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GEORGE ALBERT ERB (1878-1960) and One of his Grandmothers George was the son of Simon Clemens Erb (1848-1905) and Charlotte Brighton. Simon was a printer who died in a bicycle accident. George was born in Waterloo Co., Ontario, Canada and grew up to be a barber there. He and his wife Hannah Parker had no children of their own, but raised two adopted children. The photo appears to have been taken about 1886, when George was 8 years old. |
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| Photo courtesy of Donald Emmons | ||
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The identity of the grandmother in this picture is unclear:
The photo came into the possession of Frances Matilda Erb, George's sister, about 1890. She passed it on to David and Alma Jones Fry who have identified the lady in question as George's maternal grandmother "Martha Clemens Brighton". But the Frys provide only her name and the comment that "she would have been about 72" when the photo was taken. Another source, with considerable collateral information about siblings and parents, indicates that Charlotte Brighton's mother was not Martha Clemens, but instead Amy Willson (1819-1894). Amy was born in England and immigrated to Ontario in 1829 with her parents where she married John Brighton, another immigrant from England. She was 72 in 1891 when George was 13 -- but the boy in the picture looks younger than 13. To further complicate matters, George's paternal grandmother was Mary M. Clemens (1814-1893), and the woman in the photo may have been doubly misidentified as Martha Clemens, Charlotte's mother, when she really was Mary Clemens, Simon's mother. Mary would have been 72 in 1886 when George was 8 -- and the boy in the picture does look to be about 8. Whoever this lady was, she was a person of considerable gravitas. It would be nice if some Brighton or Willson or Clemens researcher could help to identify her. |
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Go here to judge for yourself the facial resemblances between the unidentified grandmother and several of her descendants Go here to see a picture of George's mother Charlotte, his sister Mary Ann, and his niece Annie. Go here for the family tree of George Albert Erb. |
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| © John Larkins 2000. Last update: 22 Feb 2000 | |
jhlarkins@msn.com
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