Family Lore: The case of two children named Elizabeth and a photo of a baby.
Elizabeth (Rush) Lovering, wife of Thomas Lovering,1 was born to Henry and Ruth A. (White) Rush on 3 August 1881, in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.2 Elizabeth was named after a paternal Aunt3 and shared the name of her eldest sister who passed away4 approximately a year before she was born.
Elizabeth “Lizzie” Rush, the eldest sister, was born 7 December 1875 and died 29 July 1880 age 4 years, 7 months, 22 days, of Diphtheria & Croup.5
Which Elizabeth is in the family photograph?
The photograph of Henry and Ruth Anna (White) Rush, and their five children, was believed to show children (boys left to right) Walter, John, George, Ruth Anna, and possibly Elizabeth, the younger. With no one still living to confirm the children in the photo, it was hard to pinpoint if this photo was taken pre-1880 and had Lizie, the older Elizabeth, or post-1881 where Elizabeth, the younger, may be the baby in the photograph.
Comparing adult Ruth Anna (Rush) VanDoren’s eyes as an adult to the toddler standing next to her mother, it is believed that Elizabeth, the younger, is the infant in her mother’s lap and that the toddler standing next to mother, Ruth Anna (White) Rush, is the daughter, Ruth Anna (Rush) VanDoren.
The photography studio where the family photograph was taken was in operation through the years of both girls’ lives, so it is difficult to narrow it down by that information. And the mother, Ruth Anna (White) Rush, kept her hair with a severe middle-part, not just when it was fashionable.
What do you think? Is Ruth Anna (Rush) VanDoren the toddler between her parents? Is Elizabeth, the younger, the baby in her mother’s lap?
- “Pennsylvania, U.S., Marriages, 1852-1968,” database, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 January 2024), entry for Thos. H. Lovering, no. 93365, Luzerne County. ↩︎
- Maryland State Department of Health, death certificate, Elizabeth Lovering (1968), Division of Vital Records, Baltimore. ↩︎
- “Death of Capt. Rush,” (Wilkes Barre) The Times Leader, 09 Apr 1901, p.6, col 4; citing Mrs. Lizzie Frey as a sister with Henry Rush as a brother. ↩︎
- Wilkes-Barre City Cemetery Records File, spreadsheet, digital image, (https://www.wilkes-barre.city/city-clerk/pages/city-cemetery-records-maps : accessed 1 January 2024), lot #524, permit #4719, Elizabeth Rush.
And
1880 U.S. census, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Wilkes-Barre, Enumeration District (ED) 120, p. 662D (stamped), p. 12 (penned), dwelling 114, family 115, Henry Rush; imaged at Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 January 2024); citing National Archives microfilm publication T9, roll 1149.
And
1910 U.S. census, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Wilkes-Barre City, Enumeration District (ED) 144, sheet 13B, dwelling 242, family 266, Ruth A. Rush; imaged at Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 January 2024); citing National Archives microfilm publication T624, roll 1371. (Showing number of living children compared to children born to mother.) ↩︎
No Ancestor Left Behind 
For clarity purposes, it occurred to me that I hadn’t explained that the elder Elizabeth was born in December 1875 and passed away about three weeks after being enumerated in the 1880 census as a nearly 4 and a half year old. Elizabeth, the younger, was born in August 1881. Had the 1890 census not burned, it may have been easier to track the fact that Elizabeth in all future censuses was Elizabeth, the younger, but many family historians see a “Lizzie” in the 1880 census and an “Elizabeth” in the 1900 census, who seems a solid 5 years younger that the child in the 1880 census and instead of seeing two family members, they see a young lady attempting to be “younger.” (Early in my research, I, too, was one of those who saw one Elizabeth instead of two. Now that I look back, I see Elizabeth, the younger, never went by Lizzie but always Elizabeth. The children in the 1880 census were listed in age order and they were listed in age order, again, in 1900.)
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