52 Ancestors: Week 14 "Favorite Photo": Anna Gertrude Tarkington

One of my favorite photos is the above picture of my great-grandmother Anna Gertrude Tarkington. This photo was probably taken in upstate New York, possibly at her home on Orangeport Road in Brewerton, New York. I am not sure if she lived anywhere else after she and her second husband Walter Enloe "Bill" Davis moved to New York. My father visited Gertrude and Bill in New York when he was young, and he recalls that they had wild strawberries in their backyard. One of the things I love about this photo is that Gertrude is holding a cat (probably her cat). I have loved cats since I was young (I got my first cat at age 4). I currently have five cats. They are my babies. My paternal grandparents, Gertrude's son Henry Cornelius Gatlin and Helen Martha Marie (Anderson) Gatlin, did not have pets. From knowing my grandfather, I would not have guessed that his mother would be a "cat person," but she seems very fond of the cat that she is holding in the photo. This is the first photo of Gertrude that I ever saw, and I immediately had positive feelings about her. One reason is that she seems to have liked cats, but another is that I see a resemblance between her and my grandfather, her son. Although I never met her, this photo gives me the impression that she was a very nice woman.