Showing posts with label discovering your family history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label discovering your family history. Show all posts

Sunday, April 24, 2016

A personal ANZAC story


Over the last few years I have scanned  First World War photos, memorabilia and diaries for others. These are very special family items.  Today I want to share my own personal ANZAC story.....

Auckland Public Library Collection
Scanned print from family collection
Like many New Zealanders I had family who went to Gallipoli as young men.  My Grandfather returned, sadly his older brother Guy did not. I was prompted to start research into my Great Uncle's story by a trip my son took to Europe, where he saw Guy's grave at Gallipolli.

My family held papers showing the location of his grave and a photo which I digitized and restored. I found information from the Auckland Museum Cenotaph database and obtained his war records from Archives NZ. My Great Uncle served with the Auckland Mounted Rifles. I found another photo of Guy in the Auckland Public library photographic collection that was similar to our family one.  As this photo was only partially identified, I was able to give the library his details.  


More recently I uncovered additional family information including his First World War diary, which ends the day before his death (less than a month after his landing at Gallipoli) and a Scrapbook of condolence letters and telegrams sent to his family following his death.                                      



I have digitized and produced facsimile copies of both the diary and the condolence book and photos. Digitization has enabled me to share these items within the family. Recently our family shared these at a commemorative service that was held at the local church my Great Uncle and his family belonged to. Following the service, descendants of the original letter writers were a able to view the letters in the scrapbook.  These items have given our family some understanding of the devastating impact that this had on Guy's family back in NZ




Thursday, October 24, 2013

Dating historical photos

What age do you think this photo is?
 
 
I actually have a pretty good idea of the age of this photo, as it is a photo of my Great grandmother and Grandfather and my Grandfather wrote an important clue on the back, which I will tell you about later.  But what if my Grandfather had not given me a clue, how could I discover the date this photo was taken?   

Dating old photos requires some detective work, you have to look for clues.  Factors such as the type of photographic process used; who the photographer was, when they operated, and the size of the photo are all important clues.  For paper printed photos,  the type of mount and the information printed on the back of the mount also give clues about the age of the photo.  The clothing people are wearing the studio setting, the props and background provide additional information.
  
Photographic Process : The photo is mounted on card, it has a slight purple tinge to it and it is smooth and glossy.  The photo is a paper based print and not a negative. This eliminates some earlier photographic processes such as daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and tintypes. When the photograph is enlarged you cannot see the underlying paper texture. This means the photo has at least three layers, which narrows the range of print types to either a Gelatin or a Collodian printed out print.  If it is a Collodian printed out print it will have three layers making up the print and the paper fibres will not be visible when you look up close at the highlights and mid-tones (apart from the damage).  Looking at the photo closely, and combined with the other factors it appears the photo is a Collodian printed out print, a photographic process used  between 1865 to 1920.  That is quite a wide range, so we need to look at some  of the other clues.

Photo mount: The photo measures 4 ¼ by 6 ½ inches (10.7 by 16.5cm), and apart from my Grandfather's handwriting on the back it is completely blank.   This size of photo is known as a Cabinet Card, not a smaller carte de visite. Roger Vaughan, an English collector of early photographs, has identified some useful stylistic mount characteristics of these cards which can be used for dating.   Cabinet cards were often blank on the back in the 1900 period, with no printed matter.  This cabinet card has rounded corners, again this indicates it was produced around 1900, because after 1900 Cabinet cards were square with embossed borders. 

The photographer:  At the bottom of the photo it says Frank J Denton and in brackets (Late A Martin), Wanganui, New Zealand. This suggests to me that Denton may have bought Martin's business. Denton is listed on the Auckland City Photographers Database, a wonderful resource which can be accessed online via the Auckland Public Library site. Denton is listed as operating in Wanganui around this time (at the time of my original search, a little later) and Alfred Martin is listed as being in Wanganui until the late 1890s.  I did a search on Papers Past, in the Wanganui Chronicle 1899 and found a very interesting Public Notice:
 
So I believe Denton had only recently taken over this business when my great grandmother and grandfather had their photo taken.

Clothing Styles: My Grandfather was born in September 1896 and his mother in 1871. She was an assistant teacher. He looks about 3 to 4 years old. My Great grandmother is wearing a masculine styled coat dress with a high collar and the top of her sleeves are quite small and not the large puffy style that was popular in the 1890s, indicating that its a later style.  Consulting a reference on dress styles, in the early part of the 1900s progressive women who were working adopted a more masculine style of dress. Her coat dress was popular in the early 1900s.  My Grandfather is dressed in an Edwardian style. 

It is pretty clear from my analysis that the photo was taken either late 1899 or early 1900 which is confirmed by the clue my Grandfather wrote on the back of the photo:


 "Mother and me at Norsewood about 1900"

Now I just have to work out what they were doing in Norsewood at that time, but that is another mystery to be solved.....

Some useful references:
 
For photographic processes  http://www.graphicsatlas.org/

For NZ photographers since 1840 - the photographic database link is:
Some links on clothing styles and fashions
http://www.fashion-era.com/Dating_Costume_History_Pictures/how_to_date_photographs_top.htm

Copyright Carterworks NZ

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Fascinating detective work by the Independent

The Independent has had a series of articles showing images taken from glass plate negatives that have recently been uncovered in the Somme area.  It is suspected they were taken by a local amature photographer who would have sold the prints from these negatives to subjects to send home to their loved ones.  One set of negatives is particularly interesting as it shows a woman dressed in an NZ uniform, see the story in the following link....
 
 
And another about a different image from this time
 



Restored image

Original image
Postcard images from this era were very popular and like many I have private images that were sent home (England) during this period. This one is of my great grandfather taken in Ypres (Leper) 1917.    It was probably taken by a local photographer and incorporated into a postcard image. 












Copyright Carterworks NZ

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Beautiful wedding photos

Often when digitising family collections I do see some amazing photos.  Recently I digitised a rather beautiful set of wedding photos.  Their owner kindly agreed to let me share a few of these beautiful priceless images which she now has captured in a digital form. 



Note these have only been enhanced by conversion to their true black and white.

Copyright Carterworks NZ

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Creating a photo wall

Like most people we had a collection of photograph frames given to us as presents over the years.  After having children  I always had the intention of framing some of our family photos and putting these on the wall...

...I read books on hanging artworks to try and give me inspiration.....but getting all the photos together was an ongoing process...... deciding what to hang and how to make the most of the arrangement of the frames my stairwell just got put in the "too hard basket".....

......it just wasn't happening...



Then recently I saw an article in a Your Home and Garden magazine where the owner of a house had just hung a whole lot of  white frames on her wall...
some had photos in them ...
some were empty....









The designers reasoning was - I have all  these frames  - lets just  arrange them on the wall to look good and I will fill them as an ongoing project.   At last, a solution to my problems! I didn't have to store those old photo frames in a box in the roof anymore - I could just hang them on the wall and over time I would fill them with images of my family.....









Hanging our photo frames proved quite a mission, because over the years we had amassed quite a collection....in fact we had nearly 30 frames....fortunately we have a large hallway!   I laid all the frames out on the floor and arranged them so they looked balanced.  I didn't have one consistent wood colour, or even frame colour ....but my decorating experience has taught me that you can mix different woods together and they will work....and gold and black and silver can complement the wood as well.  Using a straight edge, chalk and a spirit level I hung all of them.  It took me three days

Now I have a work in progress that I add to as I restore and add to my family photographic collection.


Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Scanning Glass Plate Negatives

 
Recently I was given a number of glass plate negatives to scan.  Their owner thought they dated from the late 1800s but wasn’t too sure what the images were as they were difficult to see.   The negatives had been stored away flat in wads of newspaper...
 





 
We have a special tray in our scanner that enables us to scan glass plate negatives with the emulsion side uppermost so the delicate emulsion does not need to be in contact with the glass of the scanner - many other scanners cannot do this. 
 
Can you imagine my excitment, these images had not been seen for many years! ....What would we uncover?  Below are a couple of images from the collection....

Click to enlarge
 
 
Glass plate negatives require careful handling and storing to avoid damage.  To protect these negatives it is best that they are stored vertically on their longest side and in individual archival envelopes. For more advice see http://natlib.govt.nz/collections/caring-for-your-collections/photographs
 
Copyright Carterworks (NZ)

Monday, June 3, 2013

Hidden information - Neville's Discovery


Some time ago I was asked to restore a small photo of Neville's father who was a scout in the early 1900s in Wellington.  The photo was quite small and faded and was taken in Hay Street, Oriental Bay.


 
I restored the photo and printed it at a larger size.  I was able to enlarge this photo because the original image was quite sharp and I can scan and print photos at a high resolution.  The resulting print showed a lot of the detail not obvious in the original. 
 


After looking at the print, Neville was surprised to notice an officer's ranking shoulder of his father's uniform.  He said he never realised his father had obtained that rank as it was not obvious in the original photo.

Copyright Carterworks NZ

Monday, November 26, 2012

A piece of family history discovered


 
 
 

So often we only know part of the story behind a family photo.  One of the advantages of digitisation is the ability to reproduce and share our photos, not only with family members but others in the community....this can lead to interesting discoveries.....
 
Recently I scanned and restored some photographs from a photograph album belonging an early Wellington family who settled here in the later part of the 1800s.  A family album dating from the late 1800s to early 1900s contained a number of beautiful sailing boat images, including one of a large ship stranded on the beach.  Neville, the photograph album owner thought the ship was wrecked somewhere down south, but knew nothing of its history.  I used this image recently, with Nevilles permission, in a pamphlet about my work, which I  took along  with me to a recent open day of the Southern Heritage Group,  held at the Island Bay Community Centre. When Marion from the group saw my brochure she instantly recognised the image and said “that’s the Bella, which was stranded at Owhiro Bay”.  She pulled out a file full of newspaper articles and including an image similar to, but not the same as the image I had scanned and restored from Neville’s album.  It was indeed the Bella.   I was delighted as I knew Neville did not have any information on the ship, its name, the date or where the stranding occurred so I was able to copy this and pass this information to Neville.  Neville was thrilled to discover new information about a piece of his family history.

 Copyright Carterworks NZ