\nWhat a kindness.<\/p>\n
![\"Photo:](\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/photo-0918-2017-dean-francis-mason.png\")
<\/a>Experienced family historians know how valuable flea markets can be for finding interesting old photos, and those discoveries are made even better when you recognize the people in the photo. This old photo is of my cousins Dean Birchard Mason<\/span> (1867-1917) and Francis Payne Mason<\/span> (1872-1922).<\/p>\n When \u201cSTORMDS2008\u201d contacted me, I really knew next to nothing about these two cousins born in the mid-1800s. She not only sent me their photo, but forwarded a pile of newspaper clippings telling me more about them and the family. Wow \u2013 this was over-the-top kindness.<\/p>\n Both born in Cleveland, Ohio, Dean and Francis were the sons of the U.S. Consular General at Paris, Franklin Holcomb Mason<\/a> (1840\u20131916), and Jennie Van Wyck Birchard<\/a> (1844-1916). I decided to learn more about the brothers, so I searched for Dean\u2019s name in GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n This search led me to an engagement announcement about Dean\u2019s upcoming wedding to Alice Luice Peterson<\/a> (1884-unknown) on 22 June 1905 in Berlin, Germany.<\/p>\n Digging deeper, it turns out that Alice was born in Chile.<\/p>\n Curious about why Dean was living in Germany at the time of his wedding to Miss Peterson, I looked further into the search results from my GenealogyBank search and discovered a newspaper article that mentioned Dean\u2019s title \u2013 Vice-Consul-General at Berlin \u2013 and his enthusiasm for the metric system.<\/p>\n According to the article:<\/p>\n \u201cIn one of the most interesting Consular reports that has come from the State Department for a long time Vice-Consul-General Dean B. Mason, who is at present in charge of the American Consular office at Berlin, tells about the introduction of the metric system in Germany.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I also discovered an article announcing his brother Francis Payne Mason\u2019s wedding to Ermagarde Arville Coffin<\/a> (1873- ) in May 1898.<\/p>\n Dean B. Mason became U.S. Consul for Algeria \u2013 and a newspaper article from GenealogyBank brought the news of his death in 1917.<\/p>\n
\nA diplomat \u2013 who knew?<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>