Photographs

Working our way through boxes and boxes of genealogical material and my husband came across an envelope that had been put away probably as much as 23 years ago. My mother had given it to me and my interest in genealogy at that time was virtually nil. As it turns out they were principally pictures of my father's family and she didn't actually know who all the people were anyway but fortunately I had sat with my grandfather in his last year quite a bit and he used to talk about the pictures so I recognized some of them amazingly.

However, one surfaced that I hadn't remembered at all. It was in it's own separate envelope and a tintype:












































I decided to write my cousin to see if it struck a memory with him (especially as he is definitely the family historian reaching way back). There is writing on the back and one of the words is Robert. Of course, I would like it to be Robert Gray and Mary Routledge (my 2x great grandparents) but he doesn't really look like his two brothers for whom we have pictures albeit at a later date.

Tomorrow my husband will try to photograph the back and see if we can bring up the writing. I scanned it but there is just too much noise in the picture to zoom in on the writing.

I am trying to think of other possibilities. Since it is a tintype that dates it as after 1856. I have discovered they were not popular in England although they were done there but I can not think of anyone with the name of Robert in my family that lived in that time period and looked about that age. Robert isn't a very common name in my families.

Along with the tintype, the envelope also contained the originals of some pictures of which I have smaller reproductions. The originals are much sharper so we will photograph them tomorrow and replace the ones in my OGS story with sharper ones. They were my Grandfather's pictures although not the tintype. I can not remember him having any tintypes.

It is very exciting though to have a new picture to think about and perhaps if I am very lucky fit into my family lines. I have virtually nothing for my Gray and Routledge lines in terms of pictures. Lots of wills and other legal documents but no pictures. However, I shall really hang back on this one until I am very sure.

I sat and looked at the pictures of my four brothers and actually they do not all look exactly alike so it is a possibility that it could be Robert Gray but proving it is another story; that is for sure.