Saturday Snapshot

Published on by Margaret

Here’s another old photo from my family photos. This is my Great Aunty Emily, who was born in 1886 and died in 1935. On the back of this small photo, mounted on card, my Mother wrote ‘Aunty Emily Miss Taylor at Blackpool’. You can enlarge the photo by clicking on it.

I doubt she was actually sat on the beach at Blackpool when this photo was taken, that deck chair looks remarkably near the waves and the sand looks very solid. I suppose she was on holiday there, but as the photo isn’t dated I don’t know when this was.

She was my Grandmother’s younger sister and I’ve found out from the Census Returns that she was born at Lostock Junction, Bolton in Lancashire. My Great Grandfather, her father was Thomas Taylor, a domestic gardener, born in 1856 at Bulwick, Northamptonshire. He had another daughter, Florrie, born in 1901 and a son Thomas William born in 1892. All his children were born in different places, as he moved from Northamptonshire, to Lancashire and then to Cheshire.

Emily never married, but stayed at home acting as Housekeeper for her father after her mother died in 1911. I have a copy of her death certificate 1935, which records that she was aged 51 and died at 94 Victoria Road, Hale, Cheshire of a cerebral haemorrhage. Her occupation was described as ‘Housekeeper (domestic) Daughter of Thomas Taylor a Gardener (domestic) (deceased) of 6 Oak Road, Hale’. My Granny, Evelyn Owens, was present at her death. Had my Granny come to stay with her because she wasn’t well – at that time Granny lived in Pen-y-fford, in Wales?

I knew Florrie because when I was a child she lived in the next road and I used to visit her each week with my Mother. She was lovely and looked very like Emily does in the photo (only older).

I also have a vague memory of Thomas William – Uncle Tom, because when his daughter, Joyce, her husband and their daughter Jennifer (who was born just over a year later than me) emigrated to Australia there was a family party before they left. I don’t know how old I was at the time, probably about 5. I remember Uncle Tom as a very large old man, who was very upset about his daughter emigrating! As usual I’m left wishing I knew more about these people.

See more Saturday Snapshots on Alyce’s blog, At Home With Books.

20 thoughts on “Saturday Snapshot”

  2. I love it! Fantastic photo. My SS is an old one too. There’s something fascinating about these older photos – they just seem to have more character.

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  4. Margaret – Oh, a lovely ‘photo!Thanks for sharing this piece of your history with us and for sharing Emily’s story. How interesting!

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  5. I love the history behind photos…and you have done a great job of finding out the details.

    My mother had lots of photos with nothing written on the back…she also had albums with captions under the photos, so sometimes we could figure out the others. I think she threw some in a box when she got busy with raising kids, running the household, etc. Thanks for sharing.

    Here’s MY SATURDAY SNAPSHOT – and here’s
    MY WEBSITE

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  8. This is an interesting photo, Margaret. Thanks for telling us what you know of your aunt. I agree that the “sand” seems very solid. I wonder if this was taken indoors in a studio or if there were kiosks or such to take photos at the seaside.

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  9. Nice job researching. I have old photos and wish I knew more about the people in them. And sometimes I don’t even know who they are!

    The photo was probably taken in a studio. I remember my mom telling me about what a big deal it was to take a photo in the 30s. The equipment wasn’t portable and they had to go to the photographer.

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  10. It does look like it is staged, but is still neat to see! Thanks for sharing so much family history and background, it really makes it that much more fun to know some of the story of the person in the photo.

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  14. Great photo — it’s really interesting the different ways that old photos were staged. They had some very different ideas about pictures than we have now, since we can take them anywhere and everywhere.

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  19. This photo looks like it was taken in a studio with a painted backdrop. It’s lovely, and I’m glad you have so much information about your great-aunt and other members of your family.

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  20. The perfect outfit for an outing at the beach! It is amazing to see old pictures. Do you think present day photos will give the same feeling of nostalgia years from now?

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