My Ancestors

A few months ago this photograph arrived in my inbox. It came with a mystery. Who is the woman in the photograph?

Now I’m not very good with old photographs. Some family historians seem to have an uncanny ability to instantly spot an article of clothing, a button or a hairstyle and date a photograph to within a few years. I don’t even have the basic skills of being able to pick out a face in a wedding photograph and be certain that that is the same person as a studio portrait taken perhaps a decade or two distant in time.

I’m quite comfortable with the desk based detective work though… despite the bottom left tear on the photograph above, I can tell that it was taken at Turner & Drinkwater’s photographic studio in Hull. They photographed the Prince of Wales in 1883 and opened ‘The Studio Royal’ in February 1885. It’s hard to tell from the copy, but this looks like an albumen print stuck to a pre-printed backing cards (rather than a photographic print from a negative). Whilst I haven’t yet managed to matched the typography on the card to any dated prints, 1885-1890 seems the most likely period during which this photograph was taken.

Seeing the back of the photograph would help. It might offer a serial number that could be sequenced with other photographs with known dates, or perhaps there might be a way to access Turner & Drinkwater’s historic records linking photographs to client names. Unfortunately I don’t have access to the back. The copy came to me via a relative who in turn had received it from another relative. The original source though does provide an additional clue. The album was once in the possession of my grandad CLARK’s eldest sister, and it was the first photograph in the album, so it’s probably a direct CLARK ancestor, and perhaps the first to have a photograph.

I’ve already admitted I’m no expert on dress, but this woman’s costume looks old, more 1850s or even earlier I think, rather than 1880s. [I’d really welcome any better informed views on this via the comments.] She’s knitting with three needles which suggests to me that she is most likely knitting socks. She’s also wearing a wedding ring.

And then there is the dog. In Conan Doyle’s short story ‘The Adventure of Silver Blaze’ the curious incident was that the dog didn’t bark (thus revealing the murderer was someone familiar to the dog). My possible ‘curious incident’ owes more to Mark Haddon’s 2003 novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – the curious incident here being that the dog is dead. In this photogrpah I’m wondering if the dog might be a photographers prop or taxidermied pet? Would a dog sit still long enough for an 1880’s photograph? [Once more I’d welcome any better informed views via the comments.]

But there is perhaps another possible explanation around the dog. When I look again at the woman in the photograph I can’t get the idea out of my head that she looks… well a little ‘flat’? The perspective somehow just doesn’t look completely right. And this leads me to wonder if it might in fact be a photograph of a painting? Why make a copy of a painting? Perhaps because more than one relative wanted a copy?

With these ideas in mind I have three favoured candidates for the sitter:

• My 2 x great grandmother, Martha Jane CLARK nee GILL (1826-1891)
• My 3 x great grandmother, Ann CLARK nee OSBOURN (c1787-1877)
• My 4 x great grandmother, Mary CLARK nee TAYLOR (c1774-1853)

All lived in Hull and all were married to whalers – hence the need for woollen socks. Perhaps the simplest explanation is that it’s a photograph of Martha taken when she was around 60. But the other possibility is that it’s a painting, perhaps by George CLARK (1828-1898), the brother of my 2 x great grandfather. The Ann and Mary above were his mother and grandmother respectively. The extended family all lived together off Salthouse Lane in Hull. In his Will George’s left ‘all of my oil paintings’ to his son, and I have inherited an unsigned but similar style painting of my own great grandfather, George’s nephew. Perhaps George was the painter of family portraits?

Lots of jigsaw pieces. Sadly no picture of the finished puzzle. Perhaps one day more clues might turn up. If you think you can help with either of my questions, or if you have any other thoughts please do let me know via the comments section below.