29 The Pin, the Pearls, and the Photo: Finding Cousin Ola Goldsmith Cobb

 

Viola “Ola” Vesta Goldsmith Cobb – My paternal first cousin twice removed

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 29 – July 15, 2025

Prompt: Cousin

Among my father’s photos, I found this  portrait of an older woman wearing pearls and a pin that said “Mother.” I had never seen a photo of his mother, so I assumed this must be her—Gertrude Susanna Goldsmith. But the cardboard mat around the photo said it was taken by a photographer in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and that didn’t make sense. Gertrude had lived her adult life in El Dorado, Arkansas.

Later, while assembling a binder with everything I had on my father’s parents, I came across photos of Gertrude that my Aunt Gladys had sent me years ago. She didn’t look like the woman in the “Mother” pin photo.

Around the same time, I was reading letters my parents wrote to each other in the fall of 1944, a few months before they married. Mom was working at a radio station in Tulsa, and Daddy was working for another station in Bartlesville. In one of the letters, he mentioned that his cousin, Mrs. Cobb, had him over for dinner a few times. Could the woman in the photo be Mrs. Cobb?

A quick check of my Ancestry tree confirmed that Mrs. Cobb was Viola “Ola” Vesta Goldsmith Cobb. She had been widowed in 1935 when her husband, Henry Davenport Cobb—a Bartlesville police officer—was shot while investigating a domestic disturbance.

I had DNA matches to two of Ola’s grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. I decided to reach out to the great-granddaughter, Jeanne, to confirm my hunch. When I didn’t get a response to my Ancestry message, I found her on Facebook and tagged her in a post with the picture.

February 10, 2024

This may be Ola Goldsmith Cobb. Hoping Jeanne can verify this is her great-grandmother.

Jeanne replied:

“Yes, that is definitely Ola! Thank you so much for sharing!”

“I’ll have to look, but I do believe I have that pin!!!”

And later: “I do have it—and I also have the pearls.”

Viola “Ola” Vest Goldsmith Cobb, Bartlesville, Oklahoma. The “Mother” pin and pearls were passed down to her great-granddaughter, Jeanne. I passed the photo on to Jeanne and she created this shadow box. 

Ola is my first cousin twice removed. In March 2025, blog post #10, I wrote about two sisters who married two brothers. I descend from one couple—Nancy Curtis Dudgeon and David Milton Goldsmith. Ola descends from the other—Missouri Ella Dudgeon and Carlton Goldsmith. That means we share two sets of common ancestors: Richard Alphon Dudgeon and his wife Cynthia Jane Moran, and James Goldsmith and his wife Susanna Harding. Ola’s great granddaughter is my third cousin once removed.