Feedback from a Genealogist

It’s always reassuring to hear that readers who are not connected to the family are able to engage with my family history books. I’ve recently been contacted by the Sydney-based genealogist Jenny Joyce, who wrote:

I just finished reading your book on Paul Bushell and wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed it. It was obviously very well researched and I was very impressed by the way you used the various land transactions to trace aspects of his life. I personally have no connection to the Bushell family or any of their close associates, but I do have ancestors who were early residents of the Hawkesbury. Sadly, mine left little in the way of records. But your book has certainly helped set the social, economical, political and weather context in which my lot would have lived.

Jenny is the first person to comment on the ‘land transactions’ aspect of my research. It’s true, I found the land transactions to be a great help in understanding Paul’s life, once I figured out what these transactions meant, a figuring process which took me quite a while. It proved the value of going slowly with genealogical research, in order to digest the meaning of the disparate facts one discovers.

Jenny then made some comments about the photo on page 258 of the Bushell book, reputed within the family to be a photo of Paul Bushell’s wife Isabella. Jenny did not know that I’d already stated on my website that the photo more than likely depicted Paul’s daughter Isabella (born in 1841) and not his wife Isabella (born in 1801). However it was fascinating to discover the depth of Jenny’s knowledge of early photography and read the details for her reasoning:

I have only come across one thing in your book that I disagree with.  The picture on page 258 purporting to be Isabella Bushell nee Brown cannot have been that person.  Firstly, it is not a photo that could date from c.1850.  There are two styles of photos in general use during the 1850s - Daguerrotypes and Ambrotypes.  Daguerrotypes seem to have been produced in Sydney from 1853 to 1859, and the first Ambrotype was not made in Sydney until 1859 (although they were being produced in other places from c1852).  Daguerrotypes were made onto a silvered copper plate and have a mirror-like sheen.  When tilted at certain angles switch from being a positive to a negative image. 

The picture said to be of Isabella is far clearer and crisper than either a daguerrotype or ambrotype. It has the look of a picture made as an albumen print. Even more indicative are the clothes she is wearing. The high neckline, tight-fitting bodice, frill-like collar and hairstyle all point to a date in the early to mid 1880s. This date is compatible with an albumen print. By that time Isabella would have been in her 80s and this is clearly not a woman of that age.

I took heart that Jenny thought the photo of Paul Bushell on page 258 (and on the back cover of the book) might be genuine:

It is possible that the picture of Paul Bushell could be a Daguerrotype, but if so it would have to be a very early example of an Australian one, given his date of death.

That particular image was certainly very faded and the facial features were fairly indistinct, suggesting a very early photo, but I felt that the clothing style also fitted the early 1850s. Several people tried to help me identify this photo but I wish I’d known about Jenny at the time I was embroiled in the identification process!

Jenny is the author of the very cleverly-named blog jennyalogy. I must follow up on her November post about the new records for Warwickshire as they may reveal some extra information about Paul's early life.