Fannie Sweeney, Page One

Little Fannie, 7 years old, 48 inches high, helps sister in Elk Mills. Her sister (in photo) said, "Yes, she he'ps me right smart. Not all day but all she can. Yes, she started with me at six this mornin'." These two belong to a family of 19 children. Location: Fayetteville, Tennessee, 1910.

This is a strange story. I got up on a recent morning at 5:30 and started trying to find more information about a boy identified only as Leo. He was photographed at the same mill as Fannie. When I ran out of luck, I tried looking at the other Hine photographs at the mill to see if other members of his family might have been identified. Instead, I found this little girl, fell in love with the photo, and began searching on Ancestry.com. By 7:00, I had found enough information to establish her last name, her married name, her date and place of death, a deceased daughter's married name, and the names and phone numbers of seven potential descendants in Fayetteville. About 10:00, I contacted the first two on the list, and both were family members, neither of whom had any knowledge of the photograph. One person told me that there are "dozens" of Fannie's descendants in Fayetteville, and she would let some of them know right away. She took down my phone number and email address and said she would get back to me. I hung up and took a deep breath. Stay tuned.