Saturday, August 24, 2013

Sepia Saturday


 Sepia Saturday theme photo suggests groups of three - menage a trois? family? or maybe bonnets, stern faces , gimlet eyes? Or whatever takes your eye.

 A browse through my albums showed me that groups of 3 are the least numerous in my collection, but I was able to find a few - once more my ancestors have not let me down!


This photo was taken about 1847 in Germany and shows my maternal great grandmother, Laura Hanckel as a child. The family emigrated to Adelaide shortly after where Eduard Hanckel set up a bookbinding business and built himself a house at Norwood. Laura married my great grandfather E.B. Heyne a well known botanist and horticulturalist.

These three children appear in the family album. A note on the back in my late mother's handwriting suggests they may be the first 3 children in the Dorsch family. My great aunt Agnes married a Rev. Caspar Dorsch who had 3 young children from his first marriage. They then proceeded to have another 8 children. I don't know a lot about these early children. I do love this photo, though I must do more research on this branch of the family. My feeling is that the youngest child here might be the first of the second part of the family - they were blonde and blue-eyed and there seems to be quite an age difference. The little pug dog is cute.


This is a mystery trio from the album. Who are they?  I suspect that the older gentleman in front may be a Lutheran minister - 'the pastor' played a significant role in the lives of early German families. Maybe the other two were members of the church management?

On a different tack. I have always loved this photo. It shows one of my English aunts - Kathleen, centre  -  in Santiago, Spain with two friends. This would have been taken in the late 30s as my aunt died shortly after WW2. She was such a beautiful, elegant woman and she always looked so glamorous to me. I featured her chidren in last week's post.


On a more modern note. This is me - centre- very proud of myself. I was runner-up in the YWCA Athletics meeting. This was the first time I realised I was actually a good athlete. Up until that time I was always short and dumpy and never got a chance to run in any races at my school because no one thought I could run. This year was my blossoming year, because not only did I come second in these championships, but I won the Open 100yds at my school sports day and I made the first team in hockey and softball.

I was particularly pleased with myself because the girl on the right was the athletics champion at another top girls school and always thought that she was a better runner and hockey player than me - and I beat her!!

Liz Needle  -  linking with Sepia Saturday

18 comments:

  1. A great collection. Love the beard on the left in the third photo - what a match for the prompt!
    Oh yes, that feeling when you beat someone who thinks they are better than you.

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  2. Congratulations on beating the champ! Nice threesomes.

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  3. A great series of trios...all interesting in their own way. Love the one of you and your triumph.

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  4. The one with you in the center, is by far my favorite of the bunchy, wow, such expressions, and such life! Such a cool photo, and this entire post as been spot on!

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  5. A fine thread of photographs. The one of the champions is my favorite too.

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  6. These are all wonderful, but I think the one in Santiago is a real gem! Just look at that woman in the background carrying the basket on her head. The poses of the ladies (your aunt, included) are just classic! I love it!

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  7. I think the 1847 photo looks more modern than most old photos--kind of like modern people dressed up in old clothes for a play or movie.

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  8. Each threesome is worth a post on its own. The first one I was thinking about how unusual it was to have a family portrait in 1847 --- kind of like gettting a big new flat screen TV nowadays -- not something folks did on the spur of the moment. And the posing of the 3 kids was more animated than one often sees. And then the pic of you was great. So exuberant!

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  9. If that first portrait was taken in 1847, then it could only have been a daguerreotype, or a later albumen print copy of the original daguerreotype. The clothing styles look quite early, but the tones of the photograph suggest it might have been made a bit later than that.

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    1. The date is printed on the back by my mother. The photo is on thick card, but has been trimmed at some stage to fit a frame. Along the bottom trimmed edge I can just see the top of some calligraphy that was probably the photographers name. Have been unable to find any record of when they came to Australia, but they were established here by 1850. May well have been a copy of a daguerreotype, but an early one.

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  10. How very exotic. Spain in the 1930s. Wouldn't it be lovely to talk to her and ask her questions, starting with by any chance you didn't happen to meet Ernest Hemingway ..... Great photos.

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  11. Great photos Liz! Well done!

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  12. A fine collection of photos which fit the theme so well. They span the years but have you been careful not to date the last?

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  13. All the trios are delightful in their own way. I like the way Laura is leaning in to her mother.

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  14. Delightful post! I enjoyed the brief stories and histories of each photo.

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  15. Love the ladies' shoes in the 3rd photo!

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