Beautiful Daughter of Gloucester

A while ago, I read a book called The Black Flag written by Barry Stacks of Gloucester and enjoyed Gloucester as a main character in the book.  The Black Flag refers to ships returning to harbor flying a black flag indicating a death on board while at sea.  It’s an interesting coincidence that for my family history research, I’d been trying to verify that a William Campbell who died at sea aboard a Gloucester vessel in 1905 was the Campbell in-law that I was looking for.  My search led me to a new cousin and a new “view” on what the Ryans looked like back in the day.

This is Alice May Brotherton, daughter of Mary Ryan and John J. Brotherton.  This young lady is just beautiful!  Unfortunately she died at a very young age due to kidney problems.  She did marry C. Angus Campbell whose father William is the aforementioned death at sea I was attempting to confirm. I got this picture from a cousin who is a descendant of Angus and Alice Campbell.

This cousin, Pam, was able to verify that the William Campbell I’d found in the newspaper as having died at  sea aboard the Schooner Senator was indeed Alice’s father-in-law.  Pam was tickled that I could provide her with the verification of his death at sea and I was very pleased to obtain this picture–especially since most of those old Ryan ancestors weren’t overly fair of face. I’m certain God blessed them with other qualities.