The Hampshire Family Historian | Volume 50 No.3 | Dec 2023

Member’s article

Is this Henry Norris, 1782-1866?

A photograph handed down in the family as ‘grandpa’ creates a mystery of who he was. The mystery is deepened by the photographer beginning business at least 10 years after the only possible grandpa died. How can this be resolved? Normal genealogical research tools and professional analysis of the photograph provides the probable answer to be Henry NORRIS. With his first two wives he had at least 16 children by 1839, and also an illegitimate daughter who survived beyond infancy. Hence, it is the possible that there are many tens, or even hundreds of descendants out there who may have a better copy of the photograph and who may know if this is definitely Henry. If readers recognise the photo, please let me know! The surviving photograph is very faded and stained which makes it difficult to see facial detail. When working in a university, I was able to get the help of the Biochemistry Department who re-photographed it under U-V light. This brought out more contrast and some greater detail, but left it little better. However, the enigma over dates and who it was, as well as hope of better restoration, recently took me to a professional picture restorer.¹ This has confirmed my hypotheses. The original is a Cabinet Card on a card mount. The photographer, DOUGLAS , 74 St. Mary's Road, Southampton, is an intriguing women’s business. ‘Douglas’ was not at that address in 1874, but was there from 1876 – hence dating the mount to post-1876, but before 1884. Miss Priscilla Douglas ran the studio from 1884 to 1900/1, as listed in directories and used on mounts. Before 1884 the business is listed as just Douglas. It was

Original photograph

run by mother Martha Douglas born 1817, then a widow, with her daughters Clemence b1852 and Pressie/Priscilla Douglas b1856, listed in the 1881 census as ‘photographic assistants’. In 1871 they had not started the business and were in Shirley Lane, Millbrook, with father Joseph A. Douglas b1796, a watchmaker from France, naturalised GB – though he might have been doing photography as well. The family is not in the 1861 census for all GB so arrived between then and 1871. The expert advice was that the style of clothing depicted – high collar, broad black

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