Sepia Saturday 342-c

For this week’s Sepia Saturday, again, we’re on our own to follow the prompt image for #342 or go off on our own.  I guess I’m sticking with my little personal theme of couples to explore some photos that may not have made it into a Sepia Saturday otherwise.  Above is a photo of Mr & Mrs IJselstein or Yselstein depending on how you spell the name.  The Dutch “IJ” is more commonly spelled with a “Y” in English, but it’s not *really* a Y in pronunciation – it’s more like an “ay” as in “day.”  This couple, identified only by their surname, was photographed, probably in Uithuizen in Holland in the 1930s.  Assuming they’re about 70 years old, their presumed birthdate is 1860, +-10 years or more though.  Without first names and some more background, it’s hard to be sure exactly who they are!  I know that the IJselstein surname doesn’t appear in my husband’s tree, so I don’t think these were related, but they likely knew my husband’s grandmother who lived in Uithuizen.  There’s something about the framing of this photo that I love – the way the man is sitting in the chair which I’ll bet he sat in every day and had regular chats with people who passed by.  The dog, looking right at the camera while the woman holds his leash.

This was on a page with two other photos – one of Hilda Dijkema in a garden captioned, “Lunteren, Hilly,” and another of a family with a caption, “van Beek Fam.”  Sometimes placement of the photos in an album helps tell the story, but I still can’t be sure where the photo was taken – it could’ve been while Hilda was in Lunteren (for what I’m not sure, though I suspect it has something to do with the tuberculosis sanatorium Sonnevanck where she was treated in the late 1930s) and not in Uithuizen.  Still, it’s a really great photo of a married couple though I wish I knew more about it!