Pictures of John and Rosanna Coyan Hawk

I cannot tell you how important this picture of  Rosanna Coyan Hawk is as far as giving any of us us our first "glimpse" at what our Scotch-Irish Coyan ancestors may have looked like. She was the granddaughter of our patriarchal/matriarchal ancestors, Edward and Sarah Coyan. Obviously, there are no pictures in existence of them, since both most likely died before 1820-30.

There are not likely to be any pictures of any of Edward and Sarah's children either, at least none have been uncovered to date. The most likely "candidate" for a picture to exist would be of youngest child William Theaker Coyan, who was almost certainly the last of their children to die, in 1891. I STILL hold out hope that there may be a picture of him out there somewhere....

Which brings us to Coyan generation #3, the grandchildren of Edward and Sarah Coyan. There were NO pictures of ANY of them confirmed to be in existence either - until now! How ironic it is that the lady whom I consider to be one of the two Coyan descendants from generations ago who had the forethought to "pass on" our family history, becomes the first grandchild of Edward and Sarah for whom we now have a picture!

I want to thank Karl Hilbert, who is a 3rd great-grandson of John and Rosanna Coyan Hawk. Thanks Karl, for emailing me after you saw some of your family tree info that I have posted on Rootsweb.com. We are all indebted to you for being so willing to share these pictures of John and Rosanna!

John Hawk died in 1881 at age 62, so the picture of him was taken most likely in the last few years of his life. Rosanna was born in 1820, so the picture of the "white-haired lady with a bonnet" was likely taken when she was in her 60's or '70's. That would date her photo ca. 1885-95.