This week Sepia Saturday shows us an Irish family group which has four sons and two daughters, carefully posed for the outdoors with hats, parasol, pet dog and toy yachts
Among my collection of family photos is one where the family with Scottish origins has six sons and three daughters. The father has already died but the family is posed in front of their house with rugs, cushions, stool, chairs and table, the best family tea service and a potted plant.
My grandmother had a cousin Isabella McGregor, seen seated here on the left. Isabella and Amelia were the children of sisters Catherine and Jane Buchanan who, with their sister and mother had been driven out of Gearros on the Isle of Skye by the Highland Clearances.
When married my grandmother,Amelia McDonald, lived first in Geelong, then Murtoa and other country towns whereas her cousin Isabella had married a farmer and settled at Callawadda in the country near Stawell. I have no way of knowing if the two cousins knew one another. I do know that when my parents lived in Stawell for four years my mother had no idea that she had a great aunt buried n the local cemetery and other relations living in the area.
Malcolm and Isabella’s youngest child was born in 1901 so this would place the group photo as slightly before World war 1.
This photo is of Malcolm McGregor with his first wife Jessie thanks to John Alderson who was the first to post it to Ancestry. It is also linked to the Good(e) family tree.
When Malcolm died in 1903 at the age of 66 the newspaper report just happens to mention that he had had 19 children in all. What a job fitting all those names into the available space in the last column of the death certificate. But fitted they were, showing 10 children with his first wife and 9 with Isabella.
More family groups can be seen on this week’s Sepia Saturday.
Bound for Australia 
It’s the wives rather than the men who need to be acknowleged in relation to the number of children they have produced. Malcolm’s first wife looks like a long-suffering woman.
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The family resemblance among the men in the photo is rather profound – including the young man reclining on the carpet. Nice photo and interesting accompanying text. The Highland Clearances were not an admirable part of Scotland’s history.
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Your photo has captured the same qualities as in this weekend’s theme. Do you think there was an occasion for it? Perhaps an anniversary or celebration? With 19 branches to this family tree, it must require a very wide piece of paper to draw all the lines of descendants.
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19! That tops any in my tree, even when there were multiple wives!
It is amazing to think that my Great Great Grandparents, who lived in Stawell and neighbouring areas, most likely knew Malcolm!
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A nicely grouped family photo including their treasures, the teaset and the flowers, as well; very similar to the prompt in that regard.
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