We had no idea who it was until 2011.
After I posted the photo on my blog, two wonderful readers recognized the uniform, the big breakthrough I needed.
Capt. John Daniel Slatter
This is Captain John Daniel Slatter (1864-1954), in full regalia as Bandmaster of the 48th Highlanders of Toronto.
With a name and dates, I knew just where he should fit in the family tree.
Capt. Slatter is an older brother of hubby's grandma, Mary Slatter Wood (1869-1925). Now I had a new research angle to explore!
Over the next few months, I corresponded with the 48th Highlanders' museum in Toronto. Later, hubby and I drove up for a visit. We learned a great deal about Capt. Slatter's military career from the curators. In turn, we left them a family tree and biographical information to supplement the military artifacts and records in the museum's possession.
Bite-Sized Bio
More recently, I wrote a bite-sized bio to memorialize this legendary bandmaster, posting it on Family Search, Find a Grave, and other sites. It wasn't easy to squeeze his personal life and professional accomplishments into four paragraphs (with sources summarized at the end--see below).
Thanks to eagle-eyed readers getting me started with the initial identification, I've now traced the Slatter family further back in time and can memorialize more ancestors with bite-sized bios on multiple genealogy websites.
* This is my week 3 post for Amy Johnson Crow's #52Ancestors challenge, with the theme of "favorite photo."
What a handsome guy!
ReplyDeleteWow! Amazing that not one, but two readers recognized his uniform and you were able to identify a mystery photo. What fun, too, that he was a bandmaster. It's a great photo.
ReplyDeleteSo cool you were able to exchange information with the museum in Toronto :)
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