Named a “popular song that will live forever” by Readers’ Digest, you may already be familiar with Eddie Cantor’s 1926 hit, “You’ve got the cutest little baby face.”

The label on the portrait identifies this cute little baby face as “Margie Rooney.” Our excitement quickly built as it hit us that Margaret (Gilory) Rooney and her first husband, James Rooney, had a daughter named Margaret. She was born in May 1893, just over five months after James, a young father, tragically died. Could this be her?

Fortunately, the photographer’s name and address are stamped on the photo’s cardboard sleeve: Langer Studio, 212 Franklin St., Johnstown PA.

We knew that Margaret (Gilroy) Rooney moved with her three young children from Chester Hill, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, to the northern end of Somerset County by 1900. Does the fact that “Margie Rooney” was photographed as a baby in nearby Johnstown tell us that Margaret moved within a year or two of James’ death? 

To test this theory, we turned to the available city directories for Johnstown. The first time we found a photographer named Langer was in 1911: Charles Langer who worked from 204 Bedford Street in Johnstown. Perhaps he was at the Franklin Street address earlier? Perhaps he did not advertise his business in the city directory until several years after he started his photography business? 

Since we did not have sources on hand that would allow us to answer those questions, we followed our photographer into future years to see what else we could learn. We found him in the 1918 Johnstown city directory working as a photographer at 212 Franklin Street in Johnstown—the exact address on the photo sleeve! Tracking him in other available city directories, we can see that he worked at that address until at least 1925. 

What does all of this tell us about the baby in the photo? We now know she is unfortunately not Margaret and James Rooney’s daughter, because she had grown into adulthood by the time this portrait was made.

But hold on: if this cute little baby was photographed in Johnstown sometime between about 1916 and 1926, and was called Margie Rooney, there is a strong possibility that she is actually Margaret and James Rooney’s granddaughter, Margaret Rooney, known later as Meg Rooney and eventually as Meg Bodenschatz!

Having never seen a childhood photo of Meg before, we studied the baby photo against her high school graduation portrait (above) and do see similarities: the round face, the porcelain skin, the petite nose, the slight jut to the chin, and the hair that appears as though it could be red when not photographed in the sepia tones of the baby portrait.

Additionally, Meg was born in 1919 in Johnstown, which places her right in the perfect time and place window. Since the portrait was in the possession of family members directly connected to her grandmother, Margaret (Gilroy) Rooney Meyers, we can reasonably assume that there would be some family connection.

After a quick search, we found no other Margaret Rooneys in public records in Johnstown of a similar age to Meg. While not proof in itself, it does mean that we did not find an obvious alternative. The next step is to ask YOU to weigh in. What do you think? Could this be our Meg?