Can you spot any likenesses?
QHere are photographs including a daguerreotype. In the group scene are my husband’s great-grandmother, Clara Sarah Buzza (1868-1955), who married Richard Baxter Lee in 1893. The small girl is her daughter, Gladys Lee (18981959), my husband’s grandmother. The boy behind her shoulder is her son, Norman Lee (1894-1917). Sadly, Norman was killed at Passchendaele on 31 July 1917. Her other daughter, Lorna, was not born until 1902 and I am therefore dating the photo to about 1900.
The three men I am less sure about, and this is where I need help. In my view she is sitting so close to the older man on her left that he could be her father, John Stephens Buzza (1834-1907). The two strapping young men on either side I think could be her brothers, Francis Sisley Buzza (1865-1956) and Richard Augustus Buzza (1866-1939). There was another brother, John Stephens Buzza (b.1860) but I have been unable to trace him further. I don’t think her husband, Richard (b.1869) is there: he seems a very different sort of character, I imagine shorter, and less confident looking; he also always seemed to sport a moustache. As to location, in 1901 Clara and Richard were living at 13 Sefton St, Litherland, Liverpool (where Gladys was born in 1898). In 1901 Clara’s father was living in Seaforth Lancashire, Francis Sisley was married and in Bredbury Cheshire, and Richard Augustus was very likely in Ashton under Lyne and single (although I cannot find him in 1901).
The other photo is of Richard Baxter Lee with Clara and Norman, the baby.
AJulie Westfield/hewitt
Firstly, the reference to daguerreotypes is confusing as your main group photograph cannot possibly be a daguerreotype, a very early type of photograph dating to the 1840s/1850s and obsolete by 1860.
I’m afraid I cannot tell the correct format from the scans provided, but either way going by the visual image, the larger group photo is a typical outdoor group scene dating to the beginning of the 20th century.
We can determine a close time frame from Clara’s appearance in a fashionable hourglass-styled costume comprising smart high-necked Edwardian blouse and tailored skirt with tiny cinched waistline. In particular, the shape of her sleeves, mainly narrow then flaring slightly towards the wrist, where they gather into a neat cuff, dates her ensemble firmly to c.1901-04.
The younger men behind both wear the tall stiffly-starched shirt collars fashionable in the years around 1900, but outmoded by about 1903. Therefore the combined fashion clues, considered alongside the apparent ages of the two children, born in 1894 and 1898, and the absence of baby Lorna (born 1902) suggest a likely year of 1901 or the beginning of 1902 for this photograph. I agree that the placing of Clara next to the older man could indicate that he is her father John. However, I would then ask: where is her mother? If John’s wife (not mentioned above) died before 1901/1902 then that would explain the absence of an older lady here and might well justify placing Clara (the main adult female) next to her father.
That is one interpretation; yet, oddly, whilst Clara’s children are pictured here, her husband, Richard, may not be present. Unfortunately I cannot match either younger man with complete certainty to Richard, compared with his earlier studio portrait (1894/1895), pictured with Clara and baby Norman. However, with regard to his moustache, this form of facial hair was fashionable with young men in the 1890s, but less so by the 1900s. The image quality is also poor, making firm facial matches tricky, so I would not completely rule out the possibility of one of the younger men here being Clara’s husband. Frustratingly, it is not really clear what occasion inspired this image, so I would recommend keeping an open mind about identities and locations, unless your records clarify the situation, or further information comes to light. JS