Saturday, May 12, 2007

Mystery Pictures - of People


Among the pictures we inherited from Auntie Hilde are also some of people we can not identify with certainty. Let us begin with this one, of a very elegant lady in a car, a model which I would date to around 1908, having looked at catalogues of historic cars. Unfortunately, the make is not identifyable. Notice the “bandage” around the front left wheel, which had obviously been repaired after a recent puncture.

The lady could be Kathrine (Kitty) Bice, Mary’s sister (born on January 8th 1855) who married Hernry Joll of Plymouth in 1880. We saw a very distinctive -almost angelic- picture of her earlier. We also see her son Henry Joll Jr. on many of Robert Burnard’s family pictures. Kitty died relatively young, at 55 in 1910, let’s hope it wasn’t a car accident. It is just a thought, given that most of Mary’s sisters lived to be quite old.


Then there is this one, of a young man in uniform.

It could be Charles Fredric Burnard, named after his father - his second son. The reason why this may be Charles is that he lived from June 25th 1842 to March 10 1867 - so he died before turning 25. I checked the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Website, he did not die in action.

Mary, his sister born in 1850, would have remembered him and may have kept his picture to be handed down to us via her daughter Hilde.

He certainly does not appear on any other of the many pictures taken, usually in the 1890s. Also, he has that distinctive Burnard nose that gives away several family members.