Never give up......

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

lol

There is a point to this thread, so bear with me!

I have several Victorian photo albums which have bugged me for some years. Some of the photos have names on, a couple have dates, almost none have anything more and some photos have been labeled on the album page and have clearly subsequently been moved (unless Mrs Ada Smith really wore trousers and had a full beard! ), leaving me unable to trust any of the other page labels.

Yesterday I was looking at them yet again and decided to try and find Jessie Reyner and her mother Jane Reyner as the names seemed fairly unusual and at least they both had Christian names rather than just forename initials. However, they still didn't have any dates. The only other clue was the photos were taken in London.

I found a possible family, and traced them back through three generations and then a bit sideways as someone was helpfully living with their uncle, George Smith from Wadesmill, Herts. George may well be a new son for my 3xg-grandfather, James Smith of Wadesmill.

Of course I need George's marriage cert for his father's details, but all his children were born in Whitechapel and had ordinary names I couldn't easily get a birth cert to see what his wife's maiden name was, and how many marriages are there for a George Smith to a Jane X?? Hundreds!

Howver, a bit more prodding of the photos and of the records revealed that one of the Mrs G Smith photos (there are several of those and not all the same lady) had her maiden name included......Grout. A quick check through all four possible marriages for a Jane Grout revealed one to George Smith, but whilst the date was good, the area was not where I had expected. However, once I had Jane's baptism and parents names from the IGI I could see her parents were living in the same district the marriage record was for......Plus her sister and some descendants are also in the album!

SO, I shall be buying the marriage cert and see who George Smith's father was

(the purpose of this thread being to make me order the cert and not forget or go off on a tangent :()

So, despite adding some Grout to my tree, I have managed to pick a little hole in one of my brick walls!!

[Patti]

Can I ask,are the albums of your own Family or do you like to research them,as strangers.I can see that must be very interesting,like a detective really.Once you start its like a dog with a bone isnt it !!

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

The albums came to me via my great-grandfather, Edwin Maynard, and it's him who had a go at labeling the pictures. I used to think he had compiled the albums, but I'm beginning to think they have come to him from a cousin or something.........

I shouldn't really have the albums at all, as after he died in 1921 my grandmother's sister had them and they might have filtered down her family in America, but for the fact that she had a rather turbulent marriage involving lots of fighting and running from the police and rent collectors from time to time. On one occasion her husband temporarily left her for another woman and took their youngest child with him on the train to Scotland from Devon, via their home in London. After a few days a suitcase arrived back in Devon and as it was heavy my great-aunt imagined it might have her daughter's body in it and so wouldn't open the case! When it was eventually opened by my grandmother who had gone to Devon to help her sister, it turned out the case was full of family photo albums which had been sent down from the London house. My grandmother took them back with her to Twickenham and it is from her that I inherited them!!

[Bo the Bodger]

Merry - I have a fabulous album of my father's (pictures on the birthday annversary site) but many of them don't have names and are still securely glued in after 100yrs!. The majority are obviously studio portraits.

Do you think it is worth prizing them off the page and if so any ideas how so that I don't damage the photo? In your experience am I likely to find anything on the back ie name of said person?.

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

Hi Bo.....I was lucky in that the albums I have are of the slot-in variety, so no glue! The main useful thing on the back are the photographers details as about 90% have these whereas only about 50% have any form of personal details and they are not good.........Initials for women are often their husband's forname initial as that was the custom, but is not helpful for identifying.

Do you think your album was put together sometime after some of the photos were taken? I should think it would be more likely there might be identifying info if the owner of the photos didn't know they were going to stick the pics in an album.

Are any of them loose?? I would be tempted to have a go, if it were me, but I say that without knowing how well stuck they are. The Victorian glues are usually not fabulous so if any of the pics were a bit shiny on the reverse they may come out more easily.

[Phoenix]

Our AGM will include a brilliant talk (well the images are fascinating) on a Victorian photograph album. A friend and I set about tracing the identities of those named and unnamed in an album that turned up in the Netherlands.
How I wish I had similar luck with the collection of photos I've been lent, which don't have so much as the name of the photographer on the back!

[Patti]

Thats all very interesting,wish I had one now !!