Treasure Chest Thursday: Cotter & Fariss/Farris/Faress portraits

Note: "Treasure Chest Thursday" is a theme used by some genealogy bloggers. It's sort of a fun weekly "Show & Tell" for grownups.

Here are my oldest treasures: portraits done between 1856 & 1870 of my great-great grandparents William Hadden COTTER and Queen Ann Elizabeth "Lizzie" FARISS (a.k.a. Elizabeth Ann FARISS, FARESS, or FARRIS) of Ringgold, Louisiana, in Bienville Parish, the northern part of the state. (Cousins: this is my mom's side of the tree.)


Portrait of William Hadden Cotter, unknown medium on stiff paper board of unknown type, c. 1856-1870, Ringgold, LA, privately held by the blog author.


Digitally edited photo of the portrait above, by the blog author.


Portrait of Queen Ann Elizabeth Fariss Cotter [a.k.a. Elizabeth Ann Faress, Farris or Fariss], unknown medium on stiff paper board of unknown type, c. 1856-1870, Ringgold, LA, privately held by the blog author.


Digitally edited photo of the portrait above, by the blog author.

My dear departed cousin and an early genealogy cheerleader of mine, Zola Scott Hardy, a respected genealogist herself, gave the portraits to me before she died. I am truly honored that she entrusted the portraits to me. (She would love all this newfangled blog stuff and how easy it is to find cousins now on the Internet!) I recently took them out from storage and digitally photographed them and they have been holding up fairly well for 150+ years. I had been pondering how archivally to frame them without breaking the bank, but now I think perhaps I should just frame the digital photos and keep the original portraits in flat archival boxes. Advice?

William Hadden COTTER was born 26 Aug. 1825 in Jefferson County, GA to David COTTER & Mary HADDEN. He married Elizabeth Ann FARISS 19 June 1856 in Bienville Parish, LA, and died 23 June 1901 near Ringgold, Bienville, LA.

Elizabeth Ann FARISS (FARESS, FARRIS, etc.), or Queen Ann Elizabeth (on her probate record), or "Lizzie," as she was variously called, was from Catahoula Parish, LA, born 5 Mar 1837 (perhaps in that parish, but it's unclear), to David FARRIS and Lucy DAVIS, and died 22 Feb 1870, near Ringgold, Bienville, LA.

Both are buried in Providence Cemetery, in Ringgold, Bienville, LA.

Sources & copies of the photos for noncommercial use are available, but as this week's TCT is rapidly turning into TCF[riday], though, I'll stop for now. Contact me for more info. --Liz

Text/images copyright 2010 by the blog author.