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Monday, February 1, 2016

Example of how easy to misidentify Ancestors Pictures/Cobb & Bletzacker

Pictures of the COBB brothers Charles and  Fremont who married
HEPWORTH sisters Emma and 'Jennie' and a younger man
Frank BLETZACKER who married the youngest child of
Mary and Thomas; Alice HEPWORTH
This is a perfect example of misidentifying an Ancestor's picture. This is on the HEPWORTH line. And yes, I know I did say that this year (2016) I was going to leave the HEPWORTH line and start blogging about the TOMLINSON/WHERRETT line.  But, this is to good to ignore.
First, a little background on these three handsome fellows.  Fremont and Charles COBB are brothers who married HEPWORTH sisters; Charles married my second great-aunt Emma who was the sixth child of Thomas and Mary HEPWORTH.  Fremont married Jane Elizabeth who was number eight of  the thirteen children of Thomas and Mary.
 Frank Bletzacker married the youngest child (No. 13) Alice.
It was Fremont COBB and Frank BLETZACKER that was identified incorrectly in my personal file of pictures that was given to me some years ago. You can see how easily that could happened.
Frank was born eleven years after Fremont and yet how similar their mustaches were and they do resemble one another.  Of course Frank having on a hat makes it more difficult to see the difference at a glance.  Frank's picture is cropped from his wedding picture (with Alice by his side) so I do know it was taken in 1894 in Salt Lake City.
How I found the discrepancy is because I have posted my tree on Ancestry.com and frequently look at the 'hints' that are posted for each ancestor.    A direct descendant of Fremont COBB and Jane HEWORTH (aka Jennie) also has a tree on Ancestry.com and the author posted the picture of his great grandfather Fremont Cobb. Doing research on the COBB line I discovered what this distant cousin had posted.   I quickly found the picture I had on file that was labeled as Frank BLETZACKER and realized what a mistake it would have been had I posted Frank's picture and it was truly Fremont COBB.
Golden Rule of Genealogy #2:  Never assume something you don't personally know.  Check it out!
Verify Verify Verify. 

In a few days I will post the rest of the story.  It's about how Fremont was accused of murder in 1906. And more interesting 'stuff.'  Stay tuned.  

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