I recently had the delightful opportunity to spend an hour chatting with Andrew Martin, host of The Family Histories Podcast. We spoke about one of my very favorite family subjects–my great grandparents, Daniel and Emily (Wright) Oliver. Daniel and Emily came from Caithness, Scotland and Yorkshire, England respectively. They met in their 20s in Brumanna, Syria (now Lebanon) where they were teachers at a Quaker boarding school, and later settled for many decades in the mountain village of Ras el Met’n, where they established an orphanage and school. Tune in to hear the rest of their story, along with the story of my “brick wall” ancestor, Juliaetta (Harrington/Herrington) Stephenson from Michigan, whose parentage remains a frustrating mystery to me.

You can listen to my episode here. Be sure to check out other episodes too. Andrew’s podcast is now in its fifth series and there are lots of interesting stories from all over the world.

A couple of illustrations to go with the podcast:

And a postscript: A few days before this episode was released I had a lovely visit with my mum’s cousin, a granddaughter of Daniel and Emily. She shared a family album with images I’d never seen, including these gems. (Thank you, Susan!)

If not for the Beirut photo studio I would have guessed that the first photograph was a wedding picture. It’s labeled 1895, the year Daniel and Emily were married at ages 25 and 29, but they were married at the Stoke Newington Friends Meetinghouse in London, not in Beirut. Emily appears to be wearing a wedding ring, but Daniel is not. (And I know he wore one. It’s on my husband’s finger now.) This is the earliest image I’ve seen of Daniel.

And the second photograph may be my new all-time favorite. First, he’s in Ras el Met’n wearing his “Highland suit”, purchased in 1938 to his great delight. Also, Olivers are dog lovers from way back, and there are many pictures of Daniel with an assortment of dogs. This, probably taken about 1938, is the best.