Could you date this Scarborough ancestor please?

[lesleyhannah]

Thank you all, for your help. I'd be really grateful for your opinions, as you obviously have much more experience of dating photos than I have.

It's actually opened up more possibilities. I thought I knew who the lady probably was - my grandmother's paternal grandmother, Jane Tindall, who lived in Scarborough. However, the mention of Falsgrave reminded me that was where her maternal grandmother, Ellen Maltby, came from. Although Ellen later moved to Hull, there were obviously still connections with that area.

So, I'd be really grateful to learn how old you think the lady in the picture is. Ellen was born 1839 and Jane was born 1817, so if I take sutton Rog's dating of late 1880s, then the age of the lady could be the decider.

And now we can see her clothes more clearly (thanks everyone for that), do you think she is in mourning? That would be another clue.

Thanks again everyone. I'm very grateful for all this help.
Lesley

[avm228]

Lesley, I certainly think she is in mourning - and it looks like fairly deep mourning (almost completely unadorned with jewellery and completely black outfit) which may suggest that she is recently widowed.  Given that she's holding something which mught be a Bible or prayer-book I wondered whether the photograph might actually have been taken on a funeral day, but I just don't know whether there was ever a custom for funeral photography.

Her complexion is actually rather smooth, though lines in the mouth area may suggest she no longer has a full set of teeth. I would have hazarded a guess she was in her 60s, but that doesn't get you to either Ellen or Jane!  Do you know what state of health either of those ladies would have been in at the relevant time, or whether either of them was widowed at about then?

Anna

[PrueM]

Don't forget her face could have been retouched on the negative, to give a smoother appearance - it's the hands that are good indicators of age.  In this lady's case, they look fairly well aged, so I am going for an age in the 70s.  Certainly not her mid-late 40s, which probably rules out Ellen 

[lesleyhannah]

Jane was my first guess, though of course it could be another relative. Jane's 3rd husband, Isaac Tindall, died in 1887, when Jane would have been about 70. She lived till she was 84, so if it is her she probably would have been in good health at that point (despite a very hard life). I've looked again at her hands, and I agree they are the hands of an old lady.

Thanks again everyone for your help - at least I've narrowed the search down. Given that my nan kept so few photos I guess this probably was her grandmother.

I think I recognise the photographer's address in victoria Road (so thanks anna) so I'm going to trawl the censuses to see if it was anywhere near Long Westgate where Jane was living when Isaac died. I reckon that might nail it!!

Lesley

[jan57]

  This may be of use  , both  streets you  are looking for are on the map

http://www.imaginativeicing.demon.co.uk/ScarboroughMapE4.html

[lesleyhannah]

Thanks, Jan. I don't know Scarborough, and that's very interesting.

[cazza59]

Have to agree with Prue on the age, definitely not 40s but 70s as Prue said, going by the hands.

Cazza

[haltest]

Interesting thread and one I stumbled across while researching my own family tree (the photographer I think was an ancestor of mine and one I had no idea about until a few weeks ago.

I think people did not travel much and the census lists their address as Falsgrave in 1881 and Victoria Road in 1891 - I am guessing this is where the business was as well but would love to narrow it down more precisely!

Thomas Boxell (and his sons) were photographers in Scarborough as other people have said. Dates I have are late 1870s to 1880s

https://newsfromnowhere1948.blogspot.com/2018/08/thomas-boxell-of-brighton-and-halifax.html