Orphaned Kirby Photo Album Goes Home to a Descendant in England

I am very pleased to share with my readers that the orphaned Kirby photo album I found and rescued from an antique store has arrived safe and sound in England.

Gordon Wake, the descendant who I contacted after finding his Family Tree on Ancestry.com, was thrilled to receive the photos. Postal mail from Canada to England didn't take that long and Gordon and his wife wasted no time once the package arrived.

Gordon tells me he is overjoyed to finally see a photo of his grandfather! And I am equally pleased that these photos have now found a new home to be treasured and shared with other descendants.

Even as I write this blog post, Gordon is happily scanning the photos to share with two descendants here in Canada.

I also included in the package several pages of the hand-written notes I made while my husband and I studied and analyzed clues in each photo.

Gordon requested I send those as they might help him to identify more of the individuals who appear in the photos.

This was such a happy ending story for me and I was privileged to be part of it! I'm so glad I didn't pass that album by which I admit I almost did as it was rather expensive. But I kept returning to it in the store and I knew I had to have it.

Credits: Images courtesy of Gordon Wake

The Orphaned Kirby Photo Album Has Found A Home!

Maud

Continuing on with my journey of discovery into the identities of the people in the Kirby antique photo album I was able to develop a theory that the album began life in Yorkshire England and then ended up in Brantford Ontario.

Hubs and I matched photos - we put together all photos that we were sure were of the same individual and tried to work out dates and locations to help. It was an interesting exercise but it didn't solve anything for us.

Since my searches based only on the one full name in the album - Maude M. Kirby - had not been successful, and my searches using only first names as found on some photos, with my guess as to location likewise had not worked, I decided to search on Ancestry.com using a different tactic.

I narrowed my searches to Brantford and used the one bit of writing I thought was a clue - a photo of a young woman which she had obviously sent to a loved one, for on the back she had written "To Lillian and Aunt Mabel with love Maud" 

I had found a Maude Marion Kirby living and dying in Yorkshire England but she died in 1901 and this photo signed Maud was taken ca 1920s so they could not be the same person. I'd had a glimmer of an idea that Maude Marion Kirby might have been the original owner of the photo album and on her death perhaps it passed to her mother or someone else in the family.

So I made a huge leap (assumption) and theorized that Lillian might be this Aunt Mabel's daughter. So I started my search on Ancestry.com for any mention of a Lillian with mother Mabel in the Brantford area.

Bingo! A Family Tree had a Mabel Kirby with daughter Lillian who came to Brantford Ontario from Yorkshire in 1911. They were joining Mabel's brother Tom Kirby. And Mabel's mother Mary Kirby was with her. And Mabel had a sister named Maud Marion who died in 1901. My gut told me this
was the right family but I managed to contain my excitement while hubs and I compared information and photos in the online Tree with whatever bits and pieces were contained in the album I bought.

Writing out clues from the photos

There were no definite 100% proof moments but there were enough similarities to convince both of us that we had the right family. So I wrote to the Tree submitter and told him the story of the album. I included some first names and gave him my private email so I could send him copies of some photos to see if he thought it was his family.  He responded immediately and his enthusiasm and excitement matched mine. It was indeed his family!

He filled me in on details. I was  happy to have them because by now I'd become quite attached to the individuals in the photos and wanted to know their stories. It turned out that the album had indeed once belonged to Maude Marion Kirby, who died in England in 1901.

I figured out later that I had a photo of Maude Marion Kirby with her baby son Herbert. It was simply labelled "4 months old" but I knew it was taken late 1890s because of the clothing and hairstyle but also because the photographer George Dear was only at the the Sheffield location until 1899. 

Everything was starting to make sense. Maude Marion Kirby owned the album and filled it with photos that had meaning to her. Then she died in 1901 at age 26 and the album passed to another family member - probably her mother Mary Kirby.

When Mary came to Brantford Ontario with her daughter Mabel and granddaughter Lillian in 1911, the album came with them. I suspect that when Mary died, the album stayed with Mabel.

The one puzzle was the photo of "Baby Donalda" with Lillian. I'd surmised that Donalda was Lillian's daughter but I could find no evidence that Mabel's daughter Lillian ever married or had children. The Family Tree owner was able to fill me in. Donalda, (who is still alive, in her 90s and living in Ontario!) was the daughter of Lillian's cousin. The cousin died in childbirth. I do not know at this point if Lillian raised Donalda but am eager to learn more.

And so the orphaned album has found a home. I am mailing the photos to Gordon (the owner of the Family Tree on Ancestry.com) in England as soon as hubs has scanned them. We've agreed that I can put all the photos up on my Lost Faces website for other descendants to hopefully find.

Clues Galore in Photos in the Orphaned Kirby Photo Album, But Do They Help in Identifcation?

Carte de Visite ca 1870s
Boak Photo, Driffield & Pickering

Continuing on with my journey of discovery into the identities of the people in the Kirby antique photo album I soon realized this was going to be a difficult challenge. There were so few clues to go on!

So my husband suggested we try to figure out where each photo was taken. The early Cartes de Visite from 1860 and 1870 and most of the 1880s and 1890s cabinet cards were all taken by photographers based in Yorkshire - Driffield, Sheffield, Leeds, Bridlington Quay, and Filey.

The 1920s photos were not studio photos, they were taken with home cameras and had no locations except for one which was stamped Brantford (Ontario Canada).

Our first step was to scrutinize the 1920s photos with a magnifying glass to look for obscure clues. And slowly we were able to sort those photos into three separate locations based on vegetation in gardens and yards, architecture, shape of windows in background houses, shape of doors in background houses, snow (indicating a northern climate), a car with a driver (steering wheel on left, not right so not England), etc.

LOCATION A

We determined that Location A consisted of 18 photos taken in a back yard and the front yard of one house ca 1920s. Bits of the same house appear in all these photos. We could see identical brickwork, plants and architectural details. Some of the individuals were obviously the same person. One was the photo labelled "Lillian & Baby Donalda". 

Some of these photos showed that the street was filled with attached homes and the home at this location was a large brick home. We believed it was taken in N. America, most likely Ontario.

LOCATION B

We determined there was a second location - Location B consisting of 12 photos taken at a different home - a small house with large trees. The houses on this street were not attached. Every photo in this location had a dog in with the people and one photo was of the dog alone and on the back was written "1920 Buster" It is interesting to note that the photos in Location A had some of the same individuals we could see in Location B but Buster did not appear in any at Location A.

It seemed obvious that there was more than one family (or branch of a family) and they interacted at each other's homes. It reminded me of my Grandmother who lived in Guelph Ontario and how she and her family interacted with her brother who lived in Toronto. I have photos of each of them at each other's homes. Perhaps that was what we were looking at in the Kirby album - siblings visiting each other.

We brainstormed a couple of ideas and theories:

1. Buster belonged to one person/family living at Location B and was never taken to Location A
2. The pictures represented one family who moved from A to B (or B to A) and the reason Buster was only at one location was that he died or they got him after they moved.

LOCATION C

"The Whole J. Family

 Location C was a different location which consisted of only 3 photos taken ca 1920s. They had the same number stamped on the back (77) which indicated they came from the same roll of film so they were connected.  And each one had something written on the back.

One was an elderly woman in a long black coat or cloak labelled "Mother is 76 years and growing younger every day" We noted that this was not the same elderly woman in Location A and D Location. This tiny bit of writing gives us a small clue to the elderly woman's year of birth. Assuming ca 1920-1930 as the date the photo was taken, her year of birth might be 1849 give or take 5 years.

The second was a photo of four women labelled "four generations"

The third was a group photo of several individuals labelled "The whole [J?] family" We think the initial is "J". This photo shows the same elderly woman (Mother) and one of the woman in the photo labelled "four generations" so my bet is that she is the daughter of 76 year old mother. If it is a family group, the man could be her husband and the children could be theirs.
 
LOCATION D
There was a fourth location which had photos of Buster the dog, and an elderly woman. This elderly woman also appears in photos in Location A but not B.

We became pretty convinced that the Kirby  Photo Album began its life in Yorkshire England and ended up by 1920 or earlier in Ontario, possibly Brantford. I also started to wonder if Maude M. Kirby was the first owner and then the photo album passed into other hands, possibly a daughter.

I should stress that this investigation has taken my husband (Brian of AncestorsAtRest) and I days. It's not a quick or easy task and it's definitely not for the faint-hearted! But we love doing it.

Some theories are developing which will be up to me to research to either prove or disprove. I've searched just by first names found on the few photos with any identification. That has not been successful so I plan to narrow my search to Ontario. I will also try "guessing" at the surname, using Kirby which is the only surname in the album for the family. So all photos with first names will be searched adding the theorized surname of Kirby.

My journey of discovery continues and through this blog I will share the clues, the discoveries, the successes and the failures in my hunt to discover where this album belongs and what family held it so dear for over 60 years. Readers can follow along with me by using the link for Kirby Photo Archive

Kirby Orphaned Photo Album - Step by Step Discoveries

Last week I purchased another orphaned antique Photo Album. The owner's name was inscribed inside the front cover

          Maude M. Kirby

Of course I couldn't leave it in the antique store so it came home with me. The next day I started documenting and researching to see if I could find the family whose pictures were in this beautiful album.

It's been a challenge. There are very few names written in full, instead I found tantalizing references written on the backs of some of the photos: "Lillian and Baby Donalda", "4 Generations",  "Mother is 76 years old and growing younger every day" But no surnames! No hint of the relationship to the writer or the album owner.

After carefully removing and photographing all 120 photographs, I made a list of each one. I entered full details - photographer's name, location photo taken, any writing on reverse of photo, estimated time period of photo (based on visual clues such as clothing, hairstyles, type of photograph etc)

When I realized there were no clues re family surnames except for the inscription Maude M. Kirby in the front of the album, I decided to research Maude on Ancestry.com.  Unfortunately there are hundreds of Maude M. Kirby names, and without knowing a country of time period, I could not narrow the results to something manageable. Remember, I don't know when Maude owned this album and I don't believe she was the only owner as the photos range from early 1860s to late 1920s. I suspect more than one person owned this photo album

Also re country of the owner or the individuals in the album - some CDVs were from English photographers and one was from Brantford Ontario Canada. Since I purchased the album in Ontario, I had a hunch the album started its life in England and then came to Canada with family. Narrowing my search for Maude to England and then Canada and then Ontario did not help. There were still too many results.

One early CDV (ca 1870s) was of a minister. Written on the photo was his name "Rev. W. Mitchell". The photographer, Boak, was a Driffield studio.  A search online showed that Matthew Boak had a studio in Driffield as early as 1873.

Since many of the early CDVs were taken by photographers in Driffield, Yorkshire England I decided to find out what church Rev. Mitchell had ministered. It seemed to me that the family would hold their own minister in high enough regard to have his photo, and therefore they likely attended his church. A search of the church records might reveal a Kirby family or even Maude M. Kirby herself.

No need to go into details but that idea did not pan out. Yes I found Rev. Mitchell mentioned as minister of an Independent Church in Driffield and reference to a sermon he gave in 1863. But there was no mention of Kirby in the online Driffield church records and in fact Great Driffield records do not appear to be online at this time.

Lillian & Baby Donalda

I also searched on FamilySearch, thinking perhaps I could make an educated "guess" as to relationships, then enter the first names only. For example the photo with writing "Lillian and Baby Donalda" was a picture of a woman and a young baby. It appeared to be taken ca 1920s and my theory was that Lillian was the mother with her child. So I searched for a child Donalda born ca 1920-1930 with mother Lillian but was met with disappointment.

Continuing to search with so little information was proving fruitless so hubs and I laid the photos out on our coffee table and began studying them for clues. It is amazing what you can discover if you really study and analyze such things as the background of a photo, the architecture of a building, the vegetation in an outdoor snap.

This is not a quick or easy process and took us several days of intensive study and discussion - comparing our findings with each other, trying to confirm hunches and basically coming up with any new clues or theories that we could. I made lists of all the clues we were discovering.

For example, one outdoor photo was of a monument of some kind with statues of Indians. On the verso in handwriting it said "Victoria Park 1907" A Google search turned up dozens of Victoria Park references in different countries so that wasn't much help. But the Indian statues provided a clue that this photo was likely taken in North America and not England or another country.

Then we did a reverse image search using Google and there it was - the monument in the photo was of Joseph Brant and is on display in Brantford Ontario. So we had another reference to Brantford. It wasn't enough to enable us to find the family but at least it confirmed that Brantford had some connection to the family.

My journey continues and through this blog I will share the clues, the discoveries, the successes and the failures in my hunt to discover where this album belongs and what family held it so dear for over 60 years. Readers can follow along with me by using the link for Kirby Photo Archive

An Orphaned Antique Photo Album Comes Home With Me

 Yesterday I stumbled on another orphaned antique Photo Album. The owner's name was inscribed inside the front cover

          Maude M. Kirby

Of course I couldn't leave it in the antique store so it came home with me. This morning I started documenting and archiving.

It's a large album, 8 1/2x12 inches. I haven't counted the pages or the photos yet but it's 2" thick.

Archiving and documenting takes me a long time. I start with taking camera photos of every page. Then I upload them to Dropbox (cloud storage) so I have an immediate backup.

 This is the front inside cover and is representative of the photo pages inside. Not every page has such a beautiful coloured flower but there are at least 13 of them. They are all in excellent condition, brightly coloured and intact.

After I have taken pictures of all the pages as they are, I start to record each page. I do that by slowly and carefully removing the photo(s) on each page and writing down all the information found - photographer's name and location, type of photo (CDV, Cabinet Card, tintype, etc)  If there is any handwritten notation on the photo I record that too.

Then I assign a number to each photo. That goes along with whatever name I give the album, in this case, KIRBY. I shorten this to 3 letters for my inventory/naming system. So the first photo in this album will be KIR-1 and I record this lightly in pencil on the reverse of the photo.

This is another page in this lovely photo album.  I did manage to finish taking camera snaps of each page and have removed about twenty of the photos.

As an added surprise several of the photos had other photos tucked underneath. While I still have much to do on this album before the archiving and documentation is complete, I hope to find enough identifying information to research the individuals in the album.

This album appears to have been used by one family over more than one generation. Some of the Cartes de Visite are from the 1860s while other photos are dated 1920. 

After I remove all the photos from the album I take another camera picture of each one, front and verso (back). This allows me to easily and quickly zoom in on anything I wish to inspect for clues to the individuals or locations of each photo.

Then I use my wonderful Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner to create a quick but top quality scan of each photo.  I'll be documenting the album here on my Olive Tree Genealogy blog in hopes a descendant spots the names or photos and recognizes them.

 Meantime it seems many of the photos were taken in Yorkshire England but I did spot one that was from a Brantford Ontario Canada photographer. I am sure there are many more surprises to be found as I continue removing the photos and checking the backs.