Olden days
The twins are Alexander Ford Robertson
and William Marsden Robertson.
Born 22nd August, 1899.
This wonderful christening (?) photograph was taken at “Moffat’s Photographic Studio, 125 Princes Street, Edinburgh and much, much later bought by me in a junk shop for £2.
I entered the studio address into ‘google’ and amazingly, John Moffat their photographer appears to have been quite famous and well respected.
Sadly, I haven’t been able to find anything out about the twin boys. They do seem to have been blessed with a serenely beautiful mother though.
I wonder how it ever came to be in the junk shop?
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 12:54 pm
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March 3rd, 2009 at 2:29 pm
isn’t google amazing?!
hope you are having a good day in your lovely new space. thanks for the email…would love to meet up soon. will be in touch x
March 3rd, 2009 at 9:07 pm
I find it sad that beautiful old photos end up lost and forgot about. Some one must have these children in there family tree and maybe there isnt a photo of them any older, I wonder what they grew up like? I love old photos and wish I had children to pass ours onto.
Love
Lyn
xxx
March 4th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
We rescued a beautiful 1930s photograph of a young woman wearing a ribbon in her hair, it makes me so happy to see her smiling face in our hallway but I often wonder what her story is…
March 18th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Hi there- I came to you via Judy’s Journal and am really enjoying my first visit to you. I was entranced by this picture-so I searched for the twins in the 1901 census for Scotland…and I found them and their family! Mum is called Marion and dad is William.They seem to be well to do, with 2 nurses and a servant living in the household in Edinburgh.Bu 1901 there is a new baby brother too, Francis. Don’t you just love the internet!
March 19th, 2009 at 9:52 am
[…] lovely lady called Judith was so taken with the beautiful photo of the twins that she took the trouble to look them up in the 1901 Scottish census and guess […]
March 22nd, 2009 at 5:41 am
Some nice lady found an old picture of an ancestor of my husband’s in a junk store and sent it into the (our name) Family Association. The resident geneologist noted in her records that it was our relation and now the picture is in our possession. If you could find the family association related to this line, you could do the same.
March 30th, 2009 at 10:21 am
I’ll tell you how..they are chucked out by people who have no idea of heritage or sensitivity. the they are rescued by people like you (and me) who have no room in their cupboards or garage or house because they are stuffed up with these lovely treasures. Till the next generation who may or may not have inherited the sentimental gene come along and make their own decisions!I have pictures like these of my own family that my uncle wanted to throw away! I was 16 when my grandmother died (a very long time ago now) and I’ve looked after them ever since.
July 25th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
Kia ora Janet
I am writing to thank you for posting this picture. i have managed to retain/collect a few other photos of members of my extended family tree, but have not seen this one before.
I can tell you about the people in it, and the rest of the family. In terms of what happenend to them, both of the boys and their brother were all awarded OBEs for their work (engineering, medicine and forestry).
i am sure my two young girls will be delighted to see the picture, and also that it is in such ‘creative’ hands.
kia pai to ra (enjoy your day)
Arohanui
Justin
July 30th, 2010 at 10:45 am
[…] may remember this post about the beautiful […]
October 6th, 2010 at 10:19 pm
I really have to thank you for posting this lovely picture. I was researching a family line and looking for surviving relatives of this branch of the family – I knew that Alexander had become engaged to a Joyce M. Lambert (the relative I was looking for) in 1928 – it seems that Justin can help me solve the riddle of what happened in the intervening 80ish years!
Could you contact me please jonathan dot gilthorpe at tesco dot net.
August 7th, 2012 at 8:21 pm
I was surprised to see the above photo of the twin boys with their mother.
One of the twins, was William Ford-Robertson who was my grandfather on my mothers side.
As has been said above, he was awarded the OBE for his services to Medicine and also later the Star of Jordan for similar work in Lebanon. I now possess his OBE and all the letters of receipt of it from Buckingham Palace all in old fashioned type.
Sadly his 2nd wife Eva Mary Ford-Robertson, who he married after the death of his first wife, died on 3rd August this year at a Nursing Home near Bristol. I have found many documents yet to go through about his life in medicine, so it was fitting that I found the family photo of him at birth.
He had one daughter called Joan Ford-Robertson, who married Richard James Willis in 1946, and they had three children Michael,John and Ann.
They lived in Ayrshire in Scotland from 1946 till 1960, when they moved to Bristol.
I was the oldest of the three, and have 3 children, my brother John had two boys and my sister Ann had two boys and one girl.
I would love to hear about his twin who I met as a child but had very little contact with.
My son has found quite a lot about them through the internet, so I am still searching….!
My thanks to all of the above who have shone some light on my family past.
January 24th, 2016 at 9:06 pm
I just picked up the family journal for the time spent at Petersfield near wooler. It’s a fantastic hand written account and details what the Robertsons were doing during their time there in the holidays. The twins get plenty of mentions about what they were up to.
It’s way more than a diary and includes some photographs. It should probably be published in truth. If I can get around to it I want to turn it into a website it’s such a fantastic read. I must add, I’m not related to the Robertsons, I just bought it on a total whim on ebay. One of the most interesting things I’ve bought. Get in touch on 15th9th1940 at gmail.com
Regards,
Paul