The photo below is one of the most important Hapgood family history photos – it featured in my 2nd ever blog post. It shows Richard Hapgood b1844 and his wife Jane Hapgood (nee Morris/Wearing/Wilson). They lived in Milton Ulladalla area all their lives.

There is a version of this photo in the 1991 Meet the Pioneers boot by Joanne Ewin (1991) but they are not wearing hats (see the original post) and a 2nd version of them wearing spectacular hats which was a modern photo scan of a copy of the photo. However, this month I found the original – or at perhaps a very early copy of the original – tangled up in a pile of paper clippings at my mothers house. They were not organised like my mothers earlier photos so I suspect they were given to her after a Hapgood family member passed away.

The scan below is the full copy of the photo, in a slightly battered state. I still love Jane’s magnificent black hat and the details of her black silk dress with lace front and white lace collar. The earlier version was scanned from this same original, as the scratches on the photo match. I was very excited to find this photo and will ensure its kept in archival quality photo storage from now on.

Right behind it was another photo marked as “Jane Hapgood” on the back which shows Jane as a much older woman. She still has the same smiling friendly face. In this photo she has her hair pulled back and is wearing glasses. She has a black dress with a shawl collar with a lace edge and long sleeves. She is holding a book in one hand and posing informally in a garden setting somewhere.

I have seen this photo in book about the Jackson family and Emily Rose Prior [2]. Jane was grandmother to Emily Prior (nee Jackson) and a small version of this photo is included in the book.

Jane Hapgood looks like a kind lady in all 3 known photos. I will look after these originals or early copies very carefully….

Sources:

[1] Meet the Pioneers. Early Families of the Milton-Ulladulla District with Photographs” by Joanne Ewin (1991). Pops up on ebay periodically.

[2] “Emily Rose Prior 1903-1985” by Merlene Hellyar 2015. Self-printed family history book. Occasionally pops up on ebay.