Netta Hauckel aka Hanckel

• Subject: Netta Hanckel
• Date: Unknown
• Photographer: S Mahadeo & Son, Belgaum, India
• Found: UK

I haven't had any luck in tracking Netta down but her surname is an unusual one in the UK where there seems to be only the one family with that surname upto 1901. Netta might be her real name or it could be a nickname and with no date on the photo it's hard to say. Although her surname is written as HAUCKEL I found that the name is varioubly HANCKEL or HAUCKEL, mainly HANCKEL.

My research led me to North America where I found the Rev Christian M Hanckel living with his wife Susan in Charleston, South Carolina in the 1850 census. At home were sons Charles 13 and Allan Stuart 19. Susan was Christian's second wife, his first wife, Ann Stuart, was the mother of his children.

Allan Stuart married Charlotte Bull Heyward about 1855 & she died c1860. By 1865 Allan Stuart was in the UK where he married Susan Marion Woods on 6 Jul 1865 in West Derby, Lancashire. Allan Stuart & Susan Marion had ten children between 1866 and 1882:-

Robert Stuart, Lily Marion, Allan Stuart, Edgar Alfred, Theodora Stuart, Alfred Woods, James Allan Stuart, Henry Middleton, Helen Middleton and Christian.

The only children I've found marriages for are James Allan Stuart and Christian, the rest either died young or were still unmarried by 1901. Allan Stuart became a natularised British Subject before 1891, he died on the 4 May 1894 and Susan Marion died 2 Jul 1884 in Pex Hill, Cronton, Lancashire.

I did find some information on the photographer but it didn't help as to the approximate date of the photo:-

Located at the far end of MG Road, past the malls, the pavement sales in shirts, handkerchiefs and hairclips and a couple of delightful second-hand book sales, the incongruous store gets its name from Gajanan Govind Welling — the `GG' of G.G. Welling, the present owner's grandfather and the first to venture beyond the family-business' commercial interests into creative photography.

But the story of the shop doesn't begin here.

The original photo-enthusiast was Gajanan's grandfather, Srinivas Mahadeo Welling who, sometime in the 1850s, ventured into independent professional photography with a gifted camera. Trudging from place to place in a bullock-cart taking pictures, laden with family possessions and bulky photographic equipment of the wet-plate era, including the essential dark tent, he is reputed at one time to have strayed as far away as Karachi!

His son, Govind Srinivas, set up the first store — "Welling Camera Works" in Belgaum, which, while being a regular photo-store, manufactured cameras and enlargers till World War II.

A lovely seasoned-teakwood and brass sample is still present. Opening in Bangalore in 1903, the store was called "S. Mahadeo and Sons", in memory of its creative founder, until G.G. Welling took over its running and operations, putting into place practices of the trade that the store still follows: quiet courtesy and attention to the customer touchingly the foremost.

References:
ancestry.com
FreeBMD
International Genealogical Index
Wright Family Genealogy

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If you are interested in this family or Netta's photograph please contact me by leaving a comment.