Your family photos
Jan Johnstone writes: I have two photos I believe to be of my 3x and 2x great-grandfathers, both named Thomas Price. Both photos are large, 310cm x 255cm and 400cm x 295cm, and have been pasted on to a strong card. Neither bear any photographer’s name or the place. My dilemma is: which is Thomas senior and which is Thomas junior?
For photo 1, I cannot narrow down the attire closer than 1850-70, so it could be either father or son. Photo 2 is maybe taken in the 1890s when head and shoulders vignette with fading edges were popular, and thus likely to be Thomas junior. Also, handwritten on the back of photo 1 is a message to send the photo to an address where my great-grandfather William G. Price, was living in 1901-03.
I think maybe William had photo 1 (his grandfather) copied and enlarged after the death of his father, Thomas Price junior. Here are the details: Thomas Price (c.1805- ?); Thomas Price (1831-1900); William G Price (1859-1930); my grandfather, William A Price (1885-1986). Thomas Price, mason, had a son also named Thomas Price
I estimate Thomas the elder may have been born c.1805 and lived in Hereford. I know for certain that his son Thomas Price junior, commercial traveller, was born 1831 in Hereford, and died in London 1900 (aged 69).
I look forward to your assessment of the dates of the photos of the father and son. I’d like to be more confident about the assumptions I have made: I don’t want to leave the next generation still guessing.