Yes, the image above is exactly what you think it is. The long sought after photo of Jeanette Augusta Meier on her wedding day wearing the veil that 48 brides in my sister-in-law's family wore on their wedding day. My SIL and her mother had created a very special scrap/story/photo book that contained photos or portraits with family narratives of each bride with one exception. They were missing a photo of Jeanette Augusta Meier.
After exhausting resources available to me online, I reached out to every Jewish Genealogical or Historical Society, I blogged about it, I put it on Facebook, Google+, Twitter and the word got out.
It was a member of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon, Sura Rubenstein, who heard about the hunt for the photo, located the image above and sent me an email. The link Ms. Rubenstein sent me was from the NewsBank website. I didn't have a subscription so all I could do at that point was view the image. The University of Oregon Libraries website hosts the Historic Oregon Newspapers website and it is there I found the image above.
Not only is it a full-length photo of Jeanette Meier wearing the veil, notice if you will that her attendants are also pictured framing Jeanette's photo. They are all cousins of the bride except for the maid of honor who is her sister-in-law. What an unexpected bonus!
Noting that the publication was "The Sunday Oregonian", I was curious why in all my searching through the Portland, Oregon historical newspapers online, I missed this. My best guess is because the caption under Jeanette's photo appears "handwritten," not like the typeset of the rest of the paper and perhaps the OCR didn't pick this up. Or perhaps my search was too narrow, focusing only on the "Oregonian." Had I done a little more research on newspapers from Portland, Oregon, I would have found that the publication had quite a few different names: "The Sunday Oregonian," "The Morning Oregonian," "The Weekly Oregonian" and "The East Oregonian."
The scrapbook is now completed and will accompany the veil as it continues to be passed down through generations of brides. My sincere appreciation to everyone in helping to make this simple, but very special wish come true.
Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, OR
What a great story b
ReplyDeleteI am so happy to hear that a photograph has been found!
ReplyDeleteCool!
ReplyDeleteWoo hoo! This is the perfect ending (for now) to the story!
ReplyDeleteWhere did Sura hear about your search?
ReplyDeleteJanice - Sura is a member of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon. It was one of the first places I contacted looking for the photo.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Sheri! Such a great find. All the best to you in the new year.
ReplyDeleteThat is just the perfect photo montage to add to the scrapbook. So glad you found it. Talk about epic search!
ReplyDelete