Purchased at Backyard Antiques in Clinton, Arkansas. The paper frame had penciled on the back Clarence and Estelle Whittle. This was my first sleuthing adventure into returning an old photo. I love a challenge, so I rushed home and did a quick search on FamilySearch.org with only their names and a marriage date range of 1920-1940. In seconds up popped Clarence and Estelle Whittle’s census enumeration for 1930 and 1940 which gave me their residence….Sedgwick County, Kansas. Armed with a location, I Googled their names along with the location and landed the obituary of Clarence. It was a wonderful obituary giving information about his life, his marriage date in 1927, and the names and cities of residence of each child. Armed with names and places, another internet search yielded the phone number of a daughter who resides in Wichita, Kansas. What a surprised lady when she answered my phone call! She had no idea how the photo came to be in Arkansas and was ecstatic to get it back!
I returned to the same flea market booth on a later date and purchased these photos. One is obviously Estelle, another had her maiden name, Leichardt, penciled on the back. I purchased the three photos and mailed them to Clarence and Estelle’s daughter in Wichita, receiving a kind thank you note in return.
Following the return of the Whittle picture, my newspaper article ran in the Van Buren County Democrat (Clinton) on New Years Day 2014, describing the purchase of the photo and my adventure in locating a family member.
