Saturday, October 2, 2010

Sepia Saturday . . .

The little girl in this photo taken around 1910 is my much loved Grandmother on my maternal side. I love this photo, it is so relaxed and loving for the times when everyone posed stiff and unsmiling - you can feel the love between Phylis Gwendoline and her Daddy. . .

My Great Uncle Marcus, the baby in the pic, died last year at 99 yrs of age ! My Great Grandparents were both English, G Grandma, Dorothy Florence (nee Churchhouse), emigrated to NZ in the late 1880`s from Somerset. An Aunt of mine has been back to visit the area and see the house her Grandmother was brought up in, I will post a pic of that another day.
I don`t know much about G Grandad, except that he was a bit of a whiskey drinker and died quite young ! He looks a handsome devil I think . .

My Grandmother was born in 1908 in Auckland and died 1982, just a week before my 2nd daughter was born, hence my Pip has her g grandmothers name in hers ( she is Phillippa Claire Gwendoline) and I do believe my beloved Nana`s spirit lives on in my special daughter . . .

This little family lived in Greenhithe, a country area then just north of Auckland city. They had an orchard and there is still an `Andrews `Rd up there. My memories of G Grandma Andrews are of this tiny, feisty little lady with a huge presence, very strict and who spoke beautiful English, she died in 1975 the year my eldest daughter was born, it would have been lovely to have had a 5 generation photo taken . . .

11 comments:

Cally said...

Cool:)

Weird though, to me, that these children were your grandmother and great uncle because although we are close in age, my father was born in 1909 and my mother in 1911 - you have 3 generations in the space of 2 in my family! (My mum was 40 when she had me.)

Marilyn & Jeff said...

This is a very beautiful photo and I love how it's not a truly formal pose. Lovely family memories and details in your post.

Unknown said...

What a delightful portrait. I do love thr interaction of father and daughter. Lovely. So too the passing down of names.

Nana Jo said...

The love is palpable in this beautiful portrait. He looks like such a fun-loving, spirited young man.

Unknown said...

Nice photo, notice how they all seem to have their hair parted in the middle, I wonder about the littlest guy! And your grandfather does look like a handsome dashing guy. Nice that the name lives on.

Marcia said...

Thankyou for all the kind comments.

Cally - yes it is strange how our lives turn out age wise, my mother had me at age 19, I had Meg at 22, she had lia at 21 - we have 4 generations going at the moment !

Marilyn - This is one of my fav family photod, I have another couple in the vein which I will post, the photographer was obviously ahead of his times with the family sitting in the garden and relaxed looking.

Joan - I always smile when I look at this photo, the love between them all is so obvious, even tho he was abit of a scallywag, my Nana adored her father and always spoke so lovingly of him.

Nana Jo - I think he must have been a tad too fun - loving at times, I never met him and do wonder what he would have been like.

Pat - I inherited my Nana`s thick hair. photos of me at the age have a very similar look about them. It is nice to pass names down the generations, my children have started that with my grandchildren.

Nancy said...

What a refreshing photograph for the time period. Just delightful. They all look so scrubbed and finished - just picture perfect!

Alan Burnett said...

There is something really engaging about the picture. I couldn't work out what it was until I enlarged it and then I realised that all the faces look remarkably "modern" - I suppose as a result of the type of semi-pose that is still popular today.

Bruno Laliberté said...

a lovely family casually captured.
:)~
HUGZ

Veronica said...

I love stories like this! It is such a relaxed portait for the time period. I like the ferns in the background too.

Meri said...

He might have been a bit of a drinker, but from the photo one would surmise that he was a loving daddy. Perhaps a bit of a child, himself. The mother is lovely, as are the children. How wonderful to add a bit of her to Pip's name.