A Big Fat Question Mark: Another Challenge from the Spooner-Hardy Album

"To Nelly with Mr. Leaman Harrison's [W. Seaman Thomson's] best love," 1868-69

Here I am with another handwriting mystery for you.  This carte de visite was taken at Asplet & Green on Jersey and dates from the same period as the previous photograph in my last post, The Hardy-Spooner Album: To Betsy Baker with Compliments, 1868-69. 

I think it's addressed, "To Nelly with Mr. Leaman Harrison's best love," [W. Seaman Thomson] but I have my doubts about the surname.  And possibly the first name.  I am fairly confident about "Nelly."  What do you see there?

So now we have two carte de visites from Asplet & Green, photographed around the same time, address to two different women (presumably), one named Betsy Baker and the other, Nelly.  One is signed from Mrs.  M---- and the other from this fellow.  What, if anything, is the connection?

The Hardy-Spooner Album: To Betsy Baker with Compliments, 1868-69

"To Betsy Baker With Mrs. M???? compls" - 1868-69

As promised in a previous post, I am revisiting the Hardy-Spooner album with another image from its pages.  This carte de visite was taken in the Asplet & Green Studio at 18 1/2 Beresford Street, Jersey.  Its inscription reads, "To Betsy Baker With Mrs M---'s compls."  Perhaps the album belonged to Betsy Baker, but it may have also belonged to a number of owners as it contains photographs from about 1860 right up to about 1925 with quite a few families represented.

This particular image can be dated to about 1868-69 through the style of photographer's imprint on the back thanks to Jerseyfamilyhistory.co.uk who have kindly posted examples on their site of Asplet & Green's imprints through the years.

Before we can try to figure out who the woman is, we need to try to decipher her surname on the inscription.  Perhaps you can help.  I see "Mrs. Monder" or "Mrs. Mouder."  I haven't had much luck with either surname in my searches.  How do you read the inscription?  Sometimes a second set of eyes (or a dozen!) can reveal something new. 

I hope you will share your conclusions in the comments section.

From the Spooner - Hardy Family Album, Mrs. Huxley, Jersey, Circa 1865

This is one of the unidentified images contained in the Hardy-Spooner family album I recently found at a local antique shop (see previous post).  I didn't have much hope that I would be able to identify the woman in this 1860s-era carte de visite, but I try my best with each and every photograph I find, whether or not it's identified.  In this case, my options were somewhat limited, but I decided to research the photographer.  The back of the cabinet card has the following photographer's imprint:

Photographer's Imprint, ca. 1865

I found a wonderful Jersey family history site dedicated to providing information about the Hemery family and about Jersey Photographers.  There I found examples of the imprints that Henry Mullins used throughout the years.  According to the website, our imprint dates to somewhere between 1862 and 1865.

Now, it is a rare and very lucky occasion when a database or archive of a photographer's work can be found.  I soon learned that our photographer, Mr. Henry Mullins, was the first established photographer on the island of Jersey.  Furthermore, many of his contact sheets have been archived by The Société Jersiaise, and are available to browse online.

There were 9860 hits for "Henry Mullins" on the Société Jersiaise website, but I started browsing through the contact sheets one by one.  And eventually I found it:  the very same image, labelled "Mrs Huxley."  So, we now have a surname.

What's next?  Well, I don't have forename and I'm not entirely clear if the image was taken in Jersey, or if there is a possibility it was taken at the Regent Street, London studio.  I would guess that it was taken in Jersey, but I think it best to confirm that with the archive before proceeding with a search.

I found two other images from Jersey in the album, but unfortunately, neither were from Mullins Studio.  Both images were inscribed and identified, if I were able to read the handwriting.  I plan to post these very soon to see if readers can help me with deciphering the handwriting.

While this search has only provided a surname now, that surname may be a helpful clue towards working out the relationships in the album in the future. 

A Great Find in Coombs, BC, Canada -- The Hardy - Spooner Family Album

 

My most recent antique shop find has been taking up a good portion of my free research time these days, which unfortunately, hasn't amounted to much lately as I work on my genealogical certificate courses and my own family history mysteries.  My newest treasure is an album of carte de visite and cabinet card photographs dating from roughly 1860 to the 1920s that I found at an antique shop in Coombs, BC, Canada.  Of the seventy photographs, less than a dozen are identified at all, and of that dozen only a handful have names, some with only given names.  Yet, I am happy to report that a history of the family who owned this album is slowly emerging.

Many of the early photographs were taken in London or Blandford, England; Belfast and Carlisle, Ireland, with more recent images originating from San Francisco, California.    Some of the surnames inscribed on the photos are Hardy, Spooner, Terrell, Humhal, Balean, and Baker.

My starting point for the search was a portrait of an infant with his unidentified grandmother.  I began there because I thought it best to work backwards in time.  The reverse reads, "Gerald Craig Hardy (3 1/2 months old) and his great grandmother (aged ninety years)."  The pair had their portrait taken at the Stanford Studio, 731 Market Street, San Francisco. Judging by the style of photograph, I would estimate that it dates to about 1900.

A search on Ancestry for "Gerald Craig Hardy" produced only one hit, and while there were a number of matches for "Gerald Hardy" the first seems to be the most probable.  The funeral home records for Gerald Craig Hardy, who was born 22 June 1900 in California to Lillian and Douglas Hardy¹ provided a wealth of information, including his State of California Death Certificate.  According to the certificate, Gerald died on the 30th August 1983 in San Francisco.  His father, Douglas Hardy, was originally from England and his wife Lillian, was a California native.  Gerald Craig Hardy was the owner and manager of "Hardy Theatres."  One of his "Hardy Theatres" still stands in Fresno, and it appears he operated in San Mateo as well.  Gerald grew up in San Rafael², and as an adult lived in Carmel-By-the-Sea³, Fresno⁴, and at the time of his death, in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco.  He and his wife, Vera Sellner, do not appear to have had any children.

The 1910 census shows that Gerald had one brother, Kenneth, born about 1903.

A little digging into Douglas Hardy's family reveals a connection to the Spooner family, which I will go into more fully in a future post.  Stay tuned!

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1 California, San Francisco Area Funeral Home Records, 1895-1985. Entry for Gerald Craig Hardy; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed Oct 9, 2013), citing San Francisco Area Funeral Home Records, 1895-1985. Microfilm publication, 1129 rolls. Researchity. San Francisco, California.^↩
2 "United States Census, 1910," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MVL6-QSR : accessed 13 Oct 2013), Gerald Hardy in household of Douglas Hardy, San Rafael, Marin, California, United States; citing sheet , family 266, NARA microfilm publication T624, FHL microfilm 1374101.^↩
3 "United States Census, 1930," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XCDX-XR9 : accessed 13 Oct 2013), Gerald Hardy, Carmel by the Sea, Monterey, California, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 0021, sheet , family 152, NARA microfilm publication .^↩
4 1940 U.S. census, Fresno County, California, Fresno, Enumeration District 10-34A, sheet 63-B (penned), dwelling 326, Gerald C Hardy household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 Oct 2012), citing National Archives microfilm publication T627, roll 201 ^↩