Comments

Hi Pat,

Many thanks for your reply to my request.  I have checked out Chapel Allerton marriages on FreeReg not realising they were so up to date, I just thought they did not cover 1858 until I checked the parishes page.  So it may be that they married in a non conformist establishment as none of the children appear to have been baptised either.

Thank you for the marriage locator site, that is a new one on me as I always use Neil Dun's site and that did not help either..

I will investigate  the non con angle and see if I can find anything there.  I do check all spellings of Jarvis as I have come across many different spellings.  See my entry on Surname Interests.

Thanks again for your help.

Elizabeth

The marriages at Chapel Allerton are included in those which have been transcribed from the Bishops Transcripts and published on the Somerset Online Parish Clerk Site.  However, unfortunately, it doesn't look as if they were married there.

There is a site which sometimes enables you to identify the churches from the Reference Numbers on the GRO Index.  It is not complete but always worth a try.  It's called Marriage Locator and is a project set up by the Guild of One Name Studies.

It is of course possible that they were married in a Register Office and so the marriage will not be in any Church record.

One other point - Caroline JARVIS - There was a family called JERVIS which was prominant in Axbridge itself so it might be worth looking for variants when researching that name.

Thank you, Pat and Roy. Yes, very pleased.

It looks like the son, Henry, was actually Henry R. Smyth. In 1891 Henry R. Smyth, born St Pancras, a photographer, was in Fordington St George, Dorset. He was still in Dorset in 1911. The inference (but it is only that) is that the H.R.Smyth Studios were his and that he left Weston before 1891. If that is the case, then presumably the Studios either closed or carried on under new ownership. If there was a new owner I think the likelihood is that there was a new name, but that is by no means certain.

If I have the right Henry Smyth, then his wife's name was Louisa and she was born in Weston c1860. In 1891 they had a 7 month-old daughter , so it looks as if they were married c1890. There is a marriage of a Henry Reeve Smyth to either Louisa Poole or Florence Edith James in Bristol in Q3 1889. There is a Louisa ("Lousia") Poole born c1860 in Weston living in Weston in 1881, so I'm betting that's her and therefore him.

So, putting 2 and 2 together and making 4-ish I suspect that the H.R.Smyth Studios closed c1890. If that's right (?) then that would be the latest date for my photo.

I would appreciate any thoughts on this somewhat tentative conclusion.

In addition, how old do people think the couple (presumably man and wife) in the photo are?

Dave Erasmus

Well done Pat - Dave will be quite pleased I think - will be seeing you all at the AGM

In the 1881 Census there is this entry for Longton Grove Road, which is just off the Boulevard.

Name                    Relation Condition  Age  Occupation  Where Born
SMYTH, Sydney    Head      Married     56  Photographer Cornwall
SMYTH, Mary A    Wife      Married     40                       London Middlesex
SMYTH, Henry       Son      Single        23 Photographer   St Pancras, London, Middlesex
 

Perhaps this narrows down the search a little

As a result of considerable help from Roy Louis Cox (thanks, Roy) I am now able to upload the photo.

Dave Erasmus