John Henry Hopkins, Bishop

This is a lesson in how one goes about tracing one's unknown family history: often, completely by accident. Was watching Antiques Roadshow- a repeat at that- and a name caught my ear. After hearing the story my jaw hit the floor. The woman speaking was a direct-ish relative! Her g-g grandmother was older sister to MY g-g- grandfather, Fredrick Hopkins. I still haven't found her-the Roadshow has a big thing about privacy- but titled this page as I have to maybe get someone else's attention. The Fredrick Hopkins clan eventually ended up out in San Fransisco, and the woman who brought in the painting lives in Oregon. I have to wonder if the whole Hopkins clan moved west.
There were seven (yes seven) more children born to the Bishop and his wife, the last of whom is Fredrick. The painting only shows the first six kids, the youngest of whom was born in 1826. Fredrick was born in 1839. Must've been some cold Vermont winters, no. ;)
Anyway, not to infringe on anybody's rights, but I am going to put up the photos from PBS here too- partly because I have none of the Bishop or his wife, and partly, again, to maybe attract attention.

The Story Continues!




http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/200405A07.html




GUEST: This man is the painter of the picture, and he was John Henry Hopkins, the first Episcopal bishop of Vermont... his wife, Melusina, and his family. This is the sister of his wife, who never married and took care of all the children. John Henry is my great-great-great-grandfather, and this is my great-great-grandmother. The story of the painting used to be on the back of the painting, and it is now here, and it has been transcribed by someone in the family in 1907. We also have a couple of photographs of the bishop and his wife.


APPRAISER: It is a painting, watercolor, that was done in the first quarter of the 19th century. Now, you've suggested that it was painted by the Episcopal bishop himself.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: And I would suggest that given the quality of the picture, that that's maybe some family history, but maybe not necessarily the case.
GUEST: Well, it is said that he also painted these pictures, and he was a painter.



APPRAISER: Now, there's a lot going on in this picture. The reason I love it-- and it gives me goose bumps to see it-- is the fact that it has so much information about a 19th-century interior-- 1825 vintage, and we see the kinds of things that people bring in on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW. You see this wonderful thumb-back Windsor that the spinster aunt is sitting in. You see an Empire mahogany roundabout table or game table here, which the baby is sitting on. This is a ship scene, and then also a landscape, but framed just the way they would be in the 19th century with a gilt frame and a black ebonized liner around. She is sitting at the spinet piano, which again is done in the Empire style. On the floor there is ingrain carpeting. This is before photographs, so the only way we can tell what an early 19th-century American interior looks like is from these watercolors, and they're quite rare and very, very sought after. It's just charming. Also the palette is... is incredibly done. Look at the shadow in the back of his head. I mean, the person who painted this was a... although we call it folk art and a primitive painter, they knew what they were doing. They painted many, many, many pictures. Now, I am sure that if we had more time we'd be able to research this picture and figure out who the artist was, because it's just such a knockout. It's just really tremendous. We've got these other portraits. They're cabinet photographs of the sitters. So we see them in the 1820s. Then we see them again in the 1860s. And this written history about the picture itself, I think the year 1907 is key. That is a time in our history... They call it, sometimes, the Colonial Revival. It's when we as Americans collectively start thinking about our history, and someone took the time to write down. They realized that there was information that they had that they wanted to preserve. I would encourage you to try to get this conserved, because it is on a paper that... that will be fugitive and will disappear over time. Given the fact that I'm not sure who it's by yet, I would estimate it at $25,000 to $35,000.

GUEST: Oh, my goodness. Oh, dear, I thought it was probably worth between $500 and $1,000.

APPRAISER: Well, you know, I'd give you 500 just for that little kitty alone. He's so sweet. I mean, the detail in this picture is the knockout I mean, it just is a total turn-on for folk-art enthusiasts, and I think that that figure could certainly increase when we're able to attribute it. It's just wonderful. It's one of my most favorite things I've seen on the show.

GUEST: Well, I'm very happy about that.

Beginnings

I took on a task I didn't understand the depth of when I was still too young to feel daunted. I became something of a family historian. I was given astounding amounts of pictures from both sets of grands, sadly after the had passed, so I couldn't ask questions about the photos. I have managed to do much research on my own and with the aid of some relatives, and feel I know the last 2-4 generations of both sides of the family fairly well. There are gaps, but they are growing smaller.

In the last week, I invested a lot of money in a photo scanner, and have already uploaded many many pictures that were starting to fade to unusable. I am so giddy about this, it is silly, but now generations down the line might get to see where they came from with a little greater ease.

I am going to put pictures up a few at a time, writing something about the pictures if I can. I hope to hear from family members about what they might know that they can add to the storyline. After all a family is more than one person, and going far enough back, it becomes thosands, then tens of thousands.

This fellow is one of the main reasons I became so determined to find this stuff out.



His name is Herbert Guion Hopkins, and he is my maternal great grandfather. He is father to my grandmother Marie Josephine Hopkins Dupre, and, for some reason, for me, a kindred spirit. He left the family when my grandmother was about 10, something I don't think she ever really forgave him for, and what I know of him, I have had to learn thru a little of his own writing, hearsay, and diligent research. I found his whole family actually. A computer program I bought gave me an entire arm of the family quite suddenly. Then, after finding out names and dates, I had quite a shock one evening: a painting on Antiques Roadshow, done by Herbert's grandfather of his family. I will find the link and put it here sometime.

I would end this opener with proof that blood is thicker than water, sometimes. Herbert was born in 1871. He had a near duplicate of himself born in 1979.
My nephew Aaron is the spitting image of his own great-great-grandfather.