Returning a 1900 Portrait to her Family

Two weeks ago I received an envelope from a Facebook friend and genealogist that contained  several portraits that were unidentified, but taken by photographers in the town where I currently reside. She thought perhaps I could find resources locally who could help identify those in the portraits, with the end goal of reuniting them with their individual descendants.
I finally had time this past week to share these portraits with Nancy Masimer, Curator of Collections and Exhibits at our local Royal Gorge Regional Museum and History Center, 612 Royal Gorge Boulevard, P.O. Box 1460, Cañon City, Colorado  81215-1460. Nancy made available to me their listing of photographers in Canon City about the time these portraits were taken.
Only one portrait had any identifying information on the back.
Since Nancy and I each thought it said Mr. K. L. Polly, Coal Creek, Colo, I searched this morning for that individual in the 1900 census on Ancestry.com. In 1900 I found Kelso L. and Minnie F. Polly living at 499 Main St, Canon City, CO. Coal Creek is a small town just a few miles SE of Canon City. Incidentally, the residence at 499 Main would have been just one block north of our Royal Gorge Regional Museum, referenced above!
In the 1910 Census for Denver, Denver, Colorado, I found Minnie Polly living as a sister-in-law in the household of William H. and Agnes Nevin. Also in the household was mother-in-law Nancy C. Rogers. That told me that Agnes and Minnie were probably daughters of Nancy C. Rogers, therefore giving me a maiden name for Minnie Polly.
My next search was on Ancestry.com, where I found a public member tree titled “Nathan Washburn Rogers Family Descendants” that included Minnie Frances Rogers Polly Loveless as a member. The tree contact is Norma Rogers Benner, whom I also found on Facebook. I’ve contacted Norma through the Ancestry Message Board and through Facebook Messenger. 
As it turns out, her family will get together for a Reunion over Labor Day weekend, just ONE WEEK AWAY. I'll mail this portrait to her tomorrow so she can share it at her reunion. I'll include a print-out of this post so they'll all know how I got the portrait and how I found the family to send it to. Norma and I each agree this was good timing, but then God's timing is perfect!

Update Sept 1, 2017:

The portrait of Minnie and a copy of this blog post arrived at her family in time to be on display at the family reunion (by Norma Rogers Benner). 

Finding another Cousin Connection through Family History Friends

Throughout the many years that we’ve attended the RootsTech genealogy conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, we’ve become acquainted with good friends Bobbie Rogers and Debbie Allen (pictured below). We renew our friendship as we save seats and sit together at the morning Keynote addresses. Debbie and Bobbi live in Arizona and of course we live in Colorado. We’d have never met if we hadn’t happened to start a conversation with them while waiting for the conference to start.

A few days ago Debbie posted this photo on facebook which identified her friend from School Days, Robyn Nielsen Behunin.

As a Genealogist, I tend to notice NAMES and recognized the Behunin name as that of one my 2nd cousins. So I posted a facebook comment asking Debbie if she knew if Robyn Behunin might be in some way connected to my cousin Lynne Behunin. Robyn replied that her husband Ray’s first cousin was Paul Behunin. I knew that Paul was the (deceased) husband of my cousin Lynne.  Yes, go ahead and say it. “It’s a small world”. I developed this chart that show all these connections. And you’ll notice that Debbie Allen is also a distant cousin of my husband, Larry Jamison. Many people would react with a “So What?” But I love discovering connections like this. They’re meaningful to me!