Save the old family photographs
We are long past Mother’s Day but we are still enjoying family pictures of mothers. Be sure to save all of your family pictures for future generations. Don’t forget to identify the people in the photographs and the dates.
My sister, Lynne, provided this photograph of our great grandmother, Margaretta "Maggie" Jamesson Macrae (1846-1929). Macrae was the middle name of my mother, Madge Macrae Roberts Kelley.
Based on the style clothing in the picture, we think it dates from the 1890's. It has been kept in a frame and not exposed to a great deal of light. Maggie and George Macrae had a number of children, including Penelope "Nellie" Macrae, who married Calvin Archer Roberts. Our mother was the second daughter born to Nellie and Calvin Roberts.
My first name is Calvin. I was named after my grandfather and Calvin Archer. Calvin Archer was wounded in the Civil War and did not survive the camp for the prisoners of war.
Maggie grew up at the Jamesson family home, Mount Gilead (c.1785), in Centreville, VA. The home is now owned by the Fairfax County Park Authority. I do not know where she lived after marriage, but I think at least part of the time she and husband George H. T. Macrae may have lived at Mount Gilead. After our grandparents Penelope "Nellie" Macrae and Calvin Archer Roberts were married in 1911, Maggie moved to Portsmouth,VA and lived with them for the rest of her life.
Malcolm Jamesson, a tanner and currier of leather who leased a tanyard from Adams' heirs, rented the Mount Gilead house as early as 1833. He purchased the property in 1842, and owned the house throughout the Civil War. Both Union and Confederate troops were at the house during the Civil War. Click on the above link to see more of the Northern Virginia history notes on the house.
Margaretta "Maggie" Jamesson Macrae
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