Please could someone date this photo?

[-Glen-]

Hello,

Please could someone kindly date this photo for me and estimate the age of the girl? It's a very small card-backed photo. This was handed down from my Great-Grandmother and we believe it to be her, but she's turned out to be a bit of a family tree mystery because we can't find anything on her for the first approx 27 years of her life! We can't find a birth record for her (or find her in the 1891, 1901 and 1911 censuses)!! I'm hoping that dating this photo will help me to pinpoint the birth record. Depending on whether you go by her marriage cert or death cert, she was born c1890.

Many thanks, Glen.

[chinakay]

Kids are hard to date. Could we see the back please?

Cheers,
China

[jim1]

& give us some details & we'll have a look..we like a bit of a mystery.

jim

[-Glen-]

Hi China, i don't have the photo with me and i'm not home until end of April now. But there was nothing on the back. I'll check again when i'm home, to be sure though.

Jim: Thanks! Please see my recent post on the 'Kent Lookup Requests' forum. All the details are there. This is the name of the post: 'Birth/Baptism/Census lookup please - Dorothy 'Dinah' Staples/Shepherd/Langley'. Thanks very much!

[chinakay]

Well......on another thread from 2005, there's a Lewis photo showing the back. It's not the same front, much more ornate. But the back says "Lewis & Co, late Field & Son"

So...Field & Son were at 6 Sandling Rd in the 1891 Kelley's directory. There's no Lewis. So Lewis took over at Field's premises and likely bought the business.

By the 1903 directory, Lewis is at 125 Week St in Maidstone. So...the pic should date between 1891 and 1903. I'd say earlier rather than later, because this cardstock is pretty primitive. The other one is very elegant.

Soooo...it could well be your GG, Glen

The Kelley's information comes from Rootschatter Rod in Sussex who replied on the other thread. You can read the whole thing, and see the other photo, here:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,69037.0.html

Cheers,
China

[-Glen-]

Wow! Thanks China! This is excellent stuff! I wonder how/if I could find out when they stopped using 'Lewis & Co, late Field & Son'? And I'll definietly re-check the back of this one, when I get home.

I have some other photos which were together with this one. I think I shall upload them to see what you make of them too!

Thanks again, Glen.

[-Glen-]

This was also amongst them. Any ideas on the date? And do you think it's a family shot? Or a school group photo? Or neither?!

[chinakay]

I would say right about 1905. The cardstock is early 1900s, and the woman on the left seems to be wearing the pigeon-fronted blouse style of the Edwardian era, while the woman on the right is wearing a tight bodice style, so she hasn't quite caught up with the fashion yet

I think it's a school shot as the children all seem to be about the same age. Two of the boys are standing with their arms folded and the little ones are sitting on a small rug, both quite common in school photos. Although the two ladies have quite similar faces...they could be sisters as well as teachers.

If you have some more to post, Glen, it's best to start a new thread for each one as some people don't revisit old threads

Cheers,
China

[-Glen-]

Thanks again! This is great stuff!
And thanks for the tip on starting new posts each time. I'll do that.
Thanks, Glen.