Photographs, one for Phoenix and a general question too
 

I'm quite excited at what dropped through the letterbox this morning, a batch of photocopoes of images for members of the Goulson family plus one marked as "one of the Hays plus his mate".

My great grandfather was a master mariner living in and around Hartlepool during the 1870's and early 1880's, he was born in 1847, this image was taken in South Shields although the date is unknown.

Based on the location and age during the 1870's could the chap with the beard be my great grandfather Joseph Hay? I'm thinking the other chap would perhaps be a little older than the 26-35 age range I suspect Joseph to be when he was in the North East?

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8475/8...4cbf486e_c.jpg
One of the Hay family plus mate by Glen TK2, on Flickr

I can imagine the excitement! I can't make out the name of the photographer - is it Baggett? If we could find out the name of the photographer, we could look for the photographer in the census records and trade directories to see when he was operating to see if that links in with Joseph Hay.

You beat me to it, I was going to try and finf the photographers website with lists of photgraphy businesses but haven't got round to it as yet


I have a really poor photocopy of the back of the photograph, it reads

J H Haggitt
Market Place
South Shields

Looks like this is the photographerl

Haggitt (Huggitt)(Hoggitt), John Henry

Yep - 1871 census, living in South Shields.

John Henry Haggitt, 37, photographer, born Leeds

He's married with a family.

Here's the link to the 1871 census.

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/iexec?h...=&pid=16890370

He died in 1883.

He was retired and living in Darlington in 1881.

He was still in Leeds in 1861.

Nice find, from some really old notes I made a few years ago;

Certainly for the later census years Joseph was at sea and therefore not recorded,however his marriage certificate of 1875 states his residence purely as Hartlepool,and his occupation as mariner.
The 1881 census returns for his wife show her to be 'wife of Capt Hay,at sea'.From this it is feasible to assume that Joseph qualified as a master mariner between the two dates.

Subsequently Phoenix did find his ticket giving details of his seafaring days (he became a master mariner during the 1870's) and from the census returns and birth/baptism for his wife I know she came from South Shields.

Just adding these two, older image shows his son and family whilst the second shows one of his grandsons, still not sure if it points to either chap being Joseph but there are no other members of the family in North Shields beyond 1884 as they moved to Lincoln

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3332/4...b9c718ed_z.jpg
Hay family portrait. Lincoln c1914 by Glen TK2, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8473/8...ae06612d_c.jpg
Allan Hay Pic resize by Glen TK2, on Flickr

Have you looked for Joseph in the directories? It may halp to pinpoint dates.