March | 2013 | Abbie and Eveline

The question I am asking myself: How many times can I use this wedding image as my contribution to Sepia Saturday before being asked to STOP!!? This is the 4th (5th – if you count the clue on the wedding cake) part of a continuing series on how I identified the people in a photograph of a wedding party and those I still need to identify.

I have an idea about how to tie in to the prompt picture. We’ll see if I can manage it by the time I get to the end of this post.

Here is the wedding photograph in question:

In previous entries, I recounted how I identified a few of the people using other photographs in my grandmother’s collection. The groom is George Elgey and the bride is Bella (her surname revealed to me only a couple of weeks ago). John Elgey stands to the left of the groom. Ethel Elgey stands second from the right behind the seated girl.

After identifying these three Elgeys and the bride known only as Bella, I was stumped. I thought I might be able to identify the girls seated in front, but I wasn’t sure. The other men – nothing. And I still didn’t know exactly how these people were related to my grandmother, Eveline Coates.

Then my mom sent me copies of a few letters my grandmother had received from her English relatives. The undated letter below provided several clues.

There is a wealth of information here, but today’s task is identifying people in the wedding photograph.

This portion of the letter….

… refers to the photo I included in my previous post about John (with pipe) and sent me looking for a picture of two women with glasses, one seated in a chair.

The back of this picture says “Nellie and Bella Elgey”. Bingo! John’s wife, Nellie, is sitting in the chair. George’s wife, Bella, is standing.

Here is Bella, the young bride in the wedding photo, compared to the later photo above.

But what about John’s wife, Nellie? He is presumably an older brother to George. Is his wife – or future wife – in the wedding photo? I’ll sandwich this later picture of Nellie between the two young women in the wedding photo who are the likely candidates.

The woman on the right looks like she could be Nellie, although she isn’t wearing glasses. Maybe she took them off for the picture, or didn’t need glasses at the time the wedding picture was taken. The woman on the left looks a little young to be Nellie, although John could have married a younger woman. Her mouth is smaller and so is her nose, I think. Of course, it’s possible that Nellie isn’t even in the wedding picture.

My vote is that the woman on the right is Nellie, wife of John Elgey. Do you think I am correct?

At the risk of this post becoming too long, I’ll continue the photo identification in future posts. Which, of course, is at the risk of the continuing series being too long. Oh well.

And now to find a way to make this all fit with the Sepia Saturday prompt picture which features trees, houses, a pier and a steamer.

My guess is that this letter was written in 1939-1940. Aunt Jennie’s only mention of war is her concern that her youngest son, Alfie could be “called up,” and she writes that it takes longer now for her to receive letters from Eveline and that it will take a few weeks for this letter to reach her. The little internet research I did doesn’t give me any real answers about the route Aunt Jennie’s letter might have taken from Easington Lane in England to the small town of Mystic in Iowa. And so I’ll venture a guess that this letter traveled by ship, making this post on theme for Sepia Saturday.

Cruise on over to Sepia Saturday to see where others have ventured this week.

Sepia Saturday provides bloggers with an opportunity to share their history through the medium of photographs. Historical photographs of any age or kind become the launchpad for explorations of family history, local history and social history in fact or fiction, poetry or prose, words or further images.

I’m not sticking with the theme today – which suggests boxes and paper and factory workers. Instead, I’m continuing with what I started last week.

My grandmother Eveline Coates had several photographs of people I presumed to be her “English relatives” and I didn’t know anything about them. As I went through her photographs, I tried to match them to the people in the picture of a wedding party below. The first person identified was the groom, George Elgey.

(Other posts related to this group are: Letters from the HMS Birmingham, The Clue on the Cake, George’s Wedding Photo Part 1 and Part 2.)

The fellow on the left, standing next to the groom, is next.

I have one picture of a young man identified only as John.

John

George Elgey

If you read the post about George Elgey, you might notice some similarities between the picture of John above and George at right. Their clothing looks identical – except for the ties – and even the ties have a similar look. I thought John and George looked like they could be related.

The photographs were taken by the same photographer:
Mack, The Photographer, 12 Holmeside, Sunderland – although the papers they are printed on are slightly different.

I look at things like postcard paper and photographers now, but I didn’t when I was first working with these pictures years ago!

There is another photograph that is identified as John Elgey. I assumed that John is the one with the X over his head since there is only one name on the back of the picture. A little older here – but it could be him.

Time to compare them side by side.

(Sorry about my poor cropping technique that made every picture a different size!)

They looked like a match to me.

After identifying John, I was stumped by the rest of the men as none of the other photographs seemed to match. Trying to match up the rest of the girls and women wasn’t easy either. And I still wasn’t sure how my grandmother was related to George, Ethel and John Elgey.

Thankfully, my mother provided copies of some letters that held additional clues. But that’s for another day…..

Please visit other Sepia Saturday participants who may have thought inside or outside of the box for today’s prompt.

Abbie and Eveline

Monthly Archives: March 2013

Sepia Saturday – George’s Wedding Photo Part 4

Sepia Saturday – George’s Wedding Photo Part 3