Molsie Jane Talbert Litaker - 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 14, "Favorite Photo"

Molsie Jane Talbert Litaker (1875-1933)

This week's theme for +Amy Johnson Crow and NoStoryTooSmall.com's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge is "Favorite Photo." The photo above shows my 2nd maternal great-grandmother, Molsie Jane Talbert (a.k.a., Talbirt) Litaker. She was my maternal grandmother's maternal grandmother. Of the many reasons this photograph holds a special place in my heart, the most significant is perhaps that it is the only surviving photo of Molsie of which I am aware.

My grandmother gave me this family treasure, so the original is now in my care.  The photo is a tintype image still in its original frame.  Tintype refers to photographs made using "...an iron plate that has been coated with a black lacquer. This lacquer (sometimes referred to as japan, from the substance's country of origin) provided a smooth tonal surface on which to develop the image and it prevented the iron from rusting. The tintype was more commonly known in its time as a ferrotype (ferrous being the name of iron from your chemistry class), and melainotype, a variation of the melano prefix meaning dark or black."1

Molsie was born in South Carolina on 09 March 1875 to Rev. William Thomas Talbert (1840-1913) and Mary Ann Elizabeth West (1843-1927). Within the year prior to 07 July 1897 [the date of her marriage to George Franklin Litaker, Sr. (1868-1939)], she moved from South Carolina to Cabarrus County, North Carolina, with her parents and siblings.  Together, George and Molsie raised eight children - five of their own and three from George's first marriage to Carrie White Dove (1870-1897).  On 23 August 1933, at just 58 years old, Molsie Jane Talbert Litaker passed away following eight months of illness.2

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1Tintype: 1856 - Images for the Masses (n.d.).  Retrieved from http://www.phototree.com/history.htm.
2Litaker, Mrs. G. F. (1923, August 23). Mrs. George Litaker. Greensboro Daily, p. 3.

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