Are these the same man? Fred Branton

[Elliebean54]

In these series of 4 pictures the 1st picture is the one I'm querying.
 
Fred Branton was my grandad and we have many later photos of him. The 1st one was assumed to be him as a young man, but I'm really not sure. We're not even sure who originally said it was him or if it was just a guess. It's not labelled by the now deceased relative who named most of the collection.

Fred was always a tall, big, sturdy built man with broad shoulders and strikingly vivid very pale blue eyes. There's some uncertainty of his original hair colour.

The 2nd photo is Fred taken 10-12 years after the 1st

The 3rd is one is Fred about another 30 years later but it's the clearest picture I have of his face structure, albeit as a much older man

Finally, the 4th picture is of Jack who is not a blood relation of Fred. There should be no biological relationship between the 1st and 4th pictures if it is Fred Branton.
 
If it's not him it leaves only one possibility (it was one of a series of pictures taken together) - that it is Jack's father, my grandmother's brother rather than her husband. 

Any and all thoughts gratefully received.

[Wobbitt55]

I'll bite...
 I believe the two in the middle are the same man...
The first I don't think matches those two.. The head shape and eyebrows. His chin too is different, but the 2 middle guys probably are 30-40 pounds heavier and that could be why?

[Milliepede]

Had you not said I would have guessed 2 and 3 were the same man. 

1 not the same as 2/3 but are you saying 1 and 4 could be the same man (or related to each other but not related to 2/3)?

[Elliebean54]

Had you not said I would have guessed 2 and 3 were the same man. 

1 not the same as 2/3 but are you saying 1 and 4 could be the same man (or related to each other but not related to 2/3)?

*Photo 2 and 3 are definately the same man taken about 30 years apart aged mid 30s and mid 60s, and are Fred Branton my grandad.

*Photo 1 was assumed to be him aged around 22-24. I am not so sure. The photo was not labelled by earlier relatives who would have known him as a young man.

*Photo 4 (Jack) is NOT a blood relative of Fred Branton (from photos 2 & 3) but his wife's nephew.

*I think Photo 1 might be Jack's (photo 4) father, my grandmother's brother.

I think there is a resemblance between 1 and 4 that indicates they may be father and son. Jack has a brother that also bears a strong resemblance to the man in Photo 1 but he is still living so I obviously can't post that for reference as well.

Sorry for the lack of clarity, I maybe should have posted Jack's picture seperately to keep things tidier

[McGroger]

Agree with you, Elliebean, the difference in the ears in particular between 1 and 3 is stark.
Peter

[Elliebean54]

Agree with you, Elliebean, the difference in the ears in particular between 1 and 3 is stark.
Peter

Yes, I'd noticed the ears too - they do seem very different!

I have some potentially good maybe decisive news. We have located a photo said to be of Fred at just 21 when he was discharged from the army in 1918. I'm waiting on a family member to photograph the photo and send it to me for comparison. I'm hoping it will resolve it - I'll post it to the thread as soon as I get it for perusal.

It is important, more to others than me. My GM's only brother Richard was killed in an industrial accident just before WW2 and his house was later bombed out destroying every known photo of him. If that's him (and it's part of a set clearly taken at the same time of his sisters which is another reason I think it could be) then it is definately the only one.

He has 2 living children past 90 and grandchildren who contacted our side of the family years ago to see if anyone had a picture of him. I'd happily claim that lovely looking man as Fred, but I'm hoping really that it is Richard for their sake, and if it is then the picture is theirs by right and we have to get it to his surviving children ASAP. I know they may well be able to say yes or no even though they've not seen his face for well over 70 years, but I wanted as much certainty as possible before raising something that would be very emotive for them, and potentially a bad let down in the end if I'm wrong.

[Treetotal]

I would say that 1&4 could be the same man. The shape of the eyebrows and shadow between also the same parting seem to pint to them being the same person.
Carol

[Elliebean54]

I would say that 1&4 could be the same man. The shape of the eyebrows and shadow between also the same parting seem to pint to them being the same person.
Carol

I should have posted Jack seperately for clarity!

Photo 4 (Jack) wasn't born when Photo 1 was taken (about 1918)

I basically suspect that Photo 1 must be Jack's dad Richard in part because they look so very alike. The ID of Jack has to be correct because it was labelled by his own family who were contemporaries with him, and as Photo 1 is too old to be him, we're back to it being his father Richard.
If (1) was Fred (2&3) as has been claimed, then Jack (4) is not even a blood relative of (1)

[DrDude45]

just to keep in practice, I gave the first image a quick cleanup. Hope you like.