SEPIA SATURDAY - Postcard No. 4 - Mother's Love

I thought this would be appropriate for my second Sepia Saturday entry, it certainly has the theme of love running through it and the postcard is in sepia.  Let me know what you think.

Mother's Love

addressed to:

Miss H J Smith

c/o Central ? Coy.

Sampson Road N

Birmingham

Postmarked Dec 30th 1910 in Birmingham

Message:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (they have drawn a heart here)

to be had tomorrow

My own Beloved Darling Jess

I am sorry I have not a loving postcard to send you (you know the sort i mean) but i think this is rather nice don't you?  I think there is a love better than a mothers though!  Did you ask your Ma about the kiss. I shall be down at 6.30 tomorrow as promised. Get ready for a good loving.

Good bye Darling

with best love and everlasting ? ?

Your Val

Now i reckon this is a fairly racy postcard for 1910. You could read more into it because its sent to Jess from Val but Val or Valentine could also be a man's name or even a nickname.  They certainly seem to be very much in love/lust.

What did Val mean about Jess asking her Ma about the kiss? I wouldn't have thought that young people would ask their mothers about kisses with their girl/boyfriends, they'd be too embarrassed, wouldn't they?

Also what strikes me is that writing all that on a postcard which is open for all to read is a bit risky too. I could understand it in a sealed letter.

Going to the front of the postcard, it was the photo that made me buy it as the seller did not show the writing on the back. The photo is stunning and both models are gorgeous. I think there is a great resemblance between them so they may be mother and daughter.

I wonder who they were and if there is a record somewhere of people who posed for these postcards or if this was just a family portrait if they are credited somewhere for allowing the postcard manufacturer to use their image.

I love the verse at the top too...

What Love can match a mother's love?

            What care a Mother's care?

A heavenly blessing from above,

            A precious gift most rare.

I've not managed to turn up anything about Jess Smith or H. J. Smith on the 1911 census. Not surprising with a surname like Smith though.

The address is not clear but says something like C/o Central Many Coy.  I took Coy to be company as that can be a shortened version. So maybe Central ? Company.

To have addressed the postcard there and not at home would seem to suggest that it is possibly a military establishment or nurses home? somewhere that Jess is living as part of her job, otherwise he would have sent it to her home address surely.

I'd love to hear from you if these people are in your family tree and you can tell us what happened to Jess & Val

Postcard No. 3 - View from the marshes, leigh on Sea

This card is postmarked 11.30 am on August 24th 1909.

Its addressed to Miss B Haines

72 Woodhays (Woodheyes) Road,  Neadsen (presumably Neasden?) N.W.

Message reads:

Dear Bertha,

I am very sorry I did not see you Saturday night. I want to tell you something may i write a letter?

Yours loving Joy

In an unusual twist, the sender has also added her address at the top of the card which reads

Emsleigh Villa, Elmesligh Drive, Leigh on Sea.   I have looked on 1911census.com but there is no-one there called Joy or Joyce at the same address just 2 years after this was posted.

Bertha was 17 at the time as i have found her on 1911 census aged 19. She is a dressmakers assistant, born in Hull, Yorkshire and living with her parents Frederick & Emily Haines.

What a mysterious message it is. I wonder what Joy wanted to tell Bertha and how strange that she asks if she can write her a letter to do so.  Just one of the annoying parts of documenting these postcards is that you may never know just what the message meant.

New Facebook group - We Love Postcards

I have begun a Facebook group called We Love Postcards
Its so that we can share our love of them, post pictures of them from our collection and chat to others who do the same.
If you join us then please spread the word around to all Deltiologists and lets see if we can make it a popular and much used Group.

Postcards - little snapshots of history

I have recently purchased some lovely old postcards via a great internet markeplace site called Delcampe and particularly from one of their many postcard sellers Old_Postcards

I've always loved buying postcards when i've been away and either keeping them for souvenirs or sending them to family at home but i never realised until recently just how fascinating they are.
Each one is a small snapshot of history especially if it has been written and posted to someone. The message on the back can be a funny one, sad one, mysterious one or just a few words of thanks, they all meant a lot to both the sender and recipient.  My favourite era of postcards to collect is 1900 to 1920's which apparently was known as the golden age. It was a time when postcards were really popular and people would use them a bit like sending texts today. They would be sent to say 'thank you for a lovely day' , 'arrived home safely' or 'isabella had a baby boy'. People would send them just for others to add to their collection as collecting postcards was a big deal at the time.

Being a family history buff I cant resist being nosy, reading those messages and doing some research on the people mentioned.  What was the senders relationship to the recipient? Boyfriend and girlfriend perhaps, mother and daughter? I cant resist the thrill of the chase to find out more about them, 1 postcard at a time, which i will do in my next post.

So here are the first three postcards i bought.

These are all of views which are fairly local, so they have a double interest for me.

Do you have a postcard collection, if so how many and what made you begin?