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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Free Photo Restoration & Date Old Photographs => Topic started by: nixtee on Sunday 10 February 08 18:41 GMT (UK)
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I’m trying to date a family photography. Sadly, the photo isn’t in great condition; it’s overexposed and scratched. It’s also warped slightly, so I had to take a photo of it rather than use the scanner. The photo is sepia and is mounted onto thick card. I turned it into greyscale and fiddled about with a few settings to try and get a bit more detail.
Is this a wedding photo? The male members of the family are wearing flowers. Alfred & Mary (the couple sat down) were married on October 1897, so that is certainly the earliest date for the photo. I’m confident that the people standing behind Alfred & Mary are Alfred’s children (Mary was Alfred’s second wife).
Alfred’s children from his first marriage were Margaret (born 1871), Mary (1873), Thomas (1875), Henry (1877), Martha (1882), Francis (1884), Maud (1886), May (1889) and Mabel (1893).
At the time of their marriage Mary had one daugher, Sarah (born 1895).
Once married, Alfred & Mary had 2 more children, John (born 1898) and Muriel (1903).
I am sure the 2 men stood are Henry and Thomas. I don’t think Francis was in the photo as he ended his short life in an asylum. If the photo is Alfred & Mary’s wedding photo then one of the infants would almost certainly have been Mary’s daughter Sarah. Dad thinks the 3rd woman on the left is Alfred’s daughter Mary.
I believe the photo was taken in Alfred & Mary’s garden as we have a couple of other photos situated in the same place.
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Hi nixtee...I will take a swing at this one :D There are three styles of women's clothes in the picture...the second woman from the left is dressed in mid-late 1880s style, the one second from the right looks about 1900, and the rest seem to have a form of leg-of-mutton sleeving that indicate a date from about 1893 to about 1897. So...although the light blouse/dark skirt combination that was all the rage at the turn of the century seems to indicate the later date, blouse/skirt fashions had been around for a while, so this portrait could very well have been taken in 1897.
You may get some other opinions, too.
Cheers,
China