11. The Mystery Lady in the Attic

After my grandfather died in 1971, the house on Delaware Avenue in Youngstown went up for sale.  To prepare for the sale my mother and my sister Anne helped with clearing out the house - deciding what to keep, what to give away, and what to toss.  They found this portrait stored in the attic, but it was a mystery since my mother did not recognize the lady in the portrait and she didn’t remember it hanging on the walls when she was growing up.   It is beautifully framed in an ornate wooden frame and the photograph itself has been enhanced with blue coloring on her eyes, slight pink on her cheeks, and charcoal on her hair.   It is so beautiful that my sister Anne decided to keep it. 

After my sister died, the portrait came to me.  Curiosity took over and I really wanted to know who she was.  She seems young – possibly early 20’s.  I don’t think it is a random portrait that was purchased as art, but more likely a portrait of a family member.  It’s a large wall hanging – 17 inches wide by 19 inches high.  My first thought was maybe this was my great-grandfather’s first wife – Annie McGavin, and that’s why my mother didn’t remember seeing it.  I took the portrait to Maureen Taylor, an expert in dating old photographs to see if she could help date it.   She thought it was taken in the mid-1880s.  Annie McGavin was born about 1873 and would have been around age 12 in 1885, so it didn’t seem very likely that this was Annie.  

I think this may be my great-grandmother, Catherine Donahue.    She was born about 1859 and would have been about 26 in 1885.  If this is my great-grandmother, why wouldn’t my mother have recognized her?  Well…my mother remembered her grandmother as old, thin, with whitish-gray hair.  Catherine was about 40 when my grandfather was born and in her 60s and early 70s while my mother was growing up.  It’s quite possible that she looked very different and unrecognizable from the lady in the portrait.   This is all a theory - I still don’t know if this is my great-grandmother, even though I really want it to be.  I don’t have any pictures of her to compare with this one, so I may never know the answer to this mystery.   

Do you think there is a resemblance to Grandpa Mullen?