I've decided to go with a baby, The way the lady is holding 'it' looks right for a baby, but I could be wrong. Could these be your ggg grandparents?
Pat
From what I'm hearing, I'm getting pretty close to settling on it being them. Now that I can see her face a little more clearly, and especially now that the dates matches her closer than her daughter-in-law, I'm starting to appreciate a resemblance between the lady in the picture and a known picture of Grada from shortly before her death in 1898. I'll add that picture in case any one would like to agree or disagree with that resemblance. And for what it's worth, my understanding is that she wasn't as heavy a woman as she appears- she was suffering from dropsy/edema at the time (her eventual cause of death).
This is really exciting, and I thank you all.
Assuming it is a baby, do you suppose it follows that it was her only child at the time, or else the others would be included?
They were married in 1852. Their oldest son John (1853-1870) was born 11 months later. Sadly, owing to his early death, I expect if it is him, it would be the only image of him in existence. But if so, that would date the picture as 1853, which is a little before the only estimate that's been given so far.
I've added "Dating help" to the subject just to see if I can solicit a second opinion/confirmation. Can we say with relative certainty that it's not from as late as the late 1870s? That certainty would be enough for me to conclude it is John and Grada rather than their son.
