Sarah Ann (Duncan) Knight

© Kathy Duncan, 2019

This is a long overdue post about one photograph and two women, who are strangers to each other, but who both had the same generous impulse.

Several years ago I came across a photograph of Sarah Ann (Duncan) Knight on Findagrave. Sarah was my great-grandfather, Richard E. Duncan's elder half-sister. Born 7 January 1859 in Arkansas, she was the daughter of Isaac and Martha (Sales) Duncan. On 22 January 1880, she married Joseph Oliver Knight in Sebastian County, Arkansas.

Immediately, I contacted LaDonna McKelvy who had posted the photograph to Joseph Oliver Knight's memorial. I made the false assumption that she must be a family member. She told me that she had seen the photograph in an antique shop while on vacation. She was tempted to buy it because there was enough identification on it that she thought she could track down the family of Sarah and Joseph Oliver Knight. Instead, she asked the owner if she could photograph it, and then she did the research when she got home. She found the memorials for Sarah Duncan and Joseph Oliver Knight on Findagrave and added the photograph. She thought that the photograph was in a shop somewhere in Oregon.

Well, that was both exciting and disappointing. There was another photograph of Sarah Duncan out there somewhere. But where? I couldn't help but wonder what other Duncan/Knight goodies might be in that shop. Where ever it was. But I had to let it go...

Recently, the same photograph surfaced on FamilySearch.org. I figured it was the same photograph, copied from Findagrave. Then I thought it could be a duplicate, and the contributor just might be a family member. Boy, was I wrong. The contributor was Rebecca Hammond. She told me that she bought the photograph in an antique shop in Crescent City, California, which is very near the Oregon border. There was enough identifying information on it that she thought she could research the couple. When she saw the photograph of Sarah (Duncan) Knight that I had contributed to FamilySearch, she realized that it was the same woman. Rebecca's ultimate goal was to return the photograph to Sarah and Joseph's family. I gave her the address of a descendant so that the photograph could make its way home.

Thank you, LaDonna and Rebecca, for recognizing that this photograph might have some family who would value it and for taking the time and making the effort to share it.

My best guess is that since several of Sarah and Joseph's grandchildren have died in California in recent years, one of them had the photograph. When their possessions were disposed of, it ended up in an antique shop. I can't help but wonder if Sarah had other pictures of her siblings and her father. Are they languishing in the same shop? Perhaps they are and lack identification.