Pictures Mislead--Jean Was Right

Letters from Jean's files show that her account of her birth and Ada and William's golden wedding anniversary was right.  Marjorie and I were trying to piece a coherent account together based on my memory of Jean's account and available photographs.  .  We weren't sure when the anniversary was, but we now know it was August 6, 50 years from the wedding in August 6, 1885.

Here's the

photograph showing the family assembled for the anniversary.  Note my mother.  At this point she's close to  9 months pregnant, but does it really show? Jean was born 4 days after this picture was taken.  This letter from Ralph to Gertrude confirms the timing, and the fact that her pregnancy was a surprise.

She and dad had been married almost 16 years (they married on August 21, 1919) and as far as we know this was her first pregnancy (age 37).  Jean speculated that the lingering effects of dad's lead poisoning accounted for the late birth.