On 18 May 1883, Maria Vermilye married Thomas A. Weir, and this couple had one child, Glendon Vermilye Weir, born 1897. The Weirs then assembled a photographic album for their family in the 1880s and 1890s, as did several other related families living at that time in Sandwich, Illinois. This album was passed to their son, Glendon V. Weir, then to Glendon's son, Thomas C. Weir (Maria's grandson), and eventually to Sam Weir (another of Maria's grandsons).

Though it seems likely that the Weir album was originally assembled by Maria and Thomas Weir , and its first image is that of Thomas Andrew Weir (Maria's husband), nevertheless, an image of Maria does not occur early in the album. Indeed, though a photo of Maria seems to occur near the end of the album, this identification was done by Tom McFarland in 2010 and based on a (potentially incorrect) comparison with a photo of Maria in the Potter album which Maria's sister Kate (Vermilye) Potter identified as Maria while both were still alive. Maria's son Glendon V. Weir appears to have made no comment on this image, which depicts a woman of about age 20. At some point after about 1950, someone created a good copy of an 1870s photo of Maria, and appended this copy loosely to the Weir album, along with (a second ?) photo of Glendon V. Weir at about age 18 months. The lack of an 1880s photo of Maria, placed near the front of this album raises a question of how actively Maria was involved in the creation of this album.

Sometime before 1979 , James Downey (a grandson of Maria's sister Jessie) discovered the existence of this album as he researched his family history, and it was sent to Jim in 1979, probably by Glendon V. Weir. However, Jim kept the album for 3 years, at which point Glendon V. Weir had died (near Tucson), and his son Thomas C. Weir demanded its return. The album then remained with Thomas C. Weir until his death in Tucson in 2003.

In 2005, Tom McFarland (a descendent of Maria's grandparents, Henry and Maria Van Wart Davids) discussed this album with Jim Downey, and sought to borrow it again from Angela Weir, widow of Thomas Weir. However, the album could not be located until 2010, when Angela graciously agreed to allow scanning its images for this digital album. Angela also requested that Tom McFarland give this album to Sam Weir, brother of Thomas C. Weir, which was done soon after Sam met with Tom McFarland in Sandwich in August of 2010.

The 40-page album consists of 28 larger cabinet cards (about 3" by 6") and 48 smaller cabinet cards (about 2" by 3"), containing images from about 1865 to about 1898. There are no tin types. Many photos appear to have yellow spots of mold on them; Robin Carlson (curator of the Wisconsin Historical Society) examined the photos and decided that the mold is called "Foxing", a common problem with old photographs, especially those with albumin base, minimized by storing the photos in cool room temperature at a humidity of about 45%, in which the foxing will remain dormant. Mold cannot be removed from the photos.

Most of the photos are unlabeled, but any labels and names of the photographers are reproduced in this digital album. Also, someone had prepared photocopies of most of the album images, and wrote comments on these photocopies regarding the people portrayed; these comments are attached to the corresponding photos for this digital album. Upon comparing the handwriting on the back of an image of William Weir with the handwriting on the photocopies, Sam Weir decided that both were done by his father, Glendon V. Weir, who died in January 1982 near Tucson, Arizona.

The pages of the Weir album are not physically numbered, but page numbers were assigned for this digital reproduction, the first photo occupying right-hand page #1. Thus, for each pair of facing pages, the left page has an even page number. Six photos associated with this album were un-mounted, including two recent good copies of older images, and for this digital album, these photos are assigned page numbers 41 to 46. Additional more recent photos from the Weir family will be posted when available, and numbered 47 and higher. Most images were scanned at 300 dots per inch, saved (with all imperfections) in BMP format producing file sizes of 4-7 MB for larger photos, and 1500-2500 KB for smaller photos. Each image was digitally cleaned and/or repaired, and saved again in JPG format for web display. The larger original scans are available only on CD/DVD.

In 1999, Tom L. McFarland inherited a similar album created by Maria's aunt Emeline (Davids) Cox, and in June 2001, Tom McFarland recovered another such album initialed "HPL" (Hannah Potter Landis) from the home of his mother, Dorathy Adele (Landis) McFarland. A fourth album created by Maria's sister Kate Potter was revealed by James Downey, who saw this album in the 1980s, and this "Potter Album" has been extremely useful because Kate labeled all of its photos in her lifetime. These four albums (from the Cox, Landis, Potter, and Weir families) share several identical pictures, but most pictures are different.

Knowledge of the Davids family structure, through obituaries found by Sandwich historians Ken Bastian and Barbara Hoffman , as well as research done by James Downey, have been very helpful in understanding how the people pictured in these albums are related.

Illinois marriage records and Illinois death records are now available on line, and several of the people pictured are buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Sandwich, Illinois, a town where many of these families lived in their productive years.