Can anyone date me this photo?

[Zen Rabbit]

This photo is either my GGgrandfather Henry Smith 1817 - 1877 or my Ggrandfather 1871 - 1940 any help gratefully received

[loobylou]

Genuki Staffordshire has an index of photographers showing Thomas H Hall in 1880 Kelly's directory

[stepives]

OK Rabbit...where have you hid it.

Steve.

[Coromandel]

Thos H. Hall, 47, born Hanley, was a photographer at 125 Marsh Street in 1881 (RG 11/2725, f.17, p.27)

[Jan1954]

OK Rabbit...where have you hid it.

Steve.

Hi Steve,

The photograph is there right enough. However, if you do not have your settings correct to be able to see it, you will not be able to.

Click on "Forum Actions" in the blue bar at the top, then on "General Settings", scroll right down until you reach "Thread Display Options" and make sure that "Show Images" has a tick against it.

That way, you should be able to see all images that show up in posts.

[Zen Rabbit]

Hmm tricky that. Henry was dead by 1877 and David would have been 10 or 11. All the rest of his siblings were sisters

[Coromandel]

It just so happens that the two sightings of Thomas Hall so far are very close together, in 1880 and 1881, but he may have traded at the same address for many years before or after. Other directories/censuses may shed light on this.

The style of the design on the back may help to date the photograph. See examples here:

http://www.
cartes.freeuk.com/time/time.htm

(click on one of the card backs to see other examples from that decade).

[Chris Doran]

Of the online directories I have been able to find, 1880 is the only one in which Thomas Hopkin Hall appears. He's not in nearby ones: 1870, 1872, 1896, and 1900 (which doesn't, of course, mean he wasn't there). It's conceivable that he was asked to reprint an earlier photograph, but that's clutching at straws.

[Coromandel]

Of the online directories I have been able to find, 1880 is the only one in which Thomas Hopkin Hall appears....

Ah, so the 1880 directory gives him the middle name Hopkin? Then it may be significant that the death of a 55 year old Thomas Hopkins Hall was registered in the Stoke T. district in the third quarter of 1887.

. . . . although when his son (also Thomas Hopkin Hall, a painter) married in Blackpool in 1902, he didn't say his father was dead. (Lancs Online Parish Clerks).

[grisel]

Looks like William H Bentley was at 125 Marsh St in 1896 (Genuki Staffordshire photographers index)