Photo identification can be tricky, even when you have testimony from a family member as to the identity of the subject. I have posted a picture and labeled it as Isabella McCabe Anderson (1818-1912) (My maternal grandfather’s grandmother). That is how my mother identified the woman in the picture. But, unfortunately, Mother was wrong.

I discovered through another person’s family tree at Ancestry.com that the woman in the photo is actually Eliza Bassett Emerson (1805-1899) the sister of my great-great-grandmother, Mary Bassett. Hurray for setting the record straight!

Here is the picture I have used, now with proper identification:

And here is the picture on Ancestry.com:

I had been a bit uneasy about the identification of my picture as Isabella Anderson ever since I received this picture from a cousin of Isabella–it just did not look like the same person.

This close up of Isabella is from a four generation picture with her daughter Margaret Anderson Lisle who married a Lisle and then raised four of her deceased daughters’ daughters.

Isabella lived to a great age, and is in the center of a family photo that features the matriarch’s grand children (including my grandfather) and some of her great-daughters (my mother) and great-grandsons.

So, Isabella and Eliza–I’m glad to get you all straightened out.