Adella Hicks Howell

Dear Diary,

I fell into the rabbit hole of genealogy yesterday when I should have been doing other things.  It all started with this photograph.  I have been colorizing the few tintypes that I have from my grandmother and this is one.  Adella Hicks Howell, born in 1854, was married to my great grandfather's brother George in 1873. This photograph was probably taken around that time. Their first child, also named Adella, was born and died in 1875.  She would go on to have two more daughters but then she died in 1884 at the terribly young age of 29.  My great grandmother, her sister-in-law, would have a daughter in 1885 and named her Adella in her memory.  I adored my Auntie Dell.  This tintype was badly damaged but I was able, after a few hours of work, to bring her back to life.  What a lovely young face, what a sad story.  Her husband would never remarry and he died in 1910 at the age of 60.