Ila Mae and Doris Virginia Swartz, Rochester, New York 1922

"Doris Virginia Swartz
at the age of four months"

This is a Real Photo Postcard of 4-month-old Doris Swartz and her lovely mother, Ila Mae. 

Ila Mae Smith was born in New York on May 9th, 1902 to parents William and Dora Smith. At age 18 she married 34-year-old James Cleveland Swartz, Jr., in Cattaraugus, New York. He worked various jobs in his life, including as a molder in a foundry and as a carpenter. Doris was the first of their children together. She was born just a few days before her mother's birthday on May 6th, 1922 in Rochester, New York. 

In the following years, Doris gained 3 siblings: Frances Leona (b. 1923), Norman Stoney (b. 1927), and Duane Richard (b. 1938). 

Just like her mother, Doris was married at age 18. She married 32-year-old Max Floyd Mann in 1941. Over the course of their 53-year marriage, Doris and Max had 7 children. Doris's obituary notes that at the time of her death, she had 30 grandchildren, 58 great-grandchildren, and 10 great-great grandchildren.

Doris Mann passed away in Arizona in 2008 at age 85. 

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Sarah Parsons Bascom, New Haven, Connecticut 1890s

"Mrs. Horace Bascom
Aug 1890"

The woman in these two photographs is labeled as both "Sallie Parsons Bascom" and "Mrs. Horace Bascom." The portraits were probably taken a few years apart- the first in August 1890 (when she was 49), and the second sometime in the mid to late 1890s based on her large sleeves. I knew she must have been somewhat well-off based on her fashionable clothes and the fact that she was able to have 2 formal portraits done so close together.

Sarah Elizabeth Parsons was born in Massachusetts in 1841 to parents Justus Smith Parsons and his wife, Mindwell.  Sarah was the youngest of their 3 children and had 2 older brothers, Charles and Henry. 

"Sallie Parsons Bascom"

On January 4th, 1871, 29-year-old Sarah married Horace Sheldon Bascom in Huntington, Massachusetts. Horace was a dentist from Southampton. He had studied dentistry in Batavia, New York before returning home to Massachusetts. After Sarah and Horace’s marriage, the couple settled in New Haven, Connecticut, where he continued to practice dentistry. They had 3 daughters: Bessie (born 1876), Jessie (born 1878), and Helen (born 1879). Also living with them in 1880 were Horace’s mother, Betsy, and a 22-year-old servant, Mary Parker.

In 1900, the Bascoms held the wedding of their daughter, Jessie, in their home on College Street. According to the Morning-Journal Courier, the front parlor was filled with palms, ferns, and white roses as Jessie married John Henry Hill.

The youngest Bascom daughter, Helen, decided to follow in her father's footsteps and attended Pennsylvania Dental College. In 1902,  she was granted a license to practice dentistry in the state of Connecticut. She would go on to marry a fellow dentist, Fred Strong Frary, in 1909.

Their eldest daughter, Bessie, also married a doctor, Dr. William P. Lang, in 1910.

Sarah Parsons Bascom passed away at home in September 1904 at the age of 62. Her brief obituary notes that funeral services were held in the home before she was buried in Southington, (though I believe they mean "Southhampton") Massachusetts. Horace followed her in May 1908 at age 63. 

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