I have so much of my collection still to scan and share with you all and so when I open a box often the contents are a bit of a surprise to me, items I bought in haste or as a job lot at a fleamarket that I just haven’t got around to going through properly or I have forgotten about.

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This small CDV Victorian Album is one. It has small snippets of announcements from the newspapers stuck inside the front page. All are members of the Rose family of Horton, Dorset.

Although I have no photos of them, one of the family obviously once owned this Album, so I thought it would be interesting to do a little research into the Family History of Joseph Fred Rose and Emily Kate Bush who married on 27 February 1901 at the parish church at Horton, Dorset. Image below.

Joseph Fred Rose was born in 1876 in Cranborne, Dorset, his father, Frances Rose, was 39 and his mother, Harriett (Sammers) was 32. He married Emily Kate Bush on 27 February 1901 in Horton, Dorset. Looking at the 1911 census for Joseph Fred (known as Fred) is described as a Dairyman but I was surprised to see he was a Widower, so looking further I found Emily Kate his wife had died in December 1906 in Hampshire at the age of 25, so young. He died on 13 February 1937 in Verwood, Dorset, at the age of 61, and was buried there.

These records mentioned in the Album also refer to other members of the Rose family. The records below refer to a child of Joseph Fred Rose’s sister Harriett Eliza Rose who was born on 12 January 1878 in Horton, Dorset. It seems this baby below was an illegitimate son she had before her marriage to James Charles Hann in 1905.

Birth Record: ROSE, THOMAS LIGHT BENNETT – No Mothers maiden name mentioned.
GRO Reference: 1902 D Quarter in WIMBORNE Volume 05A Page 217

Death Record: ROSE, THOMAS LIGHT BENNETT 1
GRO Reference: 1904 M Quarter in WIMBORNE Volume 05A Page 175

Harriett also had an illegitimate daughter, Ada Minnie Bennett Rose who was born on 24 October 1900 in Horton, Dorset.

Mum Harriett Eliza Rose married James Charles Hann on 21 June 1905 in her hometown. They had five children together. Was the father of the first two children she had, Ada and Thomas, called Bennett? It was a way of proclaiming to everyone who the absent father was, to add them as a middle name, so a possibility or it may have been the name of an Ancestor. Ada names Charles Hann as her father at the time of her first marriage (see below) to Reginald Augustus Wood in 1921. Reginald died in 1927. The couple had had two sons, Sidney 1921-1995 and Eric 1924-2010. Ada remarried in 1925 to Henry J Adlem and they had four sons.

This is the small family tree I have made on Ancestry of the ROSE Family: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/tree/177390113/family?cfpid=192309894916

Inside the Album, apart from one CDV at the back who is unnamed, see below, all are a small collection of Edwardian Glamour photos taken of Life Models, women and children. The majority it seems are by Rotograph. More about Rotograph I found here on this great website, packed full of interesting information all about the subject of POSTCARDS: https://www.metropostcard.com/publishersr2.html

Some maybe actresses, singers or dancers of the era, the ladies are so naturally beautiful, you can see why their faces were their fortune. They look so different from the stars of today with all their make-up and enhancements. I believe they must have earned extra money working with postcard companies at the time to produce these photos as you see so many for sale. The trend seemed to stop when WW1 started, understandably.

Here below are just a few of the images from the album that I have been sharing on Twitter and Instagram during this month of October. Plus information from my followers who have identified some of the faces, great to know who they are.

My friend Liz Lloyd has a super Blog where she also has written about some of the Actresses and stars of the same erea, well worth a read, do take a look, here’s one that she has written about, Cleo de Merode (Photo below centre) : https://somerville66.blogspot.com/2018/07/cleo-de-merode-spirit-of-la-belle-epoque.html

Were these life model photos collected by the family of Rose or Bush? Maybe the Album belonged to Ada or Harriett? Or was this an album repurposed by someone else? Or was one of the family a Life Model? Did the child models go on to become famous as adults I wonder?

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David a follower on Twitter has been trying to identify some of these models and sent me this link all about Helen Lord, above, many thanks David: https://footlightnotes.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/helen-lord-d-1911-american-musical-comedy/

David from on Twitter also found this in the Newspaper Archives from the 1930 reports of Marie Studholme’s death, this gives us so much more about her life:

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During my research, I came across a super site called Stage Beauty that has lots of information and images of Actresses and Stage and Theatre people that is worth a look if you are researching that topic. I’m not sure if it is still being updated, but there’s some interesting information on it.

http://www.stagebeauty.net/th-frames.html?http&&&www.stagebeauty.net/th-cards.html

If you recognise any more of the models I would love to put names on them! You can see the whole collection from this Album on Twitter and Instagram of October old photos. So do get in touch if you can help.

Till next time then………