Three Generations

Meet the ancestors – three generations in one.

While sorting through my family photographs and other papers, trying to get them in to some sort of order, I found this photograph from the late 1920’s. It was taken in a studio and shows three generations of my mother’s family. The little girl is my mother, Winifred Joyce Bradley (1924-2005), aged about three or four. The younger of the two women on the right of the photogaph is my grandmother Mary Lucy (1900-1982). The older of the two women is, I think, my great grandmother Martha Jane Mort (1871-1937).

Although my mother was born in Notinghamshire, where my grandfather had moved to work on the railways, this side of my family is Lancastrian. Mary Lucy was born in Manchester and Martha Mort in Barton on Irwell. I’ve still lots to find out about the Mort family, but I think there might be an interesting tale or two to tell about them. 

I’ll never really know what kind of people my ancestors were, or what they thought, felt and believed. But I can find out as many facts about them as I can, and let my imagination do the rest. One of my favourite games is to sit and look at these old photographs and try to figure out what they were thinking. But  the problem with studio photograph is that the people are posed and the backdrops are painted, so the pictures give very little away about their daily lives. 

I’ve hundreds more photographs to sort through and categorise, so I’ll be sharing them with you from time to time. I hope you enjoy them.