Great Great Grandfather

We had fun over the holidays looking at old family photos and fussing over genealogy. My mother's sister had done quite a bit of work on recording who begat who on the family tree and had developed a 'fan' chart of known ancestors that we were recreating. We were trying to match the old photos to some of the 'newer' names on the chart.

My mother's family had lived in Pennsylvania since the 1700s and we can trace the paternal line back to one Hans Thomas Kurr, born in 1717 in Germany and coming to America in 1737 on the boat "Princess Augusta." Hans' great grandson is my great great grandfather, William Kurr (1825-1884) shown below in a picture that must have done him proud:

So I know you are asking, because I did myself, why there appears to be graffiti on the picture. William seems to have been 'drawn' a beard, as opposed to the more traditional manner of, you know, actually growing one himself. And his coat, for that matter, appears to have been drawn on in the picture as well??? Evidently William had always had a nice beard but had shaved it off and then requested that the photographer fill it back in on the finished photo. We know this because there is a receipt, somewhere in the family archives, from the photographer stipulating the charge for this request. Unfortunately there is no explanation as to why. No indication, either, about whether he was satisfied with the result.

Maybe he had a weak chin.

Other than that, he looks a decent sort, wouldn't you say?

(To be continued...)