A date for this unknown mother (?) and baby please - England

[jim1]

I agree I wouldn't expect to see communication either
or Union? underneath this is what made me believe it
was from another French speaking country.
Although postcards were developed for posting very few were
instead they were preferred as a better alternative to cabinet cards.
I find the scenario you put forward highly unlikely as the
opportunities for furlough were few & far between & as men
were being moved around the Front frequently there was little
chance of relationships developing.

[jim234j]

I have a postcard taken WW1 with the same on the back.    The correspondence on it starts with "Somewhere in France" and the photo is my great Uncle and four others in Uniform.

[Viktoria]

My father’s army photograph is on a postcard but also a peacetime one ,just the right size and from a local well known Manchester photographer.1916.
” Jerome “, there is one of me as a one year old and a number of my older sister ,all on postcards.
The dates would be from the mid 1933 my sister and 1937 myself.when we children were photographed.
Viktoria.

[stevemiller]

I thought this would have been a fairly straightforward topic! But this is becoming very bewildering.  I raise a couple of points.  Surely “CARTE POSTAL” would be in much larger type? And I suppose the next line is   “UNION POSTALE UNIVERSELLE”.

I take on board Jim1’s point about there being few opportunities for long term relationships to develop between soldiers and locals. I had a quick look at my mother’s DNA on MyHeritage to see if there were any French matches. Bearing in mind that DNA tests are meant to be “illegal” in France, I was surprised to find she had 160 (they can’t all be ex-pats). However, they were all “4th or 5th cousins” so I suspect this is mainly background noise.

Concerning the possible Canadian link, I can’t think of any family members who would be in the frame.

Jim234j  - are you able to post an image of your card for comparison?

Although I will keep an open mind about the French/Francophone link, I think I will offer some possible candidates and see what people make of them.

[stevemiller]

For the moment shall we forget that I mentioned France!

I would expect the woman and baby to be close family members. There are few surviving photos in our family so I think the photo must have had some importance to have been treasured and survived.

I think I am inclined to rule out my grandfather’s side. This is his mother on a topic from a few years ago https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=786481.0

On the other side we have four siblings all born in Newbury Berkshire:
Leonard Knight 1900
CharleS 1901
Elizabeth 1902
Evelyn Mary Knight 1904 (my grandmother).
Carol’s point about the divided back postcard being introduced in 1902 would suggest the baby is my grandmother.

Their mother, Jane Knight nee Sawyer was born in Newbury in 1868, so she would have been aged about 36 in 1904. The father Edwin Knight was a house painter.

The two grandmothers were both alive in 1904:
Mary Ann Sawyer nee Head was born in 1836, so aged 68; her husband Charles was a butcher then painter. He died in 1894.

Sarah Ann Knight nee Stone  was born in 1849, so aged 55; her husband  Frederick was a photographer then house painter.

Everyone lived in Newbury, except Frederick and Sarah Ann who were in Reigate before they moved to Middlesex between 1901 and 1907.

I’ve mentioned the men’s occupations to give an indication of social standing in case that offers a clue.

I would be interested to know what people think about who provides the best match to the photo.

[jim1]

I looked at the UNION POSTALE UNIVERSELLE & found a similar card
but all the photos seem to be commercially produced.

[stevemiller]

Many thanks Jim - you see what I mean about "CARTE POSTALE" being bigger.

I've just had a look through the old topic I linked to - the back of that card has "COMMUNICATION".

Could the woman and baby card be bi-lingual, and we are missing the English part? Did provincial photographers use such stock?