Sometimes the proof of a particular lineage takes some unusual twists in the road and may not always be found in the usual sort of places.
One of my ancestors was Christiana Hill, the daughter of John Hill and Mary Hunter, and the wife of George Brinton. Their daughter Jane married Joseph Trimble and the had six daughters, one of which was Harriet who was quite handy with a needle. Two pieces of her needlework have been handled down through my mother’s family for many, many years, coming to rest in my house some years back. One of these is a sampler done in 1810; the other is a rather odd piece, at least by today’s standards.
Trimble Needlework
Yes, it is a picture of a girl leaning on a gravestone. Harriet’s initials, HBT, appear in the lower left corner of the piece, actually painted on reverse side of the glass covering the piece, and the date of 1818 appears on the right. As Harriet is not my direct line ancestor, I don’t really need to prove her lineage from Christiana, but if I did, this picture would work to do so, as can be seen more easily in the close-up view of the work.
Needlework Detail
I can just imagine how entertaining it would be to include this photo in a set of documentation to prove Harriet’s descent!