Adam & Alice Eby
I find a LOT of cabinet cards from Ohio here in Houston. I have no idea why; this is the latest. These legible yet messy words are scribbled on the back “grandpa Adam Eby Grandma Alice Eby.” The photographers imprint on the left side of the card, next to Grandma, reads: “Dougherty Bros. 32 & 34 So. Main St., Dayton, O.” Cabinet cards are wonderfully easy to place because of these photographer imprints.
On to Grandma & Grandpa Eby…knowing that cabinet cards reached the hight of their popularity in the 1880’s and declined in the 1890’s, I placed this couple as being born in the 1840’s +/- 5 years. Oddly, no Adam + Alice in Ohio surfaced. There were lots of Adam Eby’s, just none married to Alice (or anything close). Widening the possible birth year window gave me Adam Eby and Alice Billman. A couple who lived most of their life in Jefferson Township, Montgomery County, Ohio. That’s the same county as Dayton, where the photo was taken.
They were much younger than I expected. Adam Eby was born in 1854 and Alice Billman in 1860! I will assume that this is a late era cabinet card, maybe into the 1890’s. If this is the correct Eby couple, and I found no others, then they had a slew of kids and relatives would have no problem finding birth records, marriage records, and census records of this family online!
Good luck Eby’s and no offense on the age!
Unclaimed Ancestors 
Although I am not directly related to the Eby family of Dayton, Ohio, I am very familiar with the very large Eby family and am curious if you ever received any responses from the relatives. Adam Jr. was one of 13 children and lived on the family homestead at the time of his father Adam Eby Sr.’s death (at age 90) in 1905. Adam Sr. had lived on and farmed on the homestead for 65 years (1840-1905).
I have not received any responses. I hope the family is able to find this photo!
I think I’ll be able to find a relative and if so, I’ll direct them your way. I recently ran across an 1864-65 cabinet card photo of a Civil War soldier and was able to get the image to a couple relatives who had never seen it before. It was quite a challenging search but fun solving the mystery. The studio photographer was the same one who had photographed Wild Bill Hickok about the same time — had the same rug, table.
Hello,
I just came across this post while looking at various ancestors of mine. I am an Eby by birth, descended from Adam Eby, sr, who was this Adam’s father. My family largely are from Dayton (where I was also born) but I know my grandfather Ralph Hugh Eby was born in Texas.
I’m glad you found this post!