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Agreed! Thank you! I had reached out to the town's museum and heard from them yesterday. They should be able to help me in the next couple of weeks. Pretty excited to figure out who this woman was, as well as the original owner of the ring.

Thank you, Doc, and not silly at all, in my opinion. I quite agree, actually, and left a message with the local historical society to let them know about it and to request help in discovering to whom this would have belonged. I did post this to a California MDing group, and one of the members did me the favor of photo-reversing the image, turning it into a black and white positive. The lady was quite a beauty for her day, IMHO. With this picture and the local historical society's help, I think we can figure this out, and I may loan it to them for their displays.

Thanks, Tom and all! I just joined, and I have a massive update... I noted what looked like a hinge in one of my "dirty" photos, and had noted that the top seemed a little loose after its time in the sonic cleaner. I thought, "What are the odds...?" So I took closer pics of the cleaned up ring, and sure enough there is a very delicate and tiny hinge on one side, and a nail nick on the other. Opening it up, I found a photo! Seems like this would put the ring pretty solidly in the 1850s timeframe... Any other thoughts? Cheers!