A One-Name Study for the BARNUM/BARNHAM Surname
For three or four years after Gladys' mother Emogene died, she was raised by her sister Viola, who was married and had children of her own. Gladys' father was too busy with his work to raise a teenage daughter. All the other siblings were old enough to have jobs and take care of themselves.
She was born at home and her brother registered her birth a year later. She used that year as her date of birth for years, thinking she was a year younger that she really was. She did not discover the error until she applied for Social Security and had to get a copy of her birth certificate.
She remembers her mother talking about "Uncle Pete" when she was a child. "Uncle Pete" was Phineas Taylor "P.T." Barnum. She said he was not really an uncle but a first cousin of either her mother or her grandfather (whose name she would not remember). She remembers relatives stating that P.T. would amount to no good (Ha! Ha!). [N.B., Gladys' grandfather, Abijah Weed Barnum, was a fourth cousin of P.T. Barnum].
She visited the winter quarters of the Barnum and Bailey Circus when she was in her 60s and was surprised to see a family-reunion photograph hanging in the entrance - identical to the one she had at home. She was one of the small children sitting in the front row of that photograph. She remembered traveling back to the east coast for the reunion at which the photograph was taken.
A Research Guide to the Genealogy of the Barnum/Barnam/Barnham Family Worldwide
AncientFaces - Family History Photos
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