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Family research 'cartes de visite, hairdos, Melbourne portrait photographers 1860 - 1890, and more'

30/11/2016

Pains and Gains...

'Cartes de Visites' - Using Hairstyles to date photographs...

Recently I noticed some quite distinctive elements in two photos when I was trying to confirm the identities of two women in my Grandma Hooper's old album; one of whom I suspected to be my maternal great grandfather's older sister.

I came across the following article. It sits nicely with the ideas and resources already shared by Wendy Sturgess on costuming, but has a little more about hairstyles. It's an enjoyable read and from a reputable source (NGV). It suggests it may have been taken in the 1870's - it was taken in England, but apparently 'fashions' did not take long to reach Australia.

www.ngv.vic.gov.au/rethinking-an-unknown-carte-de-visite/.

Here's a link to a recently published article on Cartes de visites.... and Melbourne photography studios https://artblart.com/2022/01/16/photographs-australian-cartes-de-visite-melbourne-1860s-1880s/

Interested in hairdressing? I found a picture of relatives taken in Indiana during the American Civil War and as part of unravelling their stories became interested in their hair styles. Here's a 'hands on' video on American Civil War Hairstyles, if you have time to spare to watch it.

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'Census'

1/11/2016

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I had a good reason to follow up a matter raised last time - can we still access 'Pay as You Go' world records from Ancestry? The answer is yes. The catalyst for me was deciding to follow the trail of my great, great grandfather's son and brother who had emigrated to America and wanting to check out some Census records which had appeared but needed a 'World' subscription, or hopefully Pay as You Go credits. . When I searched, results and also some hints, came up for them which required me to splash out on accessing records without joining the World subscription. $10.99 AU for 10 records!

Using these credits (in the end I paid for two sets of ten), I was able to track census finding that his son, my great uncle Charles Taylor, lived in Illinois; my grandfather's younger brother David in the adjoining state of Indiana, and flesh out further details of their growing families after they emigrated from England.

I was telling my sister...the keeper of old family albums... who responded eagerly, "Do you know, there are two very old photos photos (cartes de visites from New Albany, Indiana, in our great grandmother's photo album from New Albany in Indiana?" We were so excited! We've decided they are of our grandmother's half brother, Charles Taylor, and his first wife, Ann, and his second wife, Eliza Jane. We know his first wife Ann died in childbirth 1864 (towards the end of the Civil War). The reflects that, whereas the photograph of Charles taken with his second wife uses a later photographic process. Charles died in 1880, so the photo would have been taken somewhere between 1869, when he married Eliza Jane, and 1880. What a wonderful source to add to his profile and the profile of his two wives!

The census results tell the story of their time in England with a young daughter, supplemented by a migration report; and later censuses which show them having settled in New Albany, ;Floyd County' Indiana.

It is truly wonderful when a family story, which has assumed that of a possible myth, turns out to be grounded in 'evidence based' fact. For our family, this is one of those stories, a story which owes a lot to the careful family research of Keith Taylor, of Lincolnshire, his use of flags to reflect migration.of our ancestors in his family tree, and the use of Census results to establish the presence of my great great grandfather's younger brother and son in the United States!

Bev Lee
November 2021

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Family research 'cartes de visite, hairdos, Melbourne portrait photographers 1860 - 1890, and more'

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