Mrs Casalis & Family 1891

 

• Subject: Mrs Casalis & children
• Date: 1891
• Photographer: Osborne Morley, East London, South Africa
• Found: England

I’m afraid just who Mrs Casalis is has escaped me so far! The only Casalis entries on FreeBMD are two marriages, one of which looked promising to start with:-

Marriages Sep 1932
Casalis  Maurice P E A  Northampton  3b 96
Mary M Timpson  Northampton  3b 96

The following year it seems that they may have left England to go back to South Africa:-

Name: Rev Maurice CASALIS 
Date of departure: 10 March 1933   
Port of departure: Southampton  
Passenger destination port: Cape, South Africa  
Passenger destination: Cape, South Africa  
Ship: CARNARVON CASTLE
Date of Birth: 1876 (calculated from age) 
Age: 57 
Marital status: 
Sex: Male 
Occupation: Clergyman

The Rev Maurice is about the right age to be the young boy in the photo, but who knows?

From another source I found this:-

CASALIS, "Maurice" Jules  Gender: male
Birth: 1875
Death: after 1947
Occupation: Pasteur consacré le 13/08/1901

It seems Maurice may be descended from, or at least connected to, the French Protestant missionary, Eugene Casalis, who emigrated to South Africa soon after he was ordained at the age of 19. He dedicated his life to the Basuto people and has written a book titled My Life In Basuto Land (1889).

Finally a little bit of information about the photographer from Knowledge4Africa:-

Osborne Morley was born in New Holland (Yorkshire) in August 1850. He emigrated to the Cape Colony where he established a photographic business in King William's Town, then moved to East London where he established a similar concern in January 1883. He lived in East London for about 30 years and became a trustee of the Wesleyan Church and joined the Free Masons' Buffalo Lodge. He became a Town Councillor in September 1885, representing Ward 3 and was re-elected in February 1886. He did not seek another term after his retirement on rotation in February 1889. Morley eventually moved to Johannesburg where he died on 21 July 1926, at the age of 76.

References:
ancestry.com
FindMyPast
FreeBMD
IGI
Martyn Hood Family Tree
WorldConnect

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I found an excellent source for the de Casalis family tree on WorldConnect here but after reading much of it I still don’t really know just who the three people in the photo are. If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the Casalis family please do contact me, I would love to hear from you & I would love the photo to go to a good home.

Dawn Scotting
pandora@kc.net.nz