This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph features a couple side by side. So take a look at photographs on the theme of "Two's Company."
One of the oldest photographs in my family collection of my great grandparents Matilda Such and James Matthews of Wolverhampton in the English Midlands.
James (1843-1918) was a
man of many parts – a third son in a large family; under hand roller, underhand
shingler and hollow fireman at an iron
works; a complete change of occupation to that of insurance agent and also shopkeeper; with his wife
Matilda, parent to ten children, and a prominent
member of the local Methodist church where he was choir conductor. ]
My great grandmother’s childhood proved to be a challenging research task, complicated by the fact Matilda (1849-1929) was the third illegitimate child of her namesake mother, whose supposed marriages have not been verified.
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January 1975 and a birthday photograph of my daughter - snow at one stage seemed to be a constant feature of her birthdays and played havoc with party arrangements. The weather here is much the same today as I write this!
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to share their family history through photographs.
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A lovely sequence of two-person family photographs down the line! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat great photos of pairs of people,mostly relatives! I do think we must take into account the culture that some of our ancestors lived in, where being married wasn't always written down, or performed with a minister/priest. It does make it harder to try to find our ancestors who didn't have those nice records, so I am sorry your great grandmother's parentage is not clearly defined. It's nice to know her mother's name, because often there was no record of mothers in many family trees. But you have a photo, which is most amazing!
ReplyDeleteYour granddaughter looks like she might make a good underhand shingler! :—) I always enjoy the details you bring to your family's photos and history. Of course I had to look up "shingler" (was there an overhand shingler too?) and found a great history of iron works in Britain : https://www.culturenlmuseums.co.uk/story/puddlers-shinglers-rollers-the-story-of-malleable-iron/
ReplyDeleteI learned that men, especially "puddlers", often developed eye problems from staring into the blazing furnaces. Everyone— men, women, and children—were made of strong stuff in those days.