Here’s one from my mother (Penny).

Look how much of an upgrade it is over another copy of the identical image available on ancestry.com!

My mother’s version was unlabeled, but the ancestry version claimed identification for the individuals as:

Wise Family, Back Cornelius, Lillian Pittman, Grady, Dave, Bynum, Bob. Front – Isaac (Ike), Neil, Susie, Carl, Lizzie Hopson, Dovie Wise.

Superficial Ancestry.com research would suggest that Isaac Newton Wise (as a scientist, I love that I have a relative with this name!), lived 1834 to 1910 and married Elizabeth C White (1834-1908). It looks like they had 5 children total:

• Hutsel Calvin Wise (my paternal great-grandfather) 1854-1940
• Cornelius (Neil/Neal) H Wise 1859-1947
• Elmina “Ella” Josephine Wise 1865-1949
• Isaac Henry Wise 1869-1900
• John Wilburn Wise 1872-1931

So the photo would mostly be a family portrait for Cornelius and his family once you establish that:

Cornelius or “Neal” – would marry Susan “Susie” Ward (1862-1941) in July of 1881 and they would have 8 children:

• son: Bynum Searey Wise (1882-1964)
• son: Robert “Bob” H Wise (1883-1971)
• daughter: Lillie Wise (Pittman) (1886-1979)
• son: Grady William Wise (1888-1950)
• daughter: Dovey V Wise (1890-1975)
• son: Dave Isaac Wise (1894-1984)
• daughter: Elizabeth “Lizzie” Wise (1897-1992)
• son: Carl Wise (1902-1988)

So relative aging/appearances would agree that all 8 children appear in the photo, correctly ID’s by the ancestry user, and ordered below by oldest to youngest, with my estimation that this would be 1908 with ages as below.

Now for the elders and middle-aged; first, Isaac Newton Wise would be the oldest gentleman at the bottom left — his wife passing away around the time this photo would have been made (1908) — was this around the time of her funeral?

Next, I identify the middle-aged couple as Cornelius and Susie.

I noticed the mark on her R cheek — I can’t be sure if that’s a photo defect or a port-wine stain.

I feel like their identification is reasonably corroborated by this separate photo of the couple from even older age — it’s quite convincingly the same man — she’s less distinct to me.

Which leaves us with the final person to identify here:

While the ancestry user identifies him as “Cornelius” — I think it must be in error in confusing him and the actual Cornelius above — notice they have both Cornelius and Neal — I don’t know of any other Cornelius/”Neil”/”Neal” in the family.

So who is he?

I’m very tempted to go with an answer very convenient to me — and say that he could be Hutsel Calvin Wise, my paternal great-grandfather — the oldest son of Isaac Newton Wise.

The lines of evidence would be limited, but include:

• He looks a lot like my paternal grandfather, his son, James Isaac Wise
• What other important individual than a close relative like a brother/uncle, would be included in a family photo like this?
• Of Isaac Newton Wise’s other sons, Isaac Henry and John Wilburn — I found a pic of Isaac Henry and he doesn’t seem to match: (more definitively, later I would realize he died in 1900, before this portrait).

• John Wilburn was born in 1872 and would be 36yo around the time of this photo (while this man looks significantly older)
• Hutsel Calvin would be approximately 53 years old here — that would visually match (though admittedly the exact birth year of Hutsel is not clear).

So I hypothesize that this mystery man is Hutsel Calvin Wise — and that this is 1908, perhaps a family gathering for the funeral of Isaac’s wife, Hutsel and Cornelius’ mother, Elizabeth C. White (she died Nov 28, 1908). Any other solutions?

Questions:

• Is this Hutsel Calvin Wise, or is there another individual who would fit the profile?
• Where is this photo taken?
• What was the occasion — Elizabeth White (Wise)’s funeral?