Fab Feb Photo Collage - Day Twelve

Ted Conner

Ouf - just look at this photo.  Isn't it the cutest thing you ever did see?

On the back it just says "Ted back in England"

I am forced to assume that it is my grandfather.

He was born in 1900 so I'm thinking it would have been taken in Portsmouth somewhere 
c 1902.  How old do you think he looks?  I think two maybe three.

This is a copy of a copy unfortunately.  I have no idea where the original is.  I must ask my father.  Boy I've got a lot of questions for him since I started this !

Maybe it is my great-grandfather - he was called Edwin too and Ted I think.  He was born 1869.

I shall have to check with my father...

All observations gratefully accepted.

I am intrigued by the big hat.  

The fabulous book by Lenore Frost called Dating Family Photos 1850-1920 (ISBN 0646058983, published 1991) might help me here. 
  
This is obviously a studio photo.  Lenore says that "there were certain conventions used in the backgrounds of photos that can help distinguish various decades." (p. 12)

and

"1890s "Rustic" began to give way to the late Victorian palm-tree and cane furniture....Children were frequently wearing sailor suits....1900s Similar to the 1890s."

 I realise now that it is probably a straw hat.  Lenore says:

"Sailor suits were also fashionable in the 1860s consisting of knickerbockers, blouse with a large square collar, and a V-necked opening filled in with a vest, topped off with a nautical straw hat.  The sailor suit continued in popularity until well into the twentieth century." 

and

 "After Little Lord Fauntleroy was published in 1886, velvet party suits became very fashionable.  The top was a short tunic with short skirts, encircled with a wide sash.  Around the neck a white lace collar so large that it hung to the shoulders, matched by lace cuffs, knickerbockers, plumed hats and long hair." 

So - it's tricky.  I think the suit is definitely velvet.  But I don't think it's Little Lord Fauntleroy style - more sailor suit.  Perhaps if I knew a bit more about shoes....????

Thanks to fabulous Julie at Angler's Rest and the lovely Pauleen at Family History Across the Seas for their inspiration in setting up this meme and naming it respectively.

PS I've just been reminded of a song my father taught me....here we go...who else knows this song?  I think he learned it in the Navy.

Is he an Ozzie Lizzie, is he?

Is he an Ozzie Lizzie, eh?

Is it because he is an Ozzie, 

That he keeps you busy Lizzy?

Has he jazzy wazzy ways that make you go all fuzzy wuzzy?

Got you dizzy, has he Lizzy?

Is he an Ozzie Lizzie eh?



Sung with a few missing "h"s and lots of emphatic pauses particularly on the "eh".

Needless to say, my mother used to roll her eyes and say "Oh Jim, don't teach her that.  I'm sure it's not altogether proper" or something like that :)