Success!! With the help of Rhoda who is Terry's wife @terryliv I now know that the Police Sergeant in the photo is James Knowler my 2nd Great Grandfather. His wife was Susannah and they had 7 children James, Mary Ann, William, Charles, Elizabeth, Paul and Susannah. From the 1851 and 1861 census I can see that James was born in Boughton, near Faversham, Kent and his wife Susannah was born in Whitstable Kent. I am not sure if the photo of the young lady with the lace collar is his wife or not. There is another photo with her and a man sitting down holding two young children. The man doesn't have a moustache and I cannot tell if it is James or not.
So one part of the mystery is solved - how wonderful is that? All thanks to Rhoda's detective work!! I am so grateful to her for all the help she has given us in finding out about our family history.
My sister and I are hoping to visit Whitstable in Kent later this year to see if we can find out any more details.
@danette Good suggestion, Danette! With a name and all those kids to go on, it might offer a lot of help!
Such a lot of news here, Pam! It's all very exciting!
Someone (Anita) asked, why didn't they put names on the back?! Good question, indeed! We all need to learn a lesson from that and mark our photos as well!
@Weezilou This a has been doing all the work for us as she specialises in thus field. We now have quite a good family tree. It was just frustrating that I couldn't match those photos to anyone. The writing on the original census forms is often illegible ( to me anyway) and I didn't spot that James was a Police Sergeant. Rhoda is a star! She missed her vocation - she should have been a detective!
Congrats on find out. I know what you mean on trying to read the writing on the census. My cousin and I have been trying to trace our family tree, and the census while helpful are very hard to read. If you haven't yet check out 'Genie', its a website that will really help to grow your family tree.
Such a lot of news here, Pam! It's all very exciting!
Someone (Anita) asked, why didn't they put names on the back?! Good question, indeed! We all need to learn a lesson from that and mark our photos as well!