz!

We know from the imprint that Nauscheutz’s gallery was at 221 Sharer Street, San Antonio, Texas. In the 1900 census for that city, we find Bruno Nauscheutz, Photographer living at 221 Sharer Street with his wife and son, Alonzo Radliff living at 209 Sharer Street with his daughter ‘Ida Wetherly’ and granddaughter ‘Allie L Wetherly’ — those should, of course, be Weatherly. Next we find, at 203 Sharer Street, a Radliff household, though the head of household’s first name and sex has been crossed out. Listed in the index as ‘Sarah Rudloff’ the rest of the information for this person matches what we know of Menzo Radliff, and is listed with his wife Sallie (they have been married six years) and son Sydney, born Oct 1895.

The men in these families seem to have been railroad workers. Menzo is listed in the city directories in the early 1890s as a Fireman, first for G H & S A Railway in 1891, then for S P railroad in 1893 and 1894. Each of those directories shows a different household address for Menzo, but the 1894 one is 203 Sharer Street, the same as in the 1900 census. By the time of that census Menzo is listed as Railway Engineer, and Alonzo, at age 65, is a watchman.

Alonzo Radliff was still living at the time of the 1920 census in San Antonio, though we find no later mention of him. Allie may (or may not) be the same as the Allie Boyd listed in the SSI death index as having died Apr 1967 in Seguin, Texas. Sydney Radliff died in Jul 1982 in Fort Worth, Texas.