Possibly Sarah Jane Turner with her youngest daughter, Sarah Anne - ca.1880

Possibly Sarah Jane Turner

with her youngest daughter, Sarah Anne

ca.1880

I came upon this photo only recently amongst my late mother's (Emily Flora Wright nee Glover) personal effects. As with most of the photos in her collection, there's nothing to indicate who these people are. It seems to have been a tradition in my family to never write anything on the back of family photos. For that reason, I don't know for sure who these people are.

Mum's mother, Louise Mary Glover nee Turner was born in 1870, meaning she'd be about the age of this woman around the turn of the century, if that's when this photo was taken. However, as she didn't marry until 1899, it is unlikely to be her, as this appears to be a mother and child study to me.

The fact that the photo was taken at Falcon Studios in North Sydney is an indication that they are from my Mum's side of the family, not Dad's. Louisa Mary's family had a farm at Roseville Chase at that time, near the present Roseville Bridge, not all that far from North Sydney, whereas Dad's family lived far away in the upper Hunter Valley of New South Wales.

My cousin, Dorothy Shiels (b.1923), believes this may be Louisa Mary's mother, my maternal great-grandmother, Sarah Jane Turner nee Senior (1850-1889), with her daughter, Louisa Mary (my grandmother), as a child, meaning it would date from the 1870s.

Confused? Me too!

What Dorothy's hypothesis does not explain, however, is why Louisa Mary was photographed alone with her mother and not with her twin sister, Theresa Jane, also being present. Surely the twins, Louisa and Theresa, would have been photographed together with their mother.

Sarah Jane Turner had two other daughters, Elizabeth Emily (1876-1802) and Sarah Anne (1878-1947), so it may be one of them photographed with their mother.

Sarah Jane predeceased her husband, my maternal great-grandfather, William Turner (1844-1892), in 1889, aged 38. William died only a few years later, in 1892, aged 48.

They left behind six orphan children, the youngest of whom was Sarah Anne, aged just 14 at the time of her father's death.

It seems reasonable to assume that my grandmother, Louisa Mary, the eldest child, took Sarah Anne under her wing, following the death of their father. Louisa Mary was 22 when their father died. She was unmarried at the time, not marrying until 1899. Certainly, they remained close throughout their lives, Sarah Anne being known affectionately throughout the family as Aunty Doll.

If this is, indeed, a photo of my great-grandmother, Sarah Jane Turner, with her youngest child, Sarah Anne, I am prepared to venture that it may have been found and kept by my mother, Emily Flora Wright nee Glover, within the possessions of her mother, Louisa Mary Glover nee Turner, following the death of the latter.

By way of background as to the reason for William Turner's early death, the story in the family has it that he left the farm at Roseville Chase one morning, bound for the markets in Sydney. He was driving a horse and dray. The horse returned to the farm alone, later in the day. A search party went out, and William was found dead by the side of the road, crushed under the dray, which had rolled on top of him. The reason for the accident is unknown.

I do not know the reason for Sarah Jane death at the age of 38.

I guess we'll never know for sure who these people are! Genealogy can be so frustrating!