Friday, July 11, 2014

Jane Cox Hadley - Photographed

I was recently contacted by the head of the Randolph County Historical Society in North Carolina. He's conducting a search for original weaving patterns or "drafts" that were created by Jane Cox Hadley between 1835 and 1866. Jane was my 5th great-grandmother.

The existence of the drafts came to light in an article, "Jane Cox: Her Draft for Counterpins" that was published in Interweave (Volume IV, No. 3, Summer 1979).

I knew that Jane was a Quaker and had traveled with her husband and children from North Carolina to Iowa. But that was largely the extent of what I knew. I certainly had no idea that Jane was a weaver, or that her weave patterns would merit publication in a weaving enthusiast publication.

Interweave - Volume IV, No. 3, Summer 1979
When I received a copy of the article, I was pleasantly surprised to see a brief biographical overview of her life. I was particularly struck by a reference to her great-granddaughter's recollection of seeing a photograph of Jane.

I'm always on the hunt for photographs of ancestors. The challenge is to locate those pictures from the 1800s that were passed along to family that are now in the hands (hopefully!) of distant cousins. How exciting - and fortunate - to have written confirmation that there was a photograph of Jane.

With this confirmation, the next challenge is making an attempt to identify descendants who may have the photograph in their collection. Game on!

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