victoriana? edwardiana? how to date, this is the question

[llywela]

Sorry for so many ancient photos lately, but does anyone out there know anything about the history of clothes? I'm trying to figure out exactly who these two are:

But the identification is woolly (my aunt thinks she remembers who her mum told her they were, 40 years ago, but we aren't sure if their clothes are right for their dates) and it would help if we could identify an approximate date based on their clothes. Any ideas?

There are a couple more pictures that might possibly be him, that aren't much help.


And I'm not sure if this is her again or not


I don't think many of my f-list are terribly active on LJ any more, but if anyone does happen to have any ideas about when these pictures might have been taken, based on the clothes, please do speak up!

Comments

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing WWI uniform for the first picture - or at least not much earlier, because I think the woman's wearing a wristwatch, which apparently weren't popular until the 1920s? Cf this chap perhaps, in a very general way - the pocketing and similar braid through his epaulette... Hmmn - the IWM site suggests that it may have been a lanyard, which were worn by officers, and because it's khaki coloured rather than white (as in the other picture, I think), it suggests he was on active service... I think he looks like he's wearing puttees, which were apparently worn from the early 1900s..? But I'm afraid I'm making it all up from random googling tonight, just cos your pictures got me curious! *g* His collar's interesting too - scroll down this forum and a woman was wondering about a similar-looking collar on a c1916 photo...

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Yeah, early 1900s-1910s was our best guess, which means they probably can't be who my aunt thought they were, which is her grandmother's parents, as they were born 1865/7 and would have been in their 30s-40s by the 1900s. This couple look a bit too young. Unless they were just really well preserved? It's so hard to be sure! Especially since there really aren't that many other possibilities for them, given which branches of the family have photos of them.

Genealogy is like being a detective!

[(Anonymous)]

I tried comparing their clothes to those on some of my old photos but it didn't help much. I thought the army uniform could have been a bit older than WWI but only one of my relatives is in WWI uniform so that didn't help the comparison much.
Genealogy satisfies my inner detective; I love nothing more than tracking down - or not, in quite a few cases - the minor details. :)

Carol

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Me too! Mum and I have done so much research, and we're forever getting sidetracked off onto tangents just because they're interesting...

This is a branch we've not done a huge deal of research for, though, and our ancestry membership is elapsed currently. Like I mentioned below, our chief suspects for this couple are Joseph and Penelope Cooper, but if the photos were taken any later than 1910 I'd say they are too young to be them. If we date them as 1900-1910 it might be, though - could they be in their 30s? He could be, certainly.