Here are a couple of antique photographs I bought some time ago in an antiques market in Dorset. There are thousands of these old family photographs still in existence, but many of them are very faded with age. I like these photographs because they give such a clear indication of the fashions of the time. 

The photos are undated but I would guess that they are about 100 years old. There are several reasons for supposing that the two photos show members of the same family. The photos were taken in the same photographic studio in Poole, Dorset. On the reverse both photos have the names of the people, written in identical handwriting. 

This photo is titled 'Grandfather Hayball and Alma (Mother)'. 'Hayball' would have been this gentleman's surname, so he would have been 'Mr. Hayball'. It is a very unusual name, so he could probably be found in local records if anyone wanted to research the history of the family. They seem to be a very prosperous family. Alma is beautifully dressed and carries a lovely fan. I imagine she is the daughter of My Hayball, not his granddaughter. Perhaps her daughter wrote the caption to the photos at a later date.

These seem to be the children of the family. The boy is named Charles and the standing girl is called May. The seated girl is named as 'Roma ( Bessie)'. Presumably she was christened 'Roma' but her second name was probably 'Elizabeth' which has been shortened to 'Bessie'. Everyone is obviously wearing their best 'Sunday' clothes for this photograph. 'Sunday' clothes were the ones you wore to go to church. You wanted to look your best then.

When a girl was considered old enough to 'come out' and mix in adult society she was allowed to put her hair up and wear more adult-looking clothes. You can see that May is doing this, whilst Bessie is still dressed as a child.

I am not sure how these children are related to the people in the other photo. I personally think that Alma looks too young to be their mother, but I could be wrong! Maybe she is their older sister and the man is their father.

Actually there is an interesting footnote to this story. I had placed these photos on the website some time ago, and about 2 years after doing so, I was contacted by a lady who lived in Swanage who had found the page whilst searching on the internet. She was researching the family history of her husband's family, who were called Hayball. She realised that these were his ancestors, as she had seen another photo (belonging to another relative) of the eldest daughter, wearing the same dress. However, her husband had no photos of this generation of his family.

To cut a long story short, I went and met this lady and her husband, and returned the photos to him and his family. The names on the second photo were unknown to them, and it enabled them to add them to the family tree and do some further research on them. It was a lovely meeting and I was thrilled to be able to take these photos 'home'.