Week 2 - A favorite photo - Yaw family

I have to admit, there are way too many favorite photographs in my possession to pick just one. So instead, I will choose one that intrigues me.

This picture is of my great - great grandmother Lois Yaw Harris.

Lois was the youngest of the 17 children (15 living to adulthood) and was born 22 Oct 1839 in Clarksburg, Massachusetts, daughter of Pardon and Sylvia (Bliss) Yaw. She is pictured with her sisters and is in the back row, left. We know that standing next to her is her sister Lydia and in the front row, center is her sister Lucina. The others were Lucinda, Silvia and Bethia.

Her brothers Pardon, Freeman, Jacob, Brayton, Theodore, Henry, Noah, Johnathon, Benjamin, Joseph rounded out the family - although there were two boys who died as infants.

All six sisters spent time in Galien, Berrien County, Michigan although two traveled on to Wisconsin and Nebraska. What would have put them all together for a picture? Because someone was moving on? A death? I will probably never know the answer, but you can see in their faces that life was not totally easy. Their parents stayed in Massachusetts and only the girls and three brothers came to Michigan. Two sons stayed in Massachusetts and the others scattered to Wisconsin, Iowa and Virginia.

Lois married Ebenezer Harris 30 Sept 1854 in Clarksburg, Massachusetts. Their first child was a son Wesley, born 12 Feb 1856 in Clarksburg.  Two years later he died on 5 April 1858 after his parents arrived in Michigan. A second son was born in 1857 and died in 1859. Two more children Clarinda and Norman were born and died over the next couple of years.  After a break of five years, daughter Lillian Harris and then a son Clyde Harris were born in 1867 and 1878 respectfully. I descend from Lillian.  A hard life, but hopefully a fulfilling life in the end.

Barbie





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