Three cabinet photographs: Seaman Sinkler FitzSimons, Henrietta Gaillard FitzSimons, and their son Christopher (1888–1898), with typed slip
Book 1, Page 441 ·1880–1917
Transcription
An album page with three studio cabinet photographs arranged around a small handwritten family chart at the top centre, with a typed paper slip mounted face-down at the lower right.
Centre chart (handwritten in blue ink)
SEAMAN SINKLER FITZ SIMONS. BORN — — DIED — — M — HENRIETTA GAILLARD BORN — — DIED. DEC. 17[th] 1917 | CHRISTOPHER FITZ SIMONS BORN 1888 — DIED MARCH 24[th] 1898
Upper-left photograph
A studio bust portrait of a bearded man with dark hair and full beard, wearing a dark three-piece suit and dark cravat. The mount is dark with cut corners. Caption in pencil beneath:
SEAMAN SINKLER FITZ SIMONS
Upper-right photograph
A studio portrait of a woman seated in dark Victorian dress with high collar and dark hair pulled back; a small girl in a light frilled dress stands beside her with one hand resting on the woman’s lap. The mount is cream-coloured with deckled edges. Caption in pencil beneath:
HENRIETTA GAILLARD FITZ SIMONS
Lower-centre photograph
An oval-vignetted studio portrait of a small boy with very short pale hair and a wide white collar over a darker garment, mounted on a heavy grey-green card. At the foot of the mount, in gilt cursive, the photographer’s imprint:
N. J. Chambers [Address line, partially legible] Montgomery, Ala.
Caption in pencil on the album beneath:
CHRISTOPHER FITZ SIMONS.
[The Montgomery, Alabama studio reading is consistent with the family’s known travels and connections; N. J. Chambers was an active commercial photographer in Montgomery in the 1890s.]
Lower-right slip
A small piece of folded typewriter paper mounted face-down on the album page. The typed text shows through faintly as a mirror image; the obverse is not visible from this side. Individual words cannot be read with confidence from the bleed-through.
AI Notes
Album page with three cabinet-card photographs arranged around a handwritten three-generation family chart at the top centre, with a typed paper slip mounted face-down at the lower right (typed text is reversed and visible only as bleed-through). Upper left: studio bust portrait of Seaman Sinkler FitzSimons (bearded, in dark three-piece suit), mount with cut corners, captioned in pencil ‘SEAMAN SINKLER FITZ SIMONS’. Upper right: studio photo of Henrietta Gaillard FitzSimons seated, in dark Victorian dress, with a small girl in a light frilled dress standing beside her, on a cream deckled mount; captioned ‘HENRIETTA GAILLARD FITZ SIMONS’. Lower centre: oval-vignetted studio portrait of a small boy in a wide white collar on a dark grey-green mount, with photographer’s imprint at the foot of the mount in gilt ‘N. J. Chambers, Montgomery, Ala.’; captioned ‘CHRISTOPHER FITZ SIMONS.’ Lower right: small piece of folded typewriter paper mounted face-down (text not readable from this side, only as faint bleed-through). The chart reads ‘Born — — Died —’ for Seaman (dates blank) and Henrietta b. unknown d. Dec 17 1917; Christopher b. 1888 d. March 24th 1898 on this page, vs March 27th 1898 on the family chart on page 271 — a three-day discrepancy in the compiler’s hand.
The pencilled date “March 24th 1898” for Christopher’s death and the inscription “died in Waycross Ga. March 27th 1898 in the 11th year of his life” on the family chart on page 271 differ by three days; both are recorded in the compiler’s hand. The canonical date is 27 March 1898 (per the family chart on page 271, which the compiler appears to have corrected from a record). The pencilled “March 24th 1898” on this page may have been written from memory.
Seaman Sinkler FitzSimons was one of the seven children of Dr. Christopher FitzSimons (3rd) — the compiler Amy’s great-uncle. He and Henrietta lost their only child, ten-year-old Christopher (“Kit”), at Waycross, Georgia in 1898; no further children followed. He appears again in the album as the writer of the 29 April 1918 silver-dividing letter to his sister Aunt Ellen (page 442).