George’s Wedding Photo Part 2 – Ethel

As I noted previously, I’m deconstructing this wedding photograph found among my grandmother’s photographs and papers. No one was identified in the picture and I had no idea who they were when I found it. Other photographs and copies of a few letters provided clues. In Part 1 I identified the groom as George Elgey, a cousin (so said the back of a photo) of my grandmother, Eveline Coates.

Elgey, George.Wedding

Among Eveline’s photographs are several of a young woman identified as Ethel Elgey.

Ethel Elgey

Ethel Elgey

George was quite handsome. The same can be said of Ethel. I think she is lovely.

Ethel wrote a greeting to my grandparents on the back of the photo above.
Elgey, Ethel reverse

To Auntie & Uncle
From Ethel
May health, wealth & prosperity, crown your path this coming year.

There are five pictures of Ethel in Grandma’s collection, but one more should suffice. This photo is identified as Baby Jennie and Ethel.

Elgey, Ethel holding Baby Jennie

Baby Jennie and Ethel

I think I found Ethel in the wedding photo – on the right in the light colored dress and hat.

Elgey, George.wedding.EthelElgey, Ethel.cropElgey, Ethel holding Baby Jennie.crop

They look like a match to me, although the wedding picture doesn’t do her justice.

Now I had two Elgeys – whoever the Elgey’s were.

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

I welcome your comments!

Sepia Saturday – George’s Wedding Photo Part 1


SepiaSat23Feb2013
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.

Today’s prompt photo comes from the Flickr Commons collection of the Australian National Maritime Museum and is entitled “Group Portrait of an Unknown Family”. I thought of a photo that has been a great puzzle to solve. And I got a new clue this week thanks to Sepia Saturday!

I started by scanning two pictures – a wedding cake and a wedding party. I got sidetracked by the cake when I discovered a clue to the identity of the bride in the wedding party (!), so the cake turned into a post of its own. I have decided to deconstruct the wedding photo into several posts. So that is where we are headed.

Please take a look at the wedding cake. It kind of sets the stage – and its a really interesting cake! The back of the cake photo was identified by this:

To Miss Eveline Coates
From Cousins George and Bella

Eveline was my grandmother. At the time I was first going through papers and photographs that belonged to Eveline, I had no idea who George or Bella were.

Also among the photos was a picture of a wedding party – but there was no identifying information on the back. I thought they might go together.

Elgey, George.WeddingOne of the things I have found frustrating and funny as I go through family photos – a picture of a cake, or a cat, or a building will be identified – but not the people! But I guess life would be pretty dull with no mysteries to solve…

As a little girl, I knew that my grandmother corresponded with relatives in England. I didn’t know their names or the relationship. She may have told me, but that’s all I remembered. That  – and the mention of a castle. What little girl wouldn’t remember that her grandmother said something about relatives and a castle in the same sentence?

There are quite a few  photographs that I assumed were the English relatives and began the process of setting them out and trying to match them up with people in the photo above. There were two pictures of a young man named George. The cake picture mentioned a George – worth a look.
Elgey, George

It is identified on the back with this note:
Elgey, George.back

George
Don’t you think G’s like your pa. Will send you his photo in his sailors clothes as soon as possible.
Lizzie

And here is George in his sailors clothes as promised.

Elgey, George.sailor
He is identified on the back simply as George. My grandmother added a last name – Elgey. Ah ah – Elgey. That was a new name to me.

Here they are side by side…

Elgey, GeorgeElgey, George.sailorElgey, George.wedding crop

They look like a match to me.

He signed the cake photo as “cousin”. So Grandma had a cousin named George Elgey.

I posted a letter that George wrote to my grandmother from the HMS Birmingham during WWI here.

I’ll be working on others in the wedding party in days to come. In the meantime, visit other Sepia Saturday bloggers to see what they have created with today’s prompt.

Wedding Wednesday – The Clue on the Cake

I scanned this picture for a post I want to write.Elgey, George.wedding cake

It looks pretty awesome all blown up like this! The photograph is postcard size – not that small – but I have never seen (or noticed?) the details before.

The doily it is sitting on – is that paper or fabric? I’m thinking paper. A fabric bow….

And … hands?
Elgey, George.wedding cake handsI’ve never seen anything like that on a wedding cake before! What are they made of?

Why are they there?

What else is on this cake?

Elgey, George.wedding cake middle

Looks like leaves and horseshoes – for good luck, I suppose. Do you think the leaves and beadish things are silver or gold? I think silver. Flowers… ribbons… what else do you see?

Here’s the top…
Elgey, George.wedding cake top

Some unusual bells, more flowers and leaves, some cherubs. What are those two cherubs holding in their hands?

The wedding topper doesn’t look that much different than some you might see today. What is the base of that topper made of? Bisque? Plaster? Royal icing? An early plastic?

I need to take another look at that hand on the right – it looks a little wonky.
Elgey, George.Wedding cake closer

I’ve never noticed the letters on that bow before. Looks like “I” and “L” on the left and “G” and “E” on the right.

I know this is the wedding cake for George and his bride, Bella, because it says so on the back.

Elgey, George.wedding cake back

I know it’s George Elgey because I have a letter he wrote to my grandmother in his beautiful handwriting. He was one of my grandmother’s “English cousins.”

So G. E. could be for George Elgey.

“I” could be the initial for Isabella. And her last name must begin with “L”.

I’ve never come across the surname for George’s wife in the years I’ve been puzzling over his family. Now I have a clue!

Off I go to ancestry.com and low and behold – a marriage record for George F. Elgey and Isabella Lidford! Registered in the last quarter of 1920 in the England and Wales Marriage Index.
Elgey, George.marriage index

A new clue. And all because I rescanned this picture and really looked at it.