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

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

Set 1 looks to me like the same man in both ... I'm going on the mouth, the persistence of the type of facial hair, and also the luxuriant wave of the remaining hair.

Set 2 have a similar shaped face, and indeed similar ears, and there is something about the eyes that suggests they are the same or closely related. Not so sure about the mouth, but there could be many reasons why the smile becomes lop-sided. The younger one looks great fun!

Set 3 looks like the same person to me. Again, ears and mouth look very similar in the two photos.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I think you must be right, re. sets 1 and 3. I wonder if Rev. Tonge is wearing the exact same coat, in fact?

I've only just noticed the cross being held by Maria No.2, which seems at odds with the rather low church family into which she married - if indeed she married my great grandfather.

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

Re: coat, no, they have entirely different collar styles.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

So they do.