I haven't posted anything on the Bee family of Edinburgh for quite awhile, because there was nothing additional to post. In May we visited Edinburgh and looked at the interesting building where they lived. Then, as I was going through another box of old photographs from my father-in-law, I spied some more Bee family cards and photos.
Until then I had only seen postcards; now there are photos to go with them. Unfortunately, there's no way to know for certain who is who. If you have read the
previous Bee posts, you'll know that there were at least three sisters, Chrissie, Nettie and Edith, almost always referred to as
wee Edith. They lived with their mother. There may have been other siblings or a father, but they aren't mentioned. This appears to be a family photo. I would guess that the smallest one is wee Edith and the woman on the right was the mother. But are these all her daughters or have they included a couple of friends or cousins in the photograph?
The bigger question is how these photos came to be grouped with the many hundreds of cards and photos that are almost exclusively from upstate New York. I can only think that one of these Bee girls moved to the United States at some point after World War I. The date on the back of this photo card is 17/2/19.
This photo may be of one of the sisters. It is stamped by the Thomson Brothers of West Maitland Street in Edinburgh. The writing on the back says:
To Nettie 30 August 1920.
This card is from the same studio, with handwriting on the back that says,
With my Best love Mary 22/10/20.
And then there's the postcard photograph of the young man in military attire. The photograph was taken by Drummond Shiels of Lauriston Place in Edinburgh, with writing on the back that appears to say:
64410 M. Bee 6DB RO.
Here we have these two gentlemen wearing Masonic aprons and sashes.
Both cards are from photographer J. Spence of Musslburgh, and both have the same date 17/5/20.
This young man, who bears a family resemblance to the previous two, wears a Mason's tie pin and was photographed in August 1920.