I've been researching my family tree for around about 30 years, initially sparked off by a comment my late grandfather made about his eldest brother meeting and marrying a woman after he returned from the trenches of World War I and how his wife died during or shortly after childbirth. Whilst at the funeral of his wife it was said that the baby also died but it was always thought that this was not the truth and so his brother had made provisions in his Will for this child before his own death as he believed that his late wife's family had taken the child out of worries for the child, given his serious mental health issues following what he went through in the trenches. My late grandfather was executor of the Will and at his age was getting worried about what to do with the funds set aside for this child and he didn't know how to find out what happened to the child so I set about researching for him and the rest is history. As it turned out, the child had actually died and there was no heir to his estate.
My paternal grandparents died 3 months apart in the late 1990's and most of the family photos came into my late parents possession, many of which my late father didn't know who they were. My parents passed away 13 years ago and nearly 12 years ago and then all the family photos passed to me. I had an initial sort out and gave a lot of them to my siblings, the photos of them and their families at least and then the rest were boxed up and kept until I had time to go through them properly. After all this time, this year was that time and all the photos of all various sizes, from the tiniest ever to the very large have been scanned in and edited to improve their appearance and also to make them of a nice more regular size and I will gradually print out fresh clean copies and organise them in some huge photo albums that I've bought.
I have a number of photos that I don't know who they are and so I have printed out copies and written to various "elders" in the family, most of those that I have contacted are my late parents cousins and, unfortunately, many of them have either been unable to help or unwilling to help me and some have said they will take a look at them but I've heard nothing more since, thankfully a couple have helped where they could. I have posted some of these photos on local history Facebook pages but it hasn't yielded any answers so far. Through Ancestry.co.uk I have made contact with family members a little further away, such as the children of my parents cousins and cousins or children of the cousins of my grandparents but sending photos through e-mail takes a long time as e-mail has very tight limitations on file size and I am creating this post to host the photos of the unknown so that I can just e-mail a link to this post to new contacts and also someone may stumble upon this at any time and say "hey, that's great uncle so and so" and make contact and I may gradually get some of them identified.
You may notice that I am not mentioning any names and this is done on purpose to prevent fraudsters obtaining information from this post which may indirectly give them access to my personal and financial information. With this in mind, I will be posting the photos with some information and they would all be in and around the Birmingham, UK area, unless otherwise stated, but I'm not suggesting any surnames that may be associated with the people featured. I have turned off commenting on this post and and would suggest you e-mail me at jblakeman70@gmail.com if you recognise anyone in these photos. Please note the number of the photo you want to message me about. As the photos are identified they will be removed from this blog post to reduce the size of it down to something easier to manage.
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1) The older lady on the right is one of my paternal grandfather's sisters
but I don't know who the other people are.
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2) My father is on the man on the left, behind the young lad and the older lady going off the photo is my maternal grandmother and so I figure that the lady in the headscarf with my father is my mother, although it doesn't look much like her. I know the lady on the far right, she is married to my mother's eldest brother but who are the others, especially the lady in the centre with the baby, the baby and the young lad
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| 3) I suspect this to be my late grandfathers' brother who lost is wife in childbirth but I don't know for sure. |
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| 4) I produced this image by scanning a tiny metal plate which I suspect to be a very early photographic negative. I did have to make up and edit the image to make it whole but I don't know who these people could possibly be. |
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| 5) I believe this to be one of my paternal grandmother's sisters. |
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| 6) I believe this to be my paternal grandmother's paternal family who hailed from Worcester. |
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7) I have to say that this woman scares the hell out of me! I do see a lot of family resemblances though and I suspect this might be my paternal grandmother's grandmother.
Taken at Gale's Studios Ltd, presumably Birmingham.
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8) Taken at A&G Taylor, photographers to the Queen and their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales, who had lots of studios but this one was taken at No.1 New Street, Birmingham. From searches of old Trade Directories A& G Taylor were at 1 New Street 1880-1882. So this refers to Queen Victoria who's son Albert Edward held the title of Prince of Wales from 1841-1901
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| 9) I really have no idea but the guy standing up at the far left on the back row does look a lot like the guy in the photo below second or third from the right. |
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| 10) I think that the two men 2nd and 3rd from the right look like they could be brothers? |
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11) Seriously no idea about this one.
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12) Another one where I have absolutely no idea whatsoever, not even whether its WWI or WWII.
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| 13) This guy looks like he means business. Scary! Taken at Photographie Parisienne - Letalle & Co (from Paris), 36 Cannon Street, Birmingham |
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| 14) This one is taken at T. Whitaker, photographer to their Royal Highnesses The Prince and Princess of Wales (1941-1901) and the Grand Duke Czarawitch of Russia |
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| 16) Potentially my paternal grandmothers side of the family given the features. |
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| 17) I know the ladies on either far side and that they are sisters but who are those in the middle, others sisters, most probably but which ones? This one is my maternal grandmothers side. |
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| 18) We think that is my paternal grandmother on the far left but it could be one of the older sisters who look just like her. Who are the others? |
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19) Again, my paternal grandmother could be on the far right in this one so I'm looking for confirmation and if anyone knows the other two girls
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23) My maternal grandfathers parents, I think, the guy sitting and the woman standing.
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24) My maternal great grandfather second from the left, I believe, but who are the others?
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| 24) I like the look of this lady, very maternal and caring looking. |
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25) I don't know who, what war, what regiment, nothing!
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26) I don't know who, what war, what regiment, nothing!
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27)
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| 28) This one is in a dark brown cardboard frame with an "from" undecipherable name and the address of "Clovelly,
Trafalgar Road, Moseley" written on it but I don't know who they are. |
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29) I have several of this couple, all in folding card mounts and they were taken by A.J.Coles, 35 Oakdale Road, Birmingham B34
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| 30) I have several of this couple, all in folding card mounts and they were taken by A.J.Coles, 35 Oakdale Road, Birmingham B34 |
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| 31) I have several of this couple, all in folding card mounts and they were taken by A.J.Coles, 35 Oakdale Road, Birmingham B34 |
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| 32) I have several of this couple, all in folding card mounts and they were taken by A.J.Coles, 35 Oakdale Road, Birmingham B34 |
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| 33) I have several of this couple, all in folding card mounts and they were taken by A.J.Coles, 35 Oakdale Road, Birmingham B34 |
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34) Do you know who this happy couple is and when/where it was taken?
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35) Here's one of just the bride on her own.
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| 36) Another bride but who is she? |
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37) The same bride as above, this time with her groom, but who are they?
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38) The bridesmaid looks like my aunt, who I have written to but not heard back from, but I'm not sure.
On the back is printed "Kodak Colour Print made by Kodak Company London June 1961" |
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39) This is the same couple again and on the back is printed "Kodak Colour Print made by Kodak Company London June 1961".
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| 40) I don't know who these children are, do you? |
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41) Taken at Lion Photographic Studios, 60 Nasmyth Street, Hammersmith, London W6 but who is this baby as I'm not aware of any family in the London area.
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43) A coronation photo perhaps? The lady at the front right resembles my maternal grandmother or maybe its her mother.
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44) I don't recognise anyone in this photo at all.
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48) Sylvia, Linda and Terry but who are they?
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| 49) My late mother is one of the two ladies in the middle in the dark swimsuits, she is the one on the right. The guy behind my mom in the dark shirt I don't think that's my dad but I can't be 100% sure of that. I don't know when or where this was taken or the names of anyone else in the photo. |
In the boxes of photos were a few photo processing envelopes filled with negatives. I scanned them all in and used photo editing software to "invert" the colours and just like magic I made some photos. For many of these negatives I discovered that I also had the original photo, which was a much clearer and sharper image than that produced by the negative and I whittled them down until I was left with just those that I didn't have the original photos for. These are what these next batch of photos are.
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| 50) Another bride and groom |
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| 51) Same couple as above |
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| 52) This was on the same strip of negatives so I presume its from the same wedding as the two above. |
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53) One wedding, three photos, and it appears to be Birmingham Registry Office
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54) That is potentially my late mother with the bag over the elbow on the left.
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55) Do you know this couple?
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These last few are possibly my late mother's friends from way way back. My mother is the slightly taller lady in the stripey dress but who are the other people?
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57) My mother is on the right
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