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Hello all,

Please meet Harriet Amelia Moore (nee Cooper), my Great Great Grandmother. Not a Briercliffian, although her son-in-law was of Briercliffe origins.

Photo on the left taken with her husband c. 1895/1900, photo on the right probably 1910s. Now, why would someone in that day and age be concealing her left hand so obviously...?

Thoughts:

Her hand (or at least her finger-tips) are deformed/damaged in some way.
She has pawned/lost her wedding ring (could be feasible in the left photo, but in the right one, her ring is visible).
She has 'the shakes' in her left hand and needs to hold it steady for the long exposure time of the camera.
It's a coincidence!

What do you clever lot think...?

Stephen

Could she have had a stroke and her fingers be clenched tightly unless she held them straight?

Can you do a version of the one on the left with the hand darkened (gamma control?) so that it doesn't white out so much?

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Mel

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Mel,

Interesting suggestion - thanks for that!

Unfortunately, the white-out is pretty bad on the original image. I've lowered the brightness hugely and raised the contrast though in an attempt to see the fingers. Unfortunately, none of the software on this machine contains any gamma correcting facilities!

Stephen

Can you email the scan please and I will see if I can do anything with it?
Looking at this latest image, it does look like the finger tips are either curled under or missing

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Mel

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Have just had a look at your email, it's no clearer.
I think my gut would still go with the stroke option...or....there was nothing wrong at all and she was just uncomfortable in front of the camera?

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Mel

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Mel,

Thanks for that. The latter option ("maybe she just liked sitting that way") is the one that my fellow Bray researcher settled on!

There still just looks like there's something awkward about it, though. Maybe one day I'll have the cash for her death cert and it'll say that she died due to having an odd hand or something.

Got her funeral notice the other day from the local paper. She made it to four paragraphs. Not bad going!

Stephen

Not bad going at all!

One of the reasons I am inclined to think there was nothing wrong - there's no droop in the face. I know not all stroke victims get this though.
Have you tried the medical records route? I believe there are some in existence. Never looked at them myself so couldn't point you in any direction but maybe worth investigation?

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Mel

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http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/
this might help to point you in the right direction

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Mel

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1st theory: In the right hand pic her hands seem to have different colouration. Maybe her right hand is false?

2nd theory: Sometimes people just place their hands a certain way naturally. It has been noted in my family that in a lot of my childhood photo's I have often pointed a finger upwards (!) This was before it became a rude gesture

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The hawk flys round and round, the sky is so blue. I think I can hear the old bell ringing like I rang it to call them home ... Oh I was young then, and I walked in my body like a Queen