Eliza Parkinson nee Madder

[Harlem]

I am a volunteer researcher for the Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles. Those of us with some experience in genealogy use internet resources to see if we can find out anything about the quilters whose quilts are in the Guild’s museum collection.
I am currently trying to find out something about this woman, Eliza Parkinson (nee Madder), from Dalkey near Dublin. She is said to have lived between 1787 and 1871. I would welcome opinions about this photograph, found on An*****y. I think photography became available to the general population in the 1840s. Is that right? So she would have been at least 53 when this photo was taken. What do you think about her clothes? Are they from the 1840s? Is she dressed in mourning? I am trying to find out if this photo really is her. What do you think?

copyright image removed

[jim1]

Can you give a link to the page you saw the photo?

[QueenoftheWest]

Perhaps it is this one?:
https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Madden-220

Queenie 

[jim1]

That looks like the one Queenie.
Now the bad news it's 1870's.

[QueenoftheWest]

That looks like the one Queenie.
Now the bad news it's 1870's.

Unless my eyes are deceiving me, that lady is certainly not in her 80s! I also thought that the photograph looked too late to be Eliza, but I am no expert. I wonder who it really is...

Queenie 

[Harlem]

Thank you all.

Yes, the photo is the one on Wikitree, and it is also on a number of Ancestry public trees. I got it from the Quilters' Guild, but I expect they got it from Ancestry.

Both the Guild's curator and i thought there was something wrong! So, Jim1, that is not really bad news. It confirms our suspicions. I would love to know why you date it to the 1870s. Is it her clothes? What is it about them? Some Ancestry trees have her birth in 1805, not 1787. But no sources anywhere, and I cannot find it myself. I have messaged the person who created the Wikitree page, but no answer yet.
Anyway, if we could more or less agree on a later date, that would eliminate her from being the quilter, I think. The quilt is dated to around 1800.
I would be grateful for any more thoughts, thank you.

[Harlem]

This is what the Guild's curator said about the photo:

" I don’t think her dress, from what I can see, is 1840s/50s – it’s much more like 1860s earliest but more characteristic of even later – I’m going by the beading detail, the high collar and brooch at her neck. The hairstyle – again, not much to go one. A centre parting would work for the 1840s up to 1870s and from then on much more fashionable to have frizzy fringe, but hairstyles are often less reliable, and older women sometimes wore fashions of their youth, and I think Queen Victoria kept that centre parting all her life. Speaking of which, her white cap is very reminiscent of Queen Victoria’s mourning/widow’s cap which was white like this, and Eliza Parkinsons dress is black with a white shawl – I think her whole outfit could possibly be a mourning outfit. (I appreciate it’s hard to tell that when photography was black and white!)."

[jim1]

The problem here is that most of the identifiers of date are
concealed by a shawl & day cap so the curator like myself has had
to concentrate on what's left & has correctly identified the bodice
style as 1860's or later however I would rule out 1860's as this
oval vignette is a common style of the 1870's.
I would also disagree that this is a mourning photo as other elements
of such are absent although this is not particularly relevant to the question.
 

[Harlem]

Thank you, Jim1. I shall include that in my report to the Guild, properly acknowledged of course! I think we are heading towards the conclusion that this woman probably did not make the quilt between 1790 and 1810.