The Car Picture. Albert Channell III's family tree book included a photograph of his great-grandfather's family sitting in an antique car. The picture had two titles. The first title, written across the top of the photo (cropped below) read "The First Auto Ride". The second title, written on the page in Albert's handwriting read: "Channell's Family First Automobile".

The First Auto Ride ...

image repaired with Photoshop, original folded and cracked

Who's Who? More important to this project than whether the family owned the car or not is the identity of the people in the car. The driver is listed as Gus Grancel. I don't have anyone by that name in my database, so I'm guessing he's not related. The passengers and bystander are listed as: George W. Channell, Elizabeth E. (Ferry) Channell (his wife), Elnora Channell (b. 1882), William Channell (b. 1884), Howard Channell (b. 1887), Harry Channell (b. 1899), and Vallie Channell (b. 1906). There is one more person listed than is in the picture.

The easiest person to identify (other than the driver) is George Washington Channell in the front passenger's seat.

George is sitting with a child (one of two) between himself and the driver. The child in the front seat appears to be the younger of the two children and so is probably Vallie Channell. The boy in the back seat appears taller and is dressed as an older child. For these reasons, we can probably guess that the boy in the back seat is Harry Channell.

The two women in the back seat of the car (with Harry) are mother and daughter so it is not surprising that at first glance it is difficult to tell who is who.

Both women are dressed similarly. The woman on the passenger's side of the car appears to be taller than the woman on the driver's side. She is also the only of the two that is wearing glasses in the picture (a detail that is more visible on the original). This detail doesn't help as much as I'd hoped, because on closer inspection of other photos I found that both Elnora and Elizabeth wore glasses.

Another detail that is apparent from other photos of the two is that Elnora is a larger person than her mother, who in all the photos I have appears to be short and small-framed. Elizabeth also seems to have pronounced cheeks and deep-set eyes that Elnora does not. For these and other reasons, I believe the woman on the driver's side to be Elizabeth (the mother).

Through the process of elimination we are left with one person and two names. The man standing outside the vehicle with his foot on the wheel hub is either William Channell or Howard Channell (who are only three years apart in age). It is unfortunate that this person's image is the most blurred of all the family members.

The man has the same hairline as William Channell (see other page) and Howard Channell. The only thing I'm able to find that looks more like one than the other, is that the man in the car photo appears to be smoking a cigar. The curve of his cheek and the crease of his mouth look almost identical to another picture of Howard Channell (see other page) where he is also smoking. If you look closely at the picture (on the linked page) you may also notice that Howard is wearing similar clothes and that the porch and shutters look the same as well. It is very possible that these two photographs were taken at the same time and place. For these reasons (I wish I had more to go on) I think that the last family member must be Howard.

All of these identifications are pure guesswork on my part. I have never met any of these people (everyone but Vallie died before I was born) and have based my guesses on the limited number of photographs (some of poor quality) available to me. If you have contrary (or supportive) opinions (or better yet, evidence!) please e-mail me with your ideas.

Thanks for visiting!