I’ve got a new mystery to solve.

Its about these pictures of my second great aunts. They are my great grandfather Francis Sendall’s sisters. They were working class people; their father was a butcher, their grandfather was a blacksmith. How did they afford to look so grand? And to be photographed?

The women in the pictures are

• Louisa Sendall (b 1848),
• Eliza Sendall (b 1851),
• Annie Maria Sendall Hurding (b1860), and
• Caroline Louis (Carrie) Sendall Ellis (b 1865)

I can’t quite make up my mind if they are pictures of the same two women or I have a picture of all four of them and some of them look alike.

The Sendall children, all nine of them, were born in the city of Bath in England to working class parents; William, a butcher and Caroline, a lodging house keeper. I only have a handful of pictures of my great grandfather and these pictures of his sisters. I wish I had more and I wish I had pictures of their brothers.

Throughout the 1880s my great grandfather Francis, a plumber, was sailing back and forth between England and Australia ‘unassisted’, meaning he paid his own fare, and I’ve often wondered how the son of a butcher could afford to pay for that. Until I really looked closely at these pictures, it hadn’t occurred to me that maybe the money for that came from one of his sisters.

About 1890, Caroline Louis (Carrie) Sendall married William Ellis. William was a ‘commercial traveler (groceries)’ according to the 1891 census. William might have made a little money from groceries but I don’t think it happened early enough to have had any impact on the Sendall family or on Francis’ ability to sail the seas ‘unassisted’.

Annie Sendall married George Hurding in 1883. The timing is almost right for Francis’ travels but would a ‘cook and confectioner’ have made enough money to fund his wife’s siblings?

The 1871 census finds Louisa Sendall boarding in the house of the Saltfords at 6 Harley Street Walcot in Bath. Mrs Saltford was a dressmaker – so was Louisa. Did Louisa make the dresses they are wearing? If she did, they are amazing. My favourite thing about the dresses is the adornments. They fill my head with wonder at where the sisters were off to all dressed in flowers and butterflies. It’s fun to daydream about that but the reality is that dressmaking probably wouldn’t have made the family a fortune unless it was happening in Paris.

In 1874, a woman named Louisa Sendall married in the Parish of Walcot, County of Somerset. This Louisa married Edward Hume Stock, a tea dealer. The marriage register describes her as the daughter of William Sendall of 13 James Street – whose trade is not a butcher but a Gentleman! I was about to discount this marriage… and then I discovered Eliza Stock in the 1901 census, a widow and visitor in the house of William and Carrie Ellis!! This is definitely my Eliza – 13 James Street was the right address but I wonder why William is described as a Gentleman? Every other record of his shows he was a butcher his entire life. I wonder whether a tea dealer might have made a good living?

This splendid older lady is my great great grandmother Caroline Neale Sendall. I’m quite sure this must be Carrie Sendall Ellis (standing) in the picture, she’s the only one that I can find having had more than one child. They certainly don’t look like the family of a 19th century butcher or a travelling grocery man. At least I don’t think they do.

In gazing deeply at the pictures and researching the lives of these women, I’ve learned a lot about them but I’m no further ahead.

They look to me like they have more than tuppence or thrippence in their pockets, but where did it come from???

I’m not giving up…