Old Family Photograph

The Trove Tuesday blog post from Backtracking here prompted me to post this old family photograph from our collection which has caused family arguments concerning the identity and gender of the subject. Most of the family are convinced that it is my Grandmother Cluna Donnelly nee O'Connor, however one of my cousins is certain that it is our Grandfather Mervyn Donnelly as he claims that Nan told him that is who it is and said that Mervyn's mother Bridget Donnelly nee Lambert dressed him for the photograph this way as a joke. His story has been discounted by most of the family due to Mervyn having extremely dark hair from birth. It is worth mentioning that Bridget Lambert also had an illegitimate daughter Josephine Lambert who died as an infant (a fact not widely known within the family until recently), so the photograph may well be of Josephine and the story Bridget's way of keeping a photograph of her on display without questions being asked and judgements made.

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Tracing Family Branches

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