Family History Fun: Bonnie Babies

The birth of a baby has to be a Special Occasion - this month’s Sepia Saturday theme. So take a look at these photographs of Bonnie Babies down generations, many sitting up beautifully for the camera - taken from my own collection and that of my cousIn and great aunt.

THREE LITTLE GIRLS: 1861 to 1906

Ann Elizabeth Shaw (1860-1917) was the great grandmother of my cousin's wife, She looks so sweet in this photograph taken c.1861. We rarely see a smile in photographs of that time. Amy was born in Canning Town, Essex to Henry Shaw and Mary Suzanna Wingfield. At the age of 19, she married Edward Henry Coombs whose family ran a grocery business and a jam factory. They had ten children between 1880 and 1899.

Here is a charming picture of Ellen Florence Coombs nee Hooker with her baby daughter Hilda Florence.

Above Hilda Florence Coombs, in a photograph dated on the back as 9.9.1908. The photographer was J J Hilder of 257 Barking Road, Plaistow, Essex.

Hilda's father Edward Henry Coombs was one of ten children with five brothers and four sisters. He married Ellen Florence Hooker, with Hilda the eldest of three daughters, and one son who died in infancy.

Elsie Oldham, born in 1906 was my mother's second cousin. Her family had a carters and coal merchant's business in Blackpool, Lancashire. Following her father's death, Elsie took over at the helm with her husband, and saw the business through the difficult wartime years, combining it with her own hairdressing concern under the name of "Elise".

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I know nothing about this photograph , apart from the message o.n the back “Best Wishes from Baby Constance”. It was in a collection of some 50 photographs I inherited from my great aunt Jennie Danson and featured friends, family of friends with children and men in uniform. Taken I guess in the period 1916-1922. Jennie fortunately in many cases wrote names on the back of photographs - but not in this case

Another photograph from Jennie's collection - and so typical of the period, as photos were taken of families separated by war, Identified on the back as Lizzie Riley and son and Billy Hopkins. Two of the sisters of Jennie's mother had married Riley brothers - but it was a popular local surname, and I have no further details.

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FOUR GENERATIONS OF MY FAMILY: 1908-2009

MY MOTHER

One of the oldest photograph in my collection shows, on the left, my aunt Edith and on the right my mother Kathleen - taken late 1908. The sisters were born one year and one week apart, daughters of William Danson and Alice English of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire. Aunt Edith played an active role as my godmother and the sisters remained close all their lives, often photographed together.

MYSELF

One of my favourite photographs of my mother that I have featured before on my blog. This photograph It means a lot of me, as my mother looks so happy and stylish, and I can only remember Mum with grey hair worn in a French pleat. But the picture came as a surprise, as I had never seen it before, with no copy in the family album of my childhood. Just before my marriage in 1971, my future husband and I were visiting an old family friend of my parents, when she brought out this picture and gave it to us. I was delighted to have it!

Following the deaths of both my parents, I found a number of letters they exchanged in 1944, whilst my father was serving in the RAF as a Code and Cipher Clerk in France. In one letter, Dad asked for a "Photograph of Baby" - and this studio portrait was the result!