GOULD, Robert & BARBER, Robert (unknown location)

 

Robert Gould
and Robert Barber

IDENTIFICATION ON PHOTO: "Robert Gould holding Robert Barber"

PHOTO TAKEN: unknown location & studio, circa 1914

PHOTO ACQUIRED: 2025 August, Bright's Antique World, Franklin KY

This photograph was sufficiently labeled with the subjects' names, but had no indication of where or when the photo was taken. The names are common enough ones. Still, I decided to acquire the photo and take on the challenge of making an accurate identification of the young boys.

Based entirely on the older boy's shirt collar, the photo can be dated to around 1914. 

The older boy appears to be around 13 years of age, and the younger boy appears to be about 1 year or thereabouts. This would mean birth years would be around 1901 and 1912, respectively.

I always like to go into my research with three known things:

• WHO - meaning the person is identified on the back
• WHEN - year photo was taken, or subject was born
• WHERE - a general idea of where the person lived

With those three "knowns," a starting place can be had. Without them, or even without one of them, the starting place may never be found. Lacking the location meant I might fail in my research.

Find-a-Grave is my usually starting site. I began with Robert Gould as that surname is more unusual than Barber. Searching for Robert Gould born 1901 (give/take 3 yrs) resulted in 25 hits. That's quite a few to wade through.

How certain was I of the 1914 timeframe? Pretty certain. So I adjusted the search parameters to birth year 1901 (give/take 1 yr). This resulted in 11 hits.

Then looking at the memorials for each Robert Gould, and the list of their known relatives, I found what I was looking for;  Robert Kinkade Gould, of Lawrenceville Illinois, born April 8, 1901, had an older sister (Helen Pearl Gould) who married a man named Roy Barber, and that couple had a son named Robert Barber born in 1912.

So in 1914, Robert Kinkade Gould was 13 years old and his nephew and namesake, Robert Barber, was between 1 and 2 years old. Everything seems to fit together perfectly.

I will try to find a known relative to those men, to verify that this photo is indeed images of them, before I add the image to Find-a-Grave. The following newspaper obits for Robert Gould and Robert Barber can be made larger by clicking on them.