52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 2 - Favorite Photo

#52Ancestors

This week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge if "Favorite Photo" - that is a tough one!! Because I love all the photos I have of my family and ancestors. 

I guess if I HAVE to pick a favorite I guess I might say this one:

All of my life, I have heard about Dr. Truesdall but that was all I knew.  My grandma used to say her great grandfather was a doctor that and his last name was Truesdall and he came down to Alabama on a horse and buggy from way over "there" - which she thought meant he came from England.

Well..she had part of the story right.  Luckily through Ancestry.com, I was able to connect with a long distant relative that I had never met before, named Garnet Walden.  He had a lot of information on the Segars family and he sent this picture to me.  I'm not sure if he has the original photo or a copy but I was SO THRILLED to get this photo and get some information about "the doctor"

As it turns out...His name was Jeremiah Sidney Truesdall, MD (the tall man with his hand on his hip).  Most documents refer to him as J. Sidney Truesdalle so it seems he went by the first name of Sidney (his father was also Jeremiah Sidney Trusdall so perhaps that is why he went by his middle name).

He was born in New York City, New York on 16 Jan 1836 and he is my 3rd great grandfather (maternal side). 

I found a U.S. Army Register of Enlistments that shows that he enlisted in the Army on 23 Jul 1848.  His age is listed as 16 but he apparently fibbed on that a bit because he was only 13! .  He was 5' 10" (which isn't all that tall by today's standards but from looking at all the other men on the list - his height was the same or slightly taller than the others).  It has his occupation listed but I can't quite make it out - it sort of looks like Musician but I just don't know.  He enlisted in Milwaukee, WI and it was to serve in the Mexican-American War.  What do you think the occupation says?

I found a U.S. Naval Enlistment Redezvous that states that at the age of 28, he enlisted in the Navy.  He enlisted September 1864 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This listed details about him.  At the time his occupation was listed as "Mariner" so I am assuming he became a doctor during the Civil War or perhaps he did both jobs or perhaps he became a doctor after the Civil War.  That part I do not know.

I love the details listed on this form too.  It states he had blue eyes, brown hair was fair completed.   - which shows you how short all the others in the photo must be - haha - now I know where we get it from!

From my research, I found that he served in Georgia during the Civil War, at this time, he met and fell in love with a Southern Belle, Georgia A. Seagars.  She is the lady in the middle, with her hands folded and is my 3rd great-grandmother.  She was blind but it isn't known for sure if she was blind from birth or became blind later in life.

After the Civil War, he returned to the North but he wanted to be with Georgia, so he hitched up his horse and buggy (see my grandma had some of the info right) and he rode all the way down to Georgia to get her. They married and moved to Alabama and raised a family there and this is where the photo is believe to have been taken - on their farm in Geneva Alabama.  It is a romantic story. 💕

The others in the photo are their children from left to right..Cornelia (Nealy), Frances (Fannie) - my 2nd great grandmother, Crandall (with the bow tie), Georgia, Katie and then J. Sidney.  There was another son, Hiram but he had some trouble with the law and served time in prison for embezzlement of postal funds (he was a US Postmaster).

So this may be my favorite photo (even though I love them all) because once I got it, I finally knew what Dr. Truesdall , MD looked like along with the rest of his family (I already had a photo of Fannie - my 2nd great grandmother).  I got to know a lot more about this family after receiving the photo.

Wouldn't it have been great to be able to sit around the fire and listen to him tell stories?