Family could be?.....

[DavidWW]

I think its parents and children. The woman looks early 40's. Still young enough to be dropping sprogs.

I'd agree. Actually I think that the woman looks nearer 50, and if the wain on her knee is 1 to 2 years old, then said wain could easily be her last child.

With 8 surviving children, and possibly a number who died in infancy, and being a farmer's/grieve's/ploughman's wife, she would have had a hard life and quite probably looked a few years older than her actual age.

Were they the grandparents, then where's the father of the younger weans?, - and assuming that the wean on grannie's knee is her grandchild, especially given the "absence" of the father, I've have expected said wean to be on her mother's knee, with mother and child sitting between the grandparents ............ but there's no certainty..........

David

[DavidWW]

Hi David
Thanks for that reply, I think that you are spot on with the Farm Grieve or Head Ploughman, as for being shod the girls at the back will have been out working from probably age 12 so they would have some income and the younger one at the front could be from 3 or 4 family groups so granddad may not be buying too many shoes.
Alison
Thank you also, when I first saw this photo I though the same as you but could not work out the ages of the younger ones, it took a long time to come to the view that they are not from the same parents (the girl on the right and the one in the middle seated look to be the same age but very different) as for the horseshoe, I think that may depend on where you are from one way to catch good luck the other to deflect bad luck!! I don’t know but I have seen many both ways.

Thanks again
Smid

Hi Smid

See above .............

In addition, look at the lugs, - apart from Pa, second youngest wain, and maybe the oldest where her hair is partially obscuring her lug, - the lugs of Ma and all the other wains are very, very similar in terms of size, position, and angle .................. (BTW purely coincidentally I only found out y'day from my hairdresser that some people's ears are not quite on the same level, which causes the profession major problems if this is not realised )

Given an age of the adults of between 45 and 50, the age of the eldest child could fit in well with a marriage in the late 20s or early 30s, never mind that any elder child/children may already have left home, i.e. be working away from home the day the photographer called..........

As for the horseshoe, see http://www.csicop.org/superstition/library/horse.html

David

[smiddykilry]

Thanks David
You talking about lugs has sent me back to one of the other photos, at first I just put it to one side thinking it was just another bothy lads photo, 4 young men and 1 older man sitting outside the bothy. now after a closer look I am thinking the older man in it could be Granddad in my original post and the younger men or boys his sons, all the younger ones look very alike, ages from about 14 into 20's.

Smid