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AutorenbildPhotos Without Families

Mr. Joseph Foster from Waterbury, Conn.



Mr Joseph Foster sat down for this CDV at the photo studio of George N. Granniss in Waterbury, Connecticut, and looked straight into the camera. I wonder what he was thinking of in that very moment. He had come a long way from his birth town of Horsforth near Leeds in England. Was he happy with his life in America, was it all he imagined it to be?

Joseph Foster, born in about 1814, married Hannah Hogg on December 14, 1834 in Birstall, York, in England. Soon after they welcomed their first son William. Son Thomas was born in 1837 and daughter Ann in 1846.


According to the 1841 Census Joseph was a clothier. So he was either making or marketing fabrics or tailoring, I don’t know exactly which. In 1851 I find the family in Horsforth, but by 1860 they had emigrated to Waterbury in Connecticut. In October 1855, their oldest son William passed away in Connecticut at just 20 years of age. Which means, they emigrated some time between 1851 and 1855.


The 1860 Census does not list Joseph’s occupation in Waterbury. But it does list his real estate worth – $3500 in today’s worth is nearly $130.000. With son William sadly dead in 1855, the Census should list Joseph’s younger children Thomas and Ann. But it doesn’t. I have no idea what happened to them. Did they stay behind in England? Or worse, did they pass away as children?


Instead, one 12-year-old Jane Hogg was living in the same household with Joseph and Hannah. She was the daughter of one John Hogg, and she was born in 1841 in England. Perhaps she was Hannah’s niece as they share the same surname? I’ve no idea how come Jane ended up with the Fosters. She had entered the US in 1857 together with her father.

In 1870, Joseph, Hannah (or Anna in the census taker’s handwriting) and Jane were still living together live in Waterbury. Joseph was a spinner and in 1870 he had a real and personal estate worth of about $116.000 in today’s value.

Joseph passed away in October 1873, probably not so long after this photo was taken and was buried at the Riverside Cemetery in Waterbury.


I will add his photo to FindaGrave.



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