Going through old family pics last night I found what I believe to be the oldest one I have as it’s just over 100 years old, circa 1922. It has my grandad as a 2 year old sitting on a tractor with his grandmother, does anyone have an older family photo?
I have one of my great grandfather with his son signed and dated 1911, also undated photographs showing him as a young man, part of a collection I’ve just found a home for at the Museum of Music History.
1901, not 1911.
I think Mrs M has one of her grandmother from about 1906-7. It’s so faded it almost looks like a line-drawing, and she’s got a look on her face like “Fuuuuck, this is a long time ago”
1922 also my father in India.
I think we’re all showing an admirably mature restraint here, eh Moose.
I’m not restrained, and it’s not a dungeon it’s just an ordinary cellar.
My great-grandparents’ wedding photo. They were married in 1902. I think somewhere I may have pictures of my great-grandfather before he got married.
Wonderful photo @Salwarpe. Those ladies are wearing some serious hats!!
In those days, even the men would normally wear hats when out and about.
After WW2 we all became Men Without Hats.
I’m guessing the ladies wearing the white meringues are the bridesmaids.
That’s brilliant – looks like the Royal family!
Quaker aristocracy, or rather part of the Darlington set – Pease, Lloyd’s, Barclays – banking families.
My great great grandfather and grandmother in the 1870s.
That’s great. A really common but odd pose. What are you reading there?
Most likely the Bible. Before they got married, he had quite a good wine cellar. A strict teetotaler, she ‘encouraged’ him to empty every single bottle down the drain when they got married.
My grandmother was born in 1894. I have a photo of her as a young child, and one of my great grandmother from the 1880s or 1890s. I also have many posed Victorian photographs of unknown family members and numerous First World War photographs of family members in uniform.
I don’t think I even have any photos of me below the age of about 20 and consequently have nothing to contribute to this thread.
My great, great grandparents when they were married at Parrish Church in Huddersfield in 1855.
https://animationresources.org/stuff/jwsd.jpg
Blimey – in colour, too. I thought the whole world was in B&W until 1966.
The first colour photograph was said to be in 1861 so I imagine this has been colourised.
My brother colorized it.
There are a number of websites that let you do this for free, should you be interested.
fantastic pic Bigshot
What an intriguing view into the very different world they inhabited – do you know much about them; what they did or where they lived? It’s impossible to guess very much from the image, it’s the very mystery that lends it so much strength.
He worked in a woolen mill in the Huddersfield area. That was my family’s business. His father was a drayman… He had a horsecart and delivered kegs of beer to pubs. Of course he had to try a little at each stop, so by the end of his run, he was fast asleep. Luckily, his horse knew the route home. My family passed lots of stories down, and my brother and I interviewed the older members of the family and wrote it all down. We were very lucky to have done that when we did because just a few years later, they were all gone.
Wow was that put through AI? Unbelievably sharp for what was probably about a 15 second exposure.
It is a tintype.
I have a FB group for my family history with loads of old photos, the oldest link with me in it is sitting on my G GF knee in Filey in 1963. He was born in 1883.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10161896295219050&set=oa.369502902102453
This one is a marriage in 1905, the old boy on the left is my GG GF born in 1845.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10161896296229050&set=oa.369502902102453
Somewhere I have one of my GGG GF brother taken in about 1855 before he emigrated to Australia. His brother fought at Sebastopol and Alma.
To the Original Poster (Gardener), what a brilliant photograph of your Grandad on the tractor! Do you know where that was taken?
Thank you, that’s in Wigton, Cumbria where he grew up. When he married my grandma they moved into the old Loweswater School which became the Village hall where they lived and were caretakers of for over 40 years. For my entire childhood and up until they passed in the early 00’s I spent many holidays with them there at the hall.
In a spooky turn of events I was digging for records in Northampton a few years ago and came across a record sleeve that pictured the view from their back yard! I never knew it existed and I wish they could have seen it too as they will have known nothing about it either.
The picture on the front has Loweswater Church (where they are both buried) and Crummock Water in the background, the picture below that is of them in the 60’s standing in the same spot. It’s one of the most beautiful unspoilt/un-touristy parts of The Lake District, also just down the road from the church lives author and journalist Hunter Davies who lives in the house where the only shop used to be. There’s a pub next to the church called The Kirkstile Inn, I can assure you the ales served are worth the visit, but don’t as it’s my secret bolt hole when I’m in the area.
We have one of my wife’s great grandmother, possibly around 1880. Looking quite the battleaxe too.
If you smiled in photographs then you might be considered a bit touched. It was a serious business up to the 20th century. Many countries still think so, ever seen an Indian wedding photo?
This is my grandmother with her 11 siblings in around 1895/6. My grandmother is the little girl standing on the left. There were seven more siblings to come for a total of 18 – several of the men would eventually die in the First World War although one decided to be a black sheep and ran away to Canada at some point. Her father, the assiduous impregnator, was an agricultural labourer so obviously the offspring were sent out to work as soon as possible to bring in extra income. Her mother can have been no more than late 30s when this photo was taken – she looks more like late 50s.
And here is Jeremiah Coghlan, my mother’s grandfather, b.1835, d.1891. He was a sailor, and was on the ship that laid the first transatlantic cable in 1858. He died in a maritime accident. Some beard.
Wonderful photos, Mike. Only a couple of decades ago that beard could only be from that point in time – but now you see them everywhere.
That ain’t a man with a beard. That’s a beard with a man.
It’s clearly a fake, a disguise to fool the forces of law and order that would hound him at his very fireside.
All that time successfully evading the law and he gets outed on the AW blog.
Cuh!
What a fantastic photo!
His beard was russet, it turns out. It’s almost as if they knew he was Irish.
I humbly point you to the cover of my musical effort last year. The picture is my great great grand parents on their wedding day in 1896. Their story is told in the last song on the album.
I have tons of old family photos
My maternal great grandfather had this business in the East End
This is my maternal grandfather in World War 1…
This is an odd one…not interesting in itself, but on the back is written ‘Russia 1917’, so I assume he was sent to put down the bolsheviks…
Perhaps he was grabbed by the Mensheviks.
That second fotie is fantastically evocative, it looks like it could be used on the cover of a heavyweight history tome by somebody like Anthony Beevor.
Just normal folk, nothing to see here.
Are you in the middle, Moose?
I’m everywhere and nowhere baby, that’s where I’m at
Going down a bumpy hillside, with clowns to the left and jokers to the right
Also, courtesy of Hubes, a couple of years ago:
I have almost no old family photos. None older than 1970s, certainly.
My older sister is the custodian of our family branch’s photo archive.
I think there are photos of my late father’s parents and aunt* and also one of his great uncle James.
*Who was apparently completely tone-deaf with a loud voice and sung hymns with great gusto in a monotone at chapel.
Your father’s aunt was Nico??
I imagine Nico was a lot more tuneful.
I have quite a few old family photos, the one that intrigues has more than a hundred people posed together sat on a hill slope. It’s early twentieth century. But what was it that brought all those people together?
The first Reading rock festival?
First thing that came to mind was pilgrims on the summit of Croagh Patrick in Ireland.
Can you post the photo @kalamo?
I don’t know how to upload photos. You might be on to something with the pilgrims theory as I notice that a lot of the people are wearing some type of lapel badge.
If you email me it I could upload it.
ag & drop photos and videos here
ohttps://www.flickr.com/photos/d-av-id/53627231086/in/dateposted-public/r
@kalamo.
Surely that’s The Polyphonic Spree on their day off.
My ancestors are the couple with their young son at the front. Because they immigrated from Ireland, I thought that was where it was taken.
Great picture.