Prosopagnosia Strikes Again

[steepholm]

As I've mentioned here before, I have a degree of prosopagnosia, or face blindness. This is quite irritating when trying to sort out family photographs, so I'm throwing myself on your collective perspicacity. Can you tell me whether these people are the same?



The woman in both these photos is Lucy Tonge, my great great- aunt. But is the man the same in both cases? I'd thought her husband was called George, but the man in the lower photo is identified as Tom. Could they be father and son, or the same person taken quite a long time apart? (I imagine Lucy's changing dress style would give quite a clue, if I knew more about costume history.)









I'm fairly sure that the first person is my great grandmother Maria (born 1854). But is she the same person as appears in the second photo, also identified as 'Maria'?








You may remember my great great-aunt Fanny (1850-89) - who was one of the first British women to become a qualified doctor. In the top picture she is looking young and idealistic. But is she the same person as in the second picture, identified as 'Fannie Butler' - perhaps exhausted by work and the unforgiving climate of the subcontinent?

Comments

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I'm not good at faces, especially in still photos, but from the costume, I'd put the first picture of Lucy Tonge as early 1860s, and the second one as early to mid 1880s, which could support the "same person many years apart" hypothesis. This is, however, going from dimly remembered knowledge of Victorian costume history and family photo-dating from many years ago, so could be wrong. If I remember it correctly, if you can see a woman's ears, it's after 1865.

And Googling Maull and Polyblank, who took her first photo, reveals that the company only existed until 1865, so there's confirmation of the dating there.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

And Googling Maull and Polyblank, who took her first photo, reveals that the company only existed until 1865, so there's confirmation of the dating there.

That's smart detective work! Lucy looked so unchanged, compared to her husband, that it seemed almost kinder to imagine he was someone else.