Our friend Bill Hecht sent around a colorized version of a 1910 postcard that showed a young girl sitting by a finger sign in the hamlet of Montezuma. First off, it has to be noted that the use of AI to colorize an image is not like the old days when people did it with a photo-editting program. AI basically replaces the entire image with something it creates, and it will add or subtract details that you might not see at first. So always save the original! And, anytime we modify a photo, with color or whatever, you are making assumptions about the color of the hair, the dress, the house, and so on. If you were to post this new color photo as your ancestor, someone in the future might think what they see is real. Was her hair red or blond? So, just be careful. Okay, with the soapbox speech done. let’s get on with our girl.

Our little mystery girl

It the old days, before the advent of the state highway system and the widespread placement of directional signs, homemade signs might be installed by locals to help travelers find their way. Many times, they had a finger pointing the way, so they became know as finger signs. So, these directions, plus the fact that the postcard says, “Distances from Montezuma,” we know that it was taken in the hamlet. I have always enjoyed this image and it inspired me to make my own finger sign. However, little was known about the sign or the girl. So we have been having a bit of fun trying to figure out who she might be.

We knew the sign had to be in the hamlet, and likely near the business district. The sharp eyed Kathy Decker found another postcard showing the sign in the background at the east end of Erie Drive along the Auburn Road. So now we knew where it was. But if you compare the two images, it does appear that the sign may have been moved or replaced at some point. But the placement makes sense as this would have been an intersection before the 1950s construction of the NYS Thruway changed the landscape.

Note the sign in the distance

Dating the sign is somewhat easy as the postcard was dated 1910 and we know that the R.S.&E. RR. (the Rochester, Syracuse and Eastern Interurban) was completed in late 1909, so we can safely settle on 1910 or maybe a year later. Jessica Armstrong, from the County Historian’s Office, gave us a wider time frame of 1909 to 1918 based on the buildings.

With the easy questions out of the way, we could turn to the girl. I downloaded the 1900 and 1910 census, turned them into spreadsheets and sorted for girls between eight and twelve. That made a list of 30 possible girls, IF, she was indeed from Montezuma. She might have been visiting someone or the photographers daughter. So we just don’t know yet. I bet there was once a postcard that said, “here is Betty-Lou!” But questions like this can be great fun and reawaken those genealogical detective skills. Might there be a photo of this young lady in another setting that would help us?

If you are thinking about starting your family tree, we can help you! Our Genealogical Gatherings group meets on the third Wednesday of the month at the Port Byron Library, or we can meet you at our Heritage Center.