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Find My Past Blog - Ask the photo expert – clues from fashion

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  • Find My Past Blog - Ask the photo expert – clues from fashion

    Our photo dating expert, Jayne Shrimpton, analyses your family photos.
    Nicole Becker sent us her photo and asked:
    ‘I wonder if you can help me pinpoint a circa date for this photograph, please. These girls are meant to be sisters born in 1858 and 1865. I wonder, though, if the style of clothing is later? I’m not sure who the older woman is.’

    Jayne says:
    ‘Most of us have a tendency to take a guess at who may be pictured in our old family photographs. This is natural, even though inherited pictures are often unnamed and not dated and so, in reality, we have nothing concrete to go on. Sometimes we simply accept what we have been told by someone else. A relative’s suggestions may be sound, but like all historical ‘facts’ that emerge when researching family history, ideas about identity that are unsupported by written or printed records, or by other known images, should ideally be verified and authenticated.
    Admittedly, it may be hard to pin down precisely which forebears from among the many potential candidates on the family tree are pictured in a particular photograph, but the first, crucial step is to establish a realistic date range for the scene. This will at once confirm whether the presumed ancestors could possibly fit the period of the picture, or whether the photograph’s subjects must represent a different generation altogether.
    Clearly you had your doubts about this photograph and wisely decided to submit it for analysis. With no mount style to help with dating and no printed photographer details, any historical evidence attached to this photo lies within the visual image itself. Fortunately the appearance of adult women in a photograph can usually be dated closely, for ladies’ fashions changed more regularly and distinctly in the past than did male styles.
    Pictured outdoors, these ancestors are well dressed in semi-formal daywear, their outfits suited to their respective ages. The older lady, right, wears a dressy black ensemble that could possibly suggest mourning, but may equally represent the kind of dignified costume considered appropriate for a middle-aged woman. The young woman, left, is bang up to date with the latest fashionable trends, while the young girl is dressed in a typical white knee-length child’s frock – or blouse and skirt – worn with black woollen stockings and an ornate bonnet.
    Jayne Shrimpton

    The younger woman’s appearance provides the closest timeframe for this scene, confirming a date in the early-mid Edwardian era – c.1901-05. In particular, her stylish short bolero jacket and wide-brimmed, upturned hat are two of the key fashion dating features here, as are the style of both ladies’ sleeves.
    When a photograph was taken within the space of just a few years, judging the ages of its subjects becomes meaningful, for their approximate birth years can then be calculated and compared with ancestors recorded on the family tree. This is especially true of children, whose ages are more easily estimated than those of adults. The young girl is probably aged between about eight and 11 years old and so her birth date must fall in the 1890s. The young adult could perhaps be an older sister aged in her late ‘teens’ or early 20s, so born approximately 6-12 years earlier, while the older lady could be their mother.
    To sum up, you were quite right in thinking that the photograph might be too late to fit the suggested sisters born in 1856 and 1865: these girls are clearly from the next generation. It might, however, be worth considering whether the mother figure here – aged perhaps around 40, or thereabouts – could in fact be one of those ancestors.’
    If you’d like to send your photo to Jayne, please register or opt to receive newsletters in ‘my account’. Jayne only has time to analyse two photos each month, but if yours wasn’t chosen this time, you could be lucky next month!


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