BAILEY, Ann and Irving (Irven?)

Aunt Ann Bailey & Irving

UPDATE - this photo of Ann Bailey and her son has been claimed by a relative and is going home!  

This photo was located at an antique shop in upstate New York.  It appears to have been taken around 1895. The photographer's stamp places the location at Granville, New York.

On the back is written "Aunt Ann Bailey & Irving."

There was a Bailey family living about 85 miles away in Coeymans, NY in Albany County, according to the 1900 Federal Census.  That family consisted of parents Irenos (42) and Anna J. (43), as well as children Stanley J. (19), Jerome (18), Irving L. (17), Bolney (sp?) (14) and Bessie (11). The father was occupied as a railroad engineer. The eldest son was a salesman for a market.

The Census states that Irving was born April of 1883.

However, I have come to the conclusion that the name "Irving" is incorrect. The young man's name is actually Irven. The hand-written label on the back of the photo must have been penned by a distant enough relative to have not known the right spelling.

The 1940 Census shows Irven L. Bailey living in nearby Ravena, New York on Pulver Avenue. At that time he is 56 years old and employed as a machinist for the New York Railroad. He has a large family consisting of wife Bertha, six sons, and his 82-yr-old widowed mother Anna J. Bailey.

Irven died in 1967, and is interred at the Chestnut Lawn Cemetery in New Baltimore, Greene County, New York, which is a mere 6 miles away from Ravena.

His older brother Stanley died 3 years before Irven died. He worked his entire life as a machinist with General Electric. Irven, Volney and Bessie are mentioned as surviving siblings in their brother's obituary (at left).

Since all other facts appear to confirm each other, it seems most likely that the name "Irving" on the photograph, and on the 1900 Census, was written in error. The name is spelled "Irven" in every other appearance.