I’ve mentioned that brother Jim has been researching our family tree, and posting some old family photos on Ancestry.com. I’d looked at these pictures many a time, and despaired of ever knowing who some of the more interesting ones were. For example, there was this rather portly gentleman.
I knew that he was someone from our father’s side of the family, but not who. I don’t remember any marking on the photo that would identify him, but there were two very interesting things about it. First was his badge. It reads, “Deputy Marshal Porterville”. We had a relative who was a deputy marshal? In Porterville, of all places? (That side of the family is from Missouri.) It was definitely good ol’ Porterville, California, a smallish city north of Bakersfield. It’s labeled Opera House Studio, Porterville, California.
Well, Jim found out that this is our grandmother’s brother James Edward Wilson — our great-uncle. Now I need to know how he wound up marshaling in Porterville!
That’s the fun of genealogy — the stories. And the detective work, of course!
