Can you tell me anything about this photograph showing my nan as a girl?
QI’m interested in finding out more about this family wedding photograph. I’m confident the two little girls at the front and the baby are my nan, Constance Victoria Ruby White, and her two sisters. Nan was born in 1904 in East Ham and her younger sister Maude in 1908. The lady holding baby Maude is probably my great grandmother, also Maude. Donna Cook
AGroup photographs from family weddings are wonderful historical records, portraying many ancestors together in one place. This professionally mounted photograph was taken by a local photographer who visited this outdoor location – probably the garden of the bride’s family home. You name him as LE Wilson, although this doesn’t show on your scan, and a brief entry for Louis Edward Wilson on a website covering early London photographers confirms a Battersea address in 1901: photolondon.org.uk/#/details?id=8558.
Guests wore their best formal outfits to weddings, and female costumes in particular can provide a firm timeframe for unidentified marriage photos. Older ladies typically looked sedate and conservative, younger women more fashionably dressed. Here the most modern bodice, sleeve, hat and hair styles indicate a date of c1909–1911. The bride and groom are seated centrally, the groom apparently wearing police uniform, the bride a traditional white gown and veil. Small flower girls appear to be aged about three or four and five or six, so the oldest could well be your nan Constance (born 1904), and the baby possibly Maude (born 1908). Hopefully you can now pinpoint the wedding, which most likely occurred in 1909.
Jayne Shrimpton
1 FASHIONABLE INDIVIDUALS
In a mixed group wedding photo, the most fashionably dressed ancestors are the young adult females, seen here standing mainly in the back row and far right in the second-back row.
2 HEADWEAR
Elaborate hats were usual at weddings and c1909–1912 the most fashionable headwear, worn by young women, featured enormous brims and crowns, and was ornamented with large bows and birds’ wings.
3 MEN’S SUITS
Most men wear threepiece lounge suits, their short-moderate jacket lapels suggesting a year close to 1910.
4 MATURE LADIES
The older seated ladies in the photograph, possibly representing the couple’s mothers and grandmothers, wear sombre dark clothes and modest shoulder capes, as well as outdated upturned hats and matronly bonnets.
5 COLLARS
The high-necked, frilled, white blouse collars seen on at least six women here were a classic late-Edwardian fashion, often layered beneath a coloured square- or roundnecked bodice.
6 SLEEVES SLEEVES
By 1909 high-fashion sleeves were usually narrow. The outgoing style was the full puffed sleeve, as worn by your great grandmother Maude.
QMy great great grandfather, Thomas Grant, was born in 1828 in Fleckney, Leicestershire. He married Elizabeth Barker in Wigston in 1853. Their daughter, Elizabeth Ann, was born in 1855 and Harry in 1857. By 1861, Thomas and Elizabeth were described as “carriers daily to Leicester”. In 1864, Elizabeth was killed when her horse stumbled and pulled her o the cart, which ran over her. Thomas then seems to disappear. How can I find out what happened to him?
Lizz Benyon
AIt does seem likely that Thomas moved from Wigston following his wife’s death. However, the age recorded at death was sometimes inaccurate, so allow a little leeway when searching death registrations and include those in neighbouring districts. Check whether Thomas left a will. Those proved at Leicester District Registry, 1858–1939, are included in an index of Leicestershire wills on Findmypast ( findmy past.co.uk). Alternatively, search the probate calendars via family history websites or the Government’s site gov.uk/search-will-probate. By looking at the father’s details on the marriage certificates of Harry and Elizabeth, you may be able to narrow down when Thomas died, while also checking whether he changed occupation.
Local directories may also be useful. Selections are available on the main genealogy websites and Leicester University’s website ( specialcollections.le.ac.uk), and large collections are held by both the Society of Genealogists and the Guildhall Library, London. Thomas Grant appears under Wigston Magna in the 1863 edition of White’s Directory. Searching later directories should help to narrow down when Thomas disappeared from the town.
Broaden your census searches too; Thomas could be recorded as “Tom”, and his occupation may be “carman” or “waggoner”. He may appear in a workhouse or prison census simply by his initials. Finally, did he emigrate? Both the 1870 US census and 1871 Canadian census include entries for Thomas Grant, born about 1830 in England. Katherine Cobb
QI acquired a letter almost 10 years ago sent from Beatrix Potter to a Mr and Mrs Stables giving permission to fish in one of the rivers on her property. The letter was sent from Hill Top Farm. I thought it would be lovely to research the Stables’ family and even get in touch with any living relatives. Can you give me some pointers on how to do this?
Daniel Jackson
AThank you for sharing your letter with us. What a treasure!
It is interesting to see that Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) signed the letter using her forename initials and with her married name of Mrs Helen Beatrix Heelis. She had married local solicitor William Heelis in 1913, ie 13 years before your letter was written. She bought Hill Top Farm, in Near Sawrey two miles from Hawkshead, in 1905.
You have some useful clues in identifying the recipient. You know that Mr A Stables lived at 16 Victoria Street, Windermere, on 31 May 1926.
You can establish his full forename using the Windermere electoral registers (1925–1927) at the Kendal Archive Centre. You can also see how long he lived at the property.
The letter was written just under five years after the 1921 census, which has recently been released on Findmypast ( findmypast.co.uk). Searching the census with the surname ‘Stables’ in Windermere returned 19 results. There was only one A Stables in Windermere itself: Allen Stables (born 1895), who was living with a Dorothy Stables. Checking the 1921 census entry for the Stables shows that he was a sorting clerk and telegraphist at the Post Office in Windermere, and that he and his wife had no children.
On the 1911 census, 15-year-old Allen was recorded with his parents and siblings at Butt Hill, Troutbeck, Windermere. He was working for the civil service as a telegraph messenger.
Using the marriage details from the 1921 census, we can identify Allen and Dorothy together at 31 Gray Street, Workington, in the 1939 Register. This also reveals that Allen’s birthdate was 25 July 1895. Checking the General Register Office (GRO) marriage index ( www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content) shows that he married Dorothy Studholme in 1920. Searching the GRO birth indexes using the mother’s maiden name of Studholme gives one result: Joyce, born at Kendal in 1928. This suggests Allen and Dorothy had only one child.
In 1950, Joyce appears to have married Ian J Williams in the Westmorland area. Searching the GRO birth indexes using Joyce’s maiden name, it seems the couple had just one son, whose birth was registered in the January quarter of 1955 in Hammersmith. We won’t publish his name here, but will email it to you. A man of the same name born between 1954 and 1956 is listed as living in Dorking, Surrey, according to the electoral registers between 2003–2010 on the Findmypast database. There are also several marriage options possible. If you order the birth certificate of the baby born in Hammersmith, this should s help establish whether he is indeed Joyce’s son and to discover his middle name, because this might help with such a common surname.
Using these details and more recent electoral registers, you could then t search to see if you can find upto-date t contact information for him.
Probate details can be helpful in providing family addresses, but since Allen appears to have died intestate on 6 September 1948 at Hamilton Terrace, Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, there is no will. However, there is an entry for an administration, which may help. Emma Jolly
QI found this photograph among my great aunt’s things when we cleared her house last year after she died. Nobody in the family seems to know who it is. Can you tell me his regiment and anything else to help me identify him?
Bill Dixon
AThis is a young soldier of the Middlesex Regiment in the first decade of the 20th century, all dressed up to have his photograph taken, possibly after the award of his second good-conduct stripe. The photograph was probably taken in Mill Hill, North London, where the regimental depot was.
The decade following the Second Boer War (1899–1902) saw great changes in the Army following the lessons learnt. Uniforms and equipment were adapted but some prewar relics, such as walking-out dress and sticks, remained.
It’s unlikely that he’d served in the war, because I’d expect to see medal ribbons on the tunic if he had. He may have enlisted during the war or shortly after. The normal enlistment period was 12 years, which, for an infantryman, meant five years “with the Colours” – ie, as an actual soldier – and seven years in the Reserve for call-up in an emergency. The fact that he has two goodconduct stripes suggests he extended his service, but either way he may well have been called up in 1914 and served again in the Middlesex. If you have any idea of a name, it might be worth looking for a Medal Index Card or service record for that name and regiment. He’s also likely to have been a Londoner, but it wasn’t compulsory.
Phil Tomaselli
1 COLLAR BADGES ES
The collar badges are Middlesex Regiment, but the feathers rise above the wreath. The badges had been abandoned by 1914, so I date these to 1900–1910.
2 TUNIC
The tunic is a different colour (lighter) than the trousers, suggesting it was scarlet with dark-blue trousers. This ‘walking-out’ dress was worn outside barracks, off duty.
3 STRIPES
Two good-conduct stripes (point-up chevrons on the lower left sleeve) indicate that he had at least six years’ service.
4 SWAGGER STICK
He’s carrying a walking-out (sometimes called swagger) stick, confirming he’s out of barracks, off duty (to have his photo taken).
5 CAP
The peaked service cap was introduced for officers in 1902 but was worn generally by all infantry ranks by about 1905.
6 CAP BADGE
This is the cap badge of the Middlesex Regiment. A laurel wreath surrounds the Prince of Wales’ feathers in a coronet, a motto scroll above a ducal coronet, with two scrolls beneath.
QThomas Heaney was my great grandfather. His father was also Thomas Heaney (shown as deceased on Thomas junior’s 1878 marriage record). Thomas junior first appears in the Sta!ordshire census in 1881, recorded as a police o"cer. The censuses indicate a birth of 1849, Glasgow. Before working in Sta!ordshire, he served in the Irish police force for five years (he enrolled at 21 and was posted to Wicklow). I’ve looked for a birth record for Thomas in and around Glasgow with no luck, as well as across Ireland. How can I find him?
Kevin Merchant
AThis may feel like looking for a needle in a haystack, but there are still a few options to try. First, the name Heaney has many variants, including O’Heaney, Heany and Hainey, and is often also used interchangeably with Heagney or Hegney.
If Thomas was born in Glasgow in the 1840s, Findmypast ( find mypast.co.uk) hosts the largest online collection of Scottish Catholic baptismal records. If he was Protestant, check the Old Parish Registers and ‘Other Records’ on ScotlandsPeople ( scotlandspeople.gov.uk), although not all Glasgow church records are online, and additional registers are held by Glasgow City Archives ( www.glasgowfamily history.org.uk/ExploreRecords/ Pages/Non-conformist-Church. aspx). If born in Glasgow, he might be found there in the 1851–1871 censuses with his father. If his father died between 1855 and 1878, the death record should be on ScotlandsPeople.
If his father claimed poor relief in Glasgow between 1845 and 1878, an application may note Thomas junior in Staffordshire as one of his children. Records are at Glasgow City Archives ( www.glasgowfamilyhistory. org.uk/ExploreRecords/Pages/ Poor-Law.aspx).
I assume you found his record of service with the Royal Irish Constabulary via the digitised collection on Findmypast. It is worth noting that this records him as a native of Longford, Dublin. Try narrowing down your search to this area and using some of the suggested surname variants.
At the Staffordshire end, see if Thomas ever received poor relief after leaving the police force, because this may include valuable information about his background ( staffsnameindexes. org.uk/default.aspx).
Finally, an autosomal DNA test through AncestryDNA ( ancestry. co.uk/dna) may enable you to connect with genetic cousins to help pinpoint other Heaney family members in Glasgow or Ireland. Chris Paton