Trying to put names to faces

[Huncamunca]

I have a photograph album which belonged to Frances Elizabeth Stone, the second wife of my great-great-grandfather, William Carter. Frustratingly only three of the photographs have labels. I've been able to identify a few of the people, some pretty definitely and others more tentatively. More work on the Stone family history and on the photographers may provide more clues.

I'm going to post some of the photos here and would appreciate your thoughts on them, especially on the dates. (I do have some books on dating old photographs already, but still don't feel confident at dating costumes/hairstyles etc.)

This one jumped out at me because I already had another photograph of the same woman (without the children) which my grandmother had given me. Granny thought this was William Carter's first wife's mother, who outlived her daughter. If that's correct, then this is Martha Johnson née Small, possibly with two grandchildren. Any idea of the date? (The photo is a carte de visite by Sutherland of 25 Sans Street, Sunderland.)

 

[Doug]

I think 1860s. I have a photograph in a book dated 1859 where the woman's hat is the same. Also pantaloons as worn by the children were popular around that time.

 

[MollyMay]

Well there was a photographer at 25 Sans Street on the 1861 census
RG09 3779 3 1 & in 1871 RG10 5016 4 1
William Southerland b1808 photo artist and registrar of B & D

By 1881 he has moved and is just the registrar RG11 4988 56 1
In 1851 he was a furniture broker and registrar HO107 2397 319 33

 

[Huncamunca]

Thank you Doug and MollyMay. I was hoping it might be 1860s as I would like the children to be some of my Carters. Ten year old Elizabeth J(ane) Carter was with her widowed grandmother Martha Johnson at 19 New Grey Street in 1871 (RG 10/5016, f.72, p.59). She had a sister Sarah Ann who was a couple of years older (b.1858 I think). So they might be the two children in the picture. There is quite a big age gap between them and the next known child, James William Carter (b.1866). I do have other photos of James but none (or at least none that are labelled!) of his older sisters.

 

[Huncamunca]

Frances Elizabeth Stone, to whom the photograph album belonged, married William Carter in 1880, acquiring five step-children, and then going on to have at least two sons of her own: George Herbert Carter (b.1883) and Francis Theodore Carter ('Frank', b.1885). (There may have been another son who died in infancy in 1882.)

I have a locket with photographs of George and Frank as adults in army uniforms, and am fairly sure that the photograph below (by H. Thompson of 39 Tatham Street, Sunderland) is of them too. It's a cabinet print on a dark green mount with gold lettering, which would fit with it being 1890s.



Frances outlived both her sons. George died in 1915, believed to be as the result of a riding accident. Frank died in July 1920, just a few weeks after marrying his cousin, Jane Stone Frostick.

 

[MollyMay]

You could well be right
1891 census the occupant of 39 Tatham Street was Henry Thompson b1856 - photographer RG12/4139/25/43
By 1901 the photographer at that address was Clement Humphries RG13/4712/97/9
The occupant in 1881 is widow Dorothy Cockburn RG11/4997136/87

 

[Huncamunca]

Thank you again, MollyMay! I used to use FMP for address searches on the census, but find the "new improved" version so feeble and infuriating that I keep giving up. To add to my frustrations the Historical Directories site has been completely changed too, and makes my browser crash every time I try to use it. For some directory searches I am resorting to dusting off old CDs!

The strategy of trying to find Frances and all her siblings on censuses may have solved some of the mystery photos. There was a whole batch of photos from Bury, Lancashire, where I couldn't find a family connection, but Fanny herself (listed as F.E. Stone) turns up there on the 1871 census, as a governess to the children of Edward Bland. I now think it very likely that the photos show some of her little charges.

A group of photos from Exeter I think probably depict Frances' sister Jane Stone, who married Charles Henry Bastow, and two of her children (or maybe the same child at different ages). Brett Payne's website was very helpful in dating the photos as it has several examples by the same Exeter photographers as mine (Owen Angel and J.F. Long):
http://
freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~brett/photo2/index.html

One of the few definites in the album is a photo of George Kelsey Lee, draper, who was married to another of the Stone sisters, Harriet. I saw another photo of him when on a research trip to South Shields. I expect his wife and some of the numerous children may be in the album too, but do not know who is who.

This is perhaps the photo that bugs me the most. It's by a Sunderland photographer so likely to be relations of the Stones or Carters. I would love to know who these two boys are:


(cabinet print, by Chas. E. Cowper, Holmeside, Sunderland)

 

[MollyMay]

Well I have been using your photographers to try and get myself better aquainted with the census address searches and so far I have been reasonably successful, although it is frustrating that it is now less simple to find them. The clue is to select the individual census from the "A - Z of record sets" (box is on the rhs of the screen, after you have selected a topic from the drop down box) and you then have spaces to enter all the details of the address.

What a lovely photo, two beautiful little boys

 

[MollyMay]

I can find a Charles Ernest Cowper, photographer on both the 1901 (RG13/4571/80/28) and the 1911 (RG14 PN29180 SN40) b1862 Bishop
Wearmouth but he is living in Coatham, Guisbrough, Yorkshire.
Co incidental, but no proof he had premises in Holmeside - methinks this is one for trade directories (yes the 'new' site is another we have to get to grips with).