Date please: John Inkster (1800-1880), Shetland

[Neale1961]

... obviously someone important enough that William brought a photo with him to Canada.

How do you know that? It is quite possible that it was a photo sent to the family in Canada. It was quite common at this time to enclose a photo in a letter and send it across the oceans to relatives.

(I recently inherited a photo of my great-grandmother and her sister who never left Scotland, from a distant relative in America, where it must have been sent in the late 1870s. It had been labelled at some time and by someone as "Dad's cousins". Fortunately I had other photos of my g-gran in her youth, so was able to identify the photo and solve the mystery.)

[RedMystic]

That was very fortunate for your Neal1961.

Hopefully, something will arise to clarify this photo for my husband's family too.

[fiddlerslass]

What about his maternal grandfather?

[Gadget]

What about his maternal grandfather?

It says Dad's Grandfather on the back

[fiddlerslass]

A dad has 2 grandfather's, so what about dad's mother's father??

[Gadget]

I read it to mean  that you were referring to the writer's grandfather

[Gadget]

Also, Redmystic says in the first post:

his photo is labelled as grandfather to William Harcus Inkster (1877-1968). His maternal grandfather died in 1867, so that eliminates that option, and appears to reference John Inkster (1800-1880).