52 Ancestors Challenge Week 3: "Favorite Photo" - 3rd great grandpa John Losee Sr.

I love this photo.



The little boy is my Grandpa Earle's brother, Allen Preston Earle (17 March 1916 - 8 November 1956). The older man is his great grandfather, my 3rd great grandfather, John M. Losee Sr. (17 August 1841 - 10 February 1918).

Aside from the fact that not too many people have an image of their 3rd great grandparent, I know almost exactly where and when this photo was taken. That is part of why is it one of my favorite photos.

It was taken at either present-day 56 or 60 Stevens Street in Freeport, Long Island, New York. If I thought the owners would let me wander around their properties to line up a recreation of the photo, I bet I could find the exact spot.

The Losee family owned that property for a long time and that house is still standing. John Sr.'s father, Leonard Losee, owned that property as far back as 1873 according to a historic map of the area. That block is very close to a dividing line between the towns of Roosevelt and Freeport, but at one time the area was called Greenwich Point. I suspect they may have owned it even longer than that but that is the oldest map I have seen.

The Losees sold the property to a developer, Albin Johnson, in about 1912 but family resided on the land well into the 1930s. That is where John Sr.'s daughter, Georgianna Losee, was living at the time of her death on November 29, 1935 at the age of 69.

As for the date on which this photo was taken, there is a very small window as to when it could have been taken. Allen was born on March 17, 1916 and John died on February 10, 1918. Only 696 days have lapsed between those 2 dates. It looks to me as though Allen is over a year old. He's not in summer clothes, in fact, they are kind of bundled up; John has gloves on. So I am guessing it was taken in the Fall of 1917 or a nice warm winter day shortly before John's death.

What I really love about it is the fact that its a casual, candid photo of a smiling little one hanging out on a log with his great grandpa and a dog. Just chillin'.