WILLIAMS, Lucy

"Lucy Williams, niece of Mrs. Owen"

This photo of Lucy William was located at an outdoor antique fair in Liverpool NY last weekend.  The photo was taken at a photographic studio in Saratoga Springs, NY, circa 1895-1897, The subject appears to be around 15-17 years of age, thus born between 1877-1882. On the back are the handwritten words "Lucy Williams, niece of Mrs. Owen."

A census search on the name Lucy Williams yielded a number of possible contenders who fit the correct age and area. Eventually, it was the clue "niece of Mrs. Owen" that pinpointed the correct individual.

Ancestry.com offered a family tree in which one finds a Lucy Alida Williams (born 1877 in Oswego County NY) to parents William Williams and Mary Nelson.  Mother Mary Nelson had a sister Elizabeth who married Joseph Owen. This Lucy Williams was a niece to Mrs. Owen. Oswego County is the neighboring county to the one in which the photograph was found. So I feel confident that this is the right person who sat for this photograph. Perhaps it was made on the occassion of a visit to Saratoga.

Lucy's mother Mary was born in Manchester England in 1839, and died when Lucy was around 7 years old.

(Click for larger image)

Lucy apparently never married as her headstone still bears her maiden name. She worked as a teacher in a hospital in Yonkers much of her life. When she died in 1960, she was returned to Oswego and buried in the family plot in Riverside Cemetery.