Am I asking too much

[barbaras daughter]

Hi folks,

I hope someone can help me here.  I know for a fact that the photo of the man on his own was taken in 1884.  The other photo is of the aforementioned man and his siblings and I assume that it was taken about 1888 as there were originally 2 girls in the family and one died in 1888.   

Working from left to right and assuming the photo was taken around 1888, I've worked out their ages & I'd like to see what others think.

Man 1 = 25
Man 2 = 31
Man 3 = 40
Woman = 37
Man 4 = 33
Man 5 = 30

Does anyone think that man 4 may be the fellow in the other photo?  If not, any suggestions?

I know this is a 'curly' one but I'd love to have a rough idea of who's who.

Thank you,
Michelle

[nickgc]

I seriously think that at the very least, men 2, 3 and 5, as well as woman, are well older than your estimates.  I think the woman must be well into her 50s (at least), and the man seated next to her and the one behind her are also in 50s to 60s.  But I do think your individual photo and man 4 are the same person.

Nick

[mare]

... my first impression is also that they are older than ages given, certainly family likeness in the men and think you may be right with no4 being the individual fellow  mare

[Finley 1]

I would also put 10 years on to your estimates  sorry... but yes he does look like man 4  also a little like man1

or is that chelsea 4 and man u 1   

xin

[jim1]

Hello Michelle
There's one or two problems with your dates,the first shows a man wearing a watch chain fastened in a seperate buttonhole,this trend first appeared in 1888.
The first man in the second has creases in his trousers which first appeared in the 1890's,the lady is dressed early 1900's style,so a date of post 1888 for the first but a better date can be given if we could see all of the cardstock & around 1905 for the second.

jim

[nickgc]

Michelle,

Perhaps you should get our expert RC photo daters involved in estimating date of second photo.  The woman's dress might give good dating clues.  When I looked at it I thought closer to early 1900s (e.g. 1905) than your estimate of 1888.  The men seem to have soft, attached shirt collars which might mean later than 1888.  I'm not an expert, so could be completely wrong.

Just change title to ask for dating of photo two.


Ah,  I see Jim is here to save the day.

Nick

[Yorvick]

Kia ora,

I agree with Nick, the people in the photo are much older than your estimate, despite the fact they lived very hard lives and the lack of "Ponds" or "Oil of Olay"


Best of luck tracking the ages down

[barbaras daughter]

Good morning all,

Thanks go to all for your help.

I'm afraid that I can't send a copy of the card stock as the first photo is a scanned copy of the original sent to me from the Singleton Historical Museum and the second was emailed to me from a member of the descendants of one of the people in the 2nd photo.

Re photo 1:  Jim1, you said that the watch chain in the button hole didn't appear until 1888?  The photo is a cropped version of a wedding photo (the one sent to me from the Singleton Historical Museum) & this couple married in 1884.  Any chance that it wasn't the 'norm' in 1884 for watch chains to be worn in this way?

Re photo 2:  Yes, I was just guessing as to the date the photo was taken as only one daughter is in the photo & the 2nd daughter had died in 1888.  What I am mainly after with photo 2 is trying to figure out which man is the eldest, fourth eldest, middle, 2nd youngest & yougest.  I don't know if this will help but the men's birth years were 1848, 1855, 1857, 1858 & 1863.  The woman - 1851.

I've attached another photo of the 5 boys in the hope that it may be of assistance.

Nickgc, mare, xinia, jim1 & yorvic, I appreciate your help.

Michelle

[nickgc]

OK, this took a lot of flipping back and forth between 1st and second group photo doing physical comparisons and here are my guesses.

1st Photo              and        2nd Photo

Middle = eldest                        middle man standing
Seated Left = 2nd eldest           left man standing
Seated right = 3rd eldest           standing right
Standing right  = 4th eldest       seated left
Standing left  = youngest          seated right


Now let's see how my guesses compare to other's...

Nick