Your questions answered
Could they be the same pair in later life?
QPlease can you date these photos? The photo of two younger boys dates to circa 1870. James, seated on the right, was born in 1864 in Singapore. The later one, possibly taken in Singapore or Hong Kong, shows the same James on the left, but I have no information about the younger boy (standing) or the handsome card-playing figure on the right of the later photo. Dating the later photo would perhaps be a helpful lead in establishing whether they could be the same pair, and to identify the mystery boy/man!
Mary Jackson
AThese are both professional studio photographs but without a view of any card mount details giving printed photographer name and location, I cannot confirm where either of them were taken: theoretically they could have originated anywhere in the developed world where photography was practised and where fashions were based on prevailing western dress.
You mention that the photograph portraying two boys includes one of your known ancestors, James, born in 1864. This seems a plausible hypothesis for this photograph was taken at the very end of the 1860s or during the 1870s.
What slightly baffles me is that these children are wearing ‘grown-up’ long trousers at what seems an unusually young age: their apparently short height (for instance, in relation to the bench seat) suggests that they are young, and yet they are not wearing the knee-length knickerbockers usual for Victorian boys. This and their positioning, the stockier boy seated very high, admittedly makes it hard to judge their ages accurately; therefore I would also keep an open mind about which is the younger boy here – James or the other – for in my opinion this is unclear. Either way they are dressed very similarly indeed, their jackets appearing identical. This is a key feature that leads me to suggest that that they are likely to be brothers: and yet you seem to be unaware of James having an older or younger sibling. Clearly this raises a major question and is something that you should investigate further.
The later photograph
