My grandmother, RUBY BOLTON BROWN, had an older sister GLADYS ADELINE BROWN who married JOSEPH BURTON DRYDEN in 1912 in San Francisco, California.
Back in the spring of 2020, a cousin from the DRYDEN family sent me two very old photo albums that appeared to be from California in the 1860s-1880s. All the photos were in very good condition, but few of them included any sort of clues or information that would help identify the individuals in the photos.
Now, many months later, with the help of other researchers on Ancestry.com, and articles & obituaries in San Francisco newspapers from the time period, I have been able to identify several of the people from the albums. It appears that all of the photos in the albums are from the DRYDEN or TOHER family. None of them are from my grandmother's BROWN family.
For reference, here is the family tree of JOSEPH BURTON DRYDEN b 1887 San Francisco, California. He was the only child of GEORGE HENRY SHEPPARD DRYDEN b 1864 Solano County, California, and MARY ANN TOHER b 1868 San Francisco, California.
Here is a photo of JOSEPH'S father, GEORGE HENRY SHEPPARD DRYDEN as a young man, probably taken about 1880. I was able to identify him, even though there was no writing or clues on the photo, as the same photo was used later in a San Francisco newspaper article.
Here is a photo of GEORGE H S DRYDEN as a toddler, taken about 1868, possibly in Solano County, California.
This is a photo of GEORGE H S DRYDEN's wife, MARY ANN TOHER b 1868 San Francisco.
GEORGE H S DRYDEN was the son of CORNELIUS PAYNTER DRYDEN b 1825 Delaware & SARAH SHEPPARD b abt 1842 New York. They lived in Solano County, California from about 1866 until about 1871, when they moved to San Francisco. Besides GEORGE, they had three daughters. I was only able to identify one in the photos from the albums. This is LULU DRYDEN b 1874 San Francisco. She apparently never married, and died in 1937 in Seattle, Washington.
MARY ANN TOHER DRYDEN was the daughter of JOHN TOHER Jr b 1832 County Cavan, Ireland and his wife CATHERINE "KATE" HUDSON b 1832 Ireland. They both emigrated from Ireland in about 1860 and ended up in San Francisco, California, where they were married sometime before 1867.
This appeared to be the oldest photo in the two albums. I believe it is a photo of JOHN TOHER Jr and his wife CATHERINE KATE HUDSON, taken around 1865 in San Francisco.
And here is a later photo of CATHERINE KATE HUDSON TOHER, probably taken in the 1870s-1880s.
JOHN TOHER Jr and CATHERINE KATE HUDSON had three daughters and one son, but I only found photos in the album for MARY ANN TOHER DRYDEN and one sister SUSAN TOHER b 1872 San Francisco, who married BARTHOLOMEW MAHONEY. Here are two photos of SUSAN TOHER MAHONEY, one with her husband.
SUSAN TOHER & BARTHOLOMEW MAHONEY apparently had only one son, GEORGE HUDSON MAHONEY born 26 April 1902 in San Francisco. He died there in 1974. I was unable to find out whether or not he had a wife or children.
There are at least a hundred more photos in the DRYDEN/TOHER albums, including a couple from Ireland, but sadly there are no clues to help identify them.
Wishing you safe, healthy & Happy New Year!
Betty
