Kissam Family Association
Celebrating the history of the Kissam family in North America
Home      Discovering family history
Print this pageAdd to Favorite

Piecing together family history through the discovery of artifacts and documents requires a sharp eye for detail and often a creative use of primary sources.  This page describes methods and logic that family historians have used to fill in details of stories about Kissam family ancestors known and unknown.
The ice cream parlor proprieter

We know that William A. Kissam started an ice cream business in Huntington, from an advertisement for Scudder & Kissam - "Dealers in ice cream and confectionery" (see Kissam Family Collection - Kissams in business).  Later, we found this postcard of a group of people on the stoop of this ice cream parlor (see sign in background), postmarked from Huntington.  Could this be the Scudder & Kissam business?

 We examined the postcard carefully. It was sent from Huntington in 1907, and there is no indication that either the sender or recipient was related to the Kissam family (though the Ketchums are another historical Long Island family).  We know that the Scudder & Kissam business was located on Main St. in Huntington. 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



 
 
What about the man seated on the stoop?  Using scan-and-enlarge technology, we compare a detail of the postcard (left) to other known portraits of William A. Kissam (right and below).   

The formal portrait, above right, is taken from the opposite angle and may not illustrate a convincing similarity to the mustached man in the postcard.  However, consider the body posture of William A. in his wedding picture, left.  The bent knee and angle of the arm is very similar to the man seated in the postcard photograph above.

 
 
 
 
 
If the seated man in the postcard photograph cannot be readily identified as William A. Kissam, what other clues in the postcard can we compare?  We know from a scrapbook found in William A.'s Long Island home that he owned a black dog.  Could the dog in the postcard be that dog?   Below, see a detail from the postcard, left, and a close-up from a photograph of William A.'s dog , right.