More About That Niehaus Cousins Photo With The Goat: Wordless Wednesday (Almost)

     Isn’t it great how an old photo can bring out family story details after many, many years!  This is what happened after my Wordless Wednesday post on June 22.  So I thought it would be fun to follow up with what I’ve learned with some help from my cousins. 

     My post was here: Whose Goat Is That? --- Niehaus Cousins, Donny, Billy & Diana --- .  Now we all know that photo is fantastic just as it is.  But I kept thinking about those questions I had about where and whose goat is was.  So I decided to email my cousins, Sharon and Evelyn, sisters of the little girl in the photo, Diana.  Sure enough, they each had more of the story behind that photo from 1943.  Let’s look at that picture again while getting the update from Evelyn and Sharon’s comments:

From Evelyn:  “I think that picture was at our house.  We had a goat, but back then a lot of people had them…. Thanks again. Love Evelyn”

From Sharon: “ I don't know a thing about the goat but my precious Mother always said that Dianna was so excited to be holding the baby chick that she squeezed it to death.  She and Donnie and Billy couldn't have been much more than a year old or so.”

     Thanks to my cousins, Evelyn and Sharon, I know the goat actually belonged to the Ellis family.  Evelyn also gave me the location of that unique family photo -- the home of Rollie and Charlotte (Niehaus) Ellis on South Madison Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana.  And don’t you just love the comment passed along by Sharon about Dianna and the baby chick.   I didn’t know what was in Dianna’s hand.  (Goodbye to that family pet, right?!) Now that expression on her face is even more significant!

   To complete this story I searched for an adult photo of all three of these cousins.  Didn’t have any luck with exactly that.  But I do have one that brings the family around to 2003 anyway. Below is a reunion photo of Evelyn, Charlotte (mother of Evelyn and Diana and Sharon), Martha (my sister) and Dianna.  Dianna seems a little more serious in this one than she was 60 years earlier.  And Aunt Charlotte was making a silly face. But that’s just family fun.  Great times!

 

 

     Thanks for visiting Indiana Ties,

     Nancy

 

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