Miss M Pike of Achill

*  *  *  Photographs as named in the Fetherstonhaugh Family Album  *  *  *

I don’t think these two women are the same person, you may have other ideas? The first photo is not very clear, I’ve tried to fix it up in PhotoShop but it’s still hard to make out her features, her ears look very similar, hard to say with the nose, mouth is similar but the eyes look different to me. It’s been rather hard to ascertain just who she is for sure so here are my thoughts on it.

I have not found a direct link between the Fetherstonhaughs and the Pikes, relationship wise, but the Nangles (who are related to the Fetherstonhaughs) were living on the Island at the same time so I guess they all knew each other. This is a small part of an article that mentions Edward Nangle & William Pike:-

The PIKE family settled in county Cork in the 17th century. William Pike was a barrister and third son of Jonathon Pike of Beechgrove, county Tyrone. William seems to be the only Pike on Achill so I’m presuming it is one or two of his daughters the photos are of.

William Pike married Marion Watson in 1843 in Birkenhead, Cheshire, which looks promising because the second photo above was taken in either Birkenhead or Liverpool, the other one in Dublin. William & Marion had seven children (that I’ve found), the first three daughters were born in Birkenhead and the rest in Ireland, some if not all of them, on Achill Island.

Their eldest daughter, Mary Ann Laming, died in 1859 aged 14 so neither of the photos would be her. The next two daughters are Sarah Helen and Elizabeth Barrington, no M there. The two youngest daughters are Marion Watson and Isabella Harriet, there were also two sons but they don’t count!

The word Miss or Mrs written in the album is written in such a way that it’s hard to make out whether it is Miss or Mrs although one of them does have a dot for the i but that one looks more like Mrs to me! The message written on the back of one of them confuses me even more.

The first photo might be Isabella Harriet but the message on the back is addressed to her not from her. The second one could be Marion Watson Pike born 1855 married 1879 in Birkenhead so I think it’s likely to be her.

The first photo has rounded corners which normally means it was taken sometime after 1870 when rounded corners became popular, the date of 1876 fits that. However, the second photo has square corners which are supposed to be before 1870 and if that is the case then Marion would only have been 15 or less and the woman in that photo is older than that. I guess it’s possible that square corners were used after 1870, if not them we’re back to square one!

On top of that I found these two photos online of their mother Marion Watson so I don’t think either of the above are her either, what do you think?

References: ancestry.com.au; Google; hibbertfamily.org; Moore Institute; Achill Island Holidays

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Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz