Photographs Collecting Dust

Several weeks ago, I was at an estate sale and noticed a box of photographs. A rapid count showed almost one hundred photos, with less than twenty with any identifying writing on them. After working out a buying price, I found myself in possession of this box of left-behind photographs. Now, I was on the road to rediscover who these people were.

Estate worker Andrea Brindisi holding the box of photograps that inspired this blog post. Andrea was a great help in my obtaining these photographs.

The estate was that of Dr. Robert Ottman, who died in 2022. He had survived his wife, Margaret Roseboom Ottman, who died in October 2018. As far as I am able to research, they had no children I could find. No mention of children was made in either of their short obituaries. Dr. and Mrs. Ottman lived and worked in the Utica, N.Y. area since about 1957 when Dr. Ottman set up his Podiatrist practice there. Dr. Robert Ottman was born in Schenectady, N.Y., in 1931. His parents were Acker Ottman and Ruth E. Brown. Robert was to grow up an only child.

Acker Ottman at 13 months.

Acker Ottman was born in Schenectady, N.Y. in 1904. He graduated from Union College in 1925. He was a member of the tennis team, and the local newspapers covered many of his matches. Acker worked for the New York Telephone Co., which included working out of Utica, N.Y. In 1927, Acker married Ruth Brown. Acker was to die at the young age of 52 in 1956.

Ruth Emerson Brown

Ruth Brown was born in 1907 in Schenectady, N.Y., to her parents, Herbert Brown and Edith Kimball. Herbert Brown was born in Canada and moved to the U.S. with his parents and seven siblings sometime after 1891.

Acker Ottman and Ruth Brown Ottman. Christmas 1931.

Ruth and Acker only had one child, Robert, in 1931. With Robert being an only child and with him not having any children, I was beginning to see why these photographs may have been left behind.

Herbert Brown father of Ruth Brown and brother to Garnett Brown.

As I said, Ruth’s father, Herbert Brown, was born in Canada and moved to the U.S. He married Edith Kimball in 1904. In my research, I have found that they also only had one child, Ruth.

Garnett Brown. Photograph taken sometime before May 1918.

I found a photograph of Garnett Brown, one of Herbert’s many siblings. Garnett was born in Canada like his brother but moved to the United States with the rest of his family. Garnett enlisted in the U.S. Army during the First World War. I found a newspaper that listed 69 names and what happened to them under the headline Casualty List. For Garnett Brown, it stated that he died in an accident. I researched this a little more and found the records that show he was killed in an explosion in France.  

A cold typewritten record of a man’s death on a government form. An unfinished life.

According to the above record, Garnett’s mother was the one to receive the awful news. This sad tale’s record is stamped on the back May 15, 1918, just a few days past Mother’s Day. I have found no records of Garnett being married or having children. It is uncertain if his father was alive at the time of his death, so at the very least, his mother had to suffer this great loss.

As I said earlier, it was not long into my research of this family when I realized that one strong reason for the pictures gathering dust was that it appeared that no direct descendants were ever alive to carry on the family lines and history. I sought out family trees posted on ancestry.com but did not find any with direct lines to the people identified in the photographs. I did send out a few inquiries and did get one reply from a distant relative. They made a kind offer to post on their family tree some of the pictures. I am hopeful that perhaps through this blog post, a more direct descendant will make themselves known. I have traced seven family lines back to the early 1800s so that I may get lucky.