Nine Sisters Together : Sepia Saturday

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph features nine young women  undergraduates at Oxford,  c.1920.   I cannot  match the academic background, but above  is a striking photograph of  nine sisters, gathered together on a much sadder occasion, with their mother and only brother. 

 

 

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I was helping a friend with her  family history researchand this photograph was among the family memorabilia, though with no names on the reverse. 

 

My friend's grandmother was Bridget McFarlane - little was known about her apart from the facts she was thought to have Irish connections and be part of a large family of women. The website ScotlandsPeople helped provide the answers.  

 

The certificate of  Bridget's marriage to Thomas Spowart  in 1894 gave the names of her parents - James McFarlane, a quarryman and Ann Lauchlin.  Bridget’s age was given as 18, so born c. 1876, confirmed by the 1901 census which gave her birthplace as Bannockburn, near Stirling. 

These three pieces of information enabled Bridget's family to be traced in the  census returns.  Parents James and Ann were both born in Ireland and they had ten children in 22 years (1876-1898)  - Bridget (the eldest), Kate, Mary, Patrick, Annie, Ellen, Sarah, Jane, Maggie and Jemima.    

The dark clothes and solemn expressions indicated that the occasion of the photograph   was a funeral.  Could the central figure holding a bible or prayer book be Ann McFarlane, nee Lauchlin, surrounded by nine daughters and only son Patrick?  Was the young girl carrying flowers the youngest daughter Jemima?  The style of dress and the possible age of the girl could date the photograph to the early 20^th century c.1910.   

 The estimated date of the photograph was confirmed by tracing father James’ death online  to October 6^th 1912.  

This was indeed a McFarlane family photograph.  

Death certificates on ScotlandsPeople are brilliant source material as they give more information than their English equivalent - notably the names of the deceased's  parents - provided of course that the informant knows these details.  

So I  learnt that Jame McFarlane,   married to Ann Laughlan, was a railway surfaceman, aged 53 when he died of bronchitis  at 24 Campbell Street, Dunfermline, Fife  - the informant his son Patrick McFarlane of 57 Arthur Street, Cowdenbeath, Fife.  

James' parents, both deceased, were named on the certificiate as Patrick McFarlane, a quarry labourer and Bridget McFarlane, maiden surname Phee   - though I did wonder could this have been the more usual surname of McPhee?  So James and Ann's eldest (and only)  son and eldest daughter were named after their paternal grandparents.

But the photograph above remains a potent symbol of a large family in mourning.  
 

Adapted from a post first published in 2010, with thanks to my friend, Edna. 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share their family history and memories through photographs.

 

 

 

Click HERE to read this week's contributions from Sepia Saturday bloggers.