Photographs

of

Mary Anne [nee ORR] RODGERS

1854 - 1920

[aka Mary Ann ROGERS]

Mary Anne ORR was born near Belfast, Ireland, on 9 October 1854, and her baptism was duly recorded in the Register of Baptisms (1852-1860) of the Malone Presbyterian Church [PRONI: MIC 1P/2/3. No place of birth or date of baptism information was recorded]. This church is located just south of Belfast on the road that is today designated as the 'Malone Road'. Note that the girl's forename was recorded at the time of baptism as 'Mary Anne'. When later records were created she was identified variably as 'Mary Ann Rodgers', as 'Mary Ann Rogers', or simply as 'Mary Rogers' or 'Mary Rodgers'. At least two instances are known when she signed her name after 1910. She did so as plain 'Mary Rodgers'.

Mary Anne's father was Thomas Orr. He was described at the time of baptism as 'Over Seer' whose residence was a place recorded as 'Sandy Mount' [he had been described as 'Roadmaster' residing on 'Malone Road' when Mary Anne's older brother Thomas was baptised in 1852]. Sandy Mount was located just south of the spot where the Botanic Gardens had been developed in Belfast in 1828, between the Lisburn Road and the Stranmillis Road. Thomas was elected as a Committee Member of Malone Presbyterian Church on 12 September 1857, and by 1858 he embarked on a long career as a 'publican / grocer / spirit dealer' at an establishment at Clink Hill in south Belfast on the Malone Road near the Botanic Gardens [the establishment continues today, incarnated as the 'Botanic Inn']. Thomas had probably been born in Antrim County, Ireland, in about 1817, and may have been the son of William and Elizabeth Orr.

Mary Anne's mother was Mary DUNLOP, who may have been born around Portrush in Antrim County abou 1825. She was possibly the daughter of Thomas Dunlop and a woman whose name is no longer known but which might have been Elizabeth.

Thomas Orr and his daughter Mary were summoned and charged with 'obstructing Constable Kearney in the execution of his duty' in June of 1874 [The Ulster Examiner and Northern Star, Belfast, 19 June 1874, Page 4, Column 1]. Constable Kearney charged that Thomas, a licensed publican on the Malone Road, had 'on his premises on the 6th of June, two men under the influence of liquor'. 'The evidence in both cases failed, and they [Thomas & daughter Mary] were accordingly dismissed'.

Beyond this event, nothing is known about Mary Anne's early life, but on 17 March 1875, aged 20 years, she was married to John RODGERS at Elmwood Presbyterian Church in Belfast. Elmwood is located just north of the Orr residence, which was probably on the second floor above the public house on the Malone Road [note that John's surname was recorded as ROGERS in the civil marriage register, and that this variant surname spelling was recorded for family members many times in following records. Mary Anne clearly signed her name as 'Rodgers' in later years]. In 1875, Mary Anne was said to be residing in 'Malone, Belfast'. John Rodgers was of 'Full' age [so, beyond his 21st birthday]. He was described as a 'mechanic' who was residing at the time in Partick, Glasgow. He was also described as being the son of another John Rodgers. Mary Anne's older sister Jane Orr signed the register as a witness, as did someone (perhaps a brother of the groom ?) named James Rogers [sic].

John & Mary Anne had several children:

• Agnes, born at a residence on the Malone Road, Belfast, 18 October 1877; 
• Jane, also born on the Malone Road 2 April 1879;
• Thomas Orr, born at 29 Carnalea Street, Belfast, 25 June 1881 (who died at 139 Argyle Street, Belfast, aged 4 years, on 8 January 1886);
• John Orr, whose birth was registered in the Sunderland District (Durham County), England, in the July - September Quarter of 1883;
• Mary Ann, whose birth was registered in the Tynemouth District, England, in the January - March Quarter of 1890; and
• Thomas, whose birth was also registered in the Tynemouth District in the January - March Quarter of 1892.

The Rodgers family was enumerated during the 1891 Census of England & Wales, while residing at No. 33 Eden Street, Wallsend, Northumberland County. John Rodgers the elder, who was employed at that time as a 'boilermaker', was said to have been born in Scotland in about 1852. Mary Rodgers was said to have been born in Ireland.

The Rodgers family was also enumerated during the 1901 Census of England & Wales. Still in Wallsend, they were living at that time at No. 12, Laurel Street. John Rodgers the elder was said to be a 'shipyard rivetter' who had been born in Glasgow, Scotland, in about 1850. Mary Rodgers was said to have been born in Belfast, Ireland.

John Rodgers, Mary Anne [nee Orr]'s husband, died in Wallsend in 1903, aged 52 years (his death was registered in the Tynemouth District in the July - September Quarter of 1903, Volume 10b, Page 128). Several online 'personal family tree' sites - most of which seem to have simply copied information from a single original presentation, indicate that John Rodgers' full name was 'John Wesley Rodgers'. While this is possible, the suggestion that Wesley was his middle name has not been verified by any documentary evidence found so far.

Mary Anne [nee Orr] Rodgers returned to Belfast some time after John died - she was listed in the 1910 Belfast Directory as residing at No. 22 Sandhurst Gardens. She and 3 children - Jane, 31; Mary, 21; and Thomas, 19; were enumerated at that address during Ireland's 1911 census. She gave this address as her place of residence when she signed the 'Ulster Covenant' in 1912. And, Mary Anne died at this address on 20 November 1920 [it's presumed that she was buried in the Balmoral Cemetery, Belfast, for which no records survive. There appear to be no other interment records from any other Belfast cemetery which pertain to her. And no memorial stone seems to exist around Belfast with details about her]. Mary Rodgers left a Will, which was proved in Belfast on 10 December 1920. Probate was granted to her daughter Jane (married by that time to Alexander KERR).

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Four photographs are known, which are said to show a likeness of Mary Anne [nee Orr] Rodgers. The first two photographs shown below present unquestionable likenesses of Mary Anne [nee Orr] Rodgers after about 1900.

First, is a family group photograph taken by W. J. Herbert in Wallsend, Northumberland, England, probably in the 1900-1903 period, as seen below.

 Mary Anne [nee Orr] Rodgers and family, circa 1900 to 1903

This photograph shows Mary Anne [nee Orr] Rodgers seated on the left, with daughter Agnes, who has placed her hand on her mother's shoulder, standing behind. John Rodgers is seated on the right, with son John, daughter Mary Ann, and daughter Jane standing behind, left to right. Son Thomas, born in 1892, is seated between Mary Anne & John.

The photographer - identified on this card as ' W. J. Herbert', was William John HERBERT, a native of Edinburgh, Scotland. William John was married to Mary YOUNG in Wallsend in the middle of 1892. He is known to have operated there as a photographer from at least 1901, and perhaps earlier. He was initiated in to the Freemason's Neptune Lodge in Wallsend in 1902, at which time he was said to be a 'photographer', but he had been described as a 'tobaccanist and photographer' when he was enumerated in the 1901 Census of England and Wales. He was shown to be a 44 year old 'photographer' when enumerated in 1911, and by the time he died on 9 May 1920, he was described as a 'retired photographer'.

There are apparently no notations on the back side of this photograph which highlight details about the time and place of exposure.

The females in the photograph all seem to be wearing mourning clothes. Mary Anne's father Thomas died in April, 1901, shortly after he was enumerated in the English census. Could this photograph have been taken in Wallsend during the mourning period after Thomas's death? The photograph was certainly taken before the death of John Rodgers in the first part of 1903.

Around April or May of 1901, daughter Mary Ann Rodgers would have been eleven years old, and her brother Thomas would have been about nine. Do the youngest children in this photo appear to be about these ages?

Second, is a photograph which shows Mary Anne [nee Orr] Rodgers standing behind her seated older sisters Margaret [nee Orr] LEDGERWOOD and Jane [nee Orr] McCUTCHEON.

Mary Anne [nee Orr] Rodgers standing with sisters Margaret Ledgerwood (left) & Jane McCutcheon (right)

This photograph must have been taken before the 25th of October 1919, because that's the date on which Margaret [nee Orr] Ledgerwood died in Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, England. Mary Anne appears to be in mourning dress, but the traditions of mourning style were disappearing between 1903 and 1919.

The significance of the number '806' above the womens' heads is not known. This does not represent any known residential street address for either of the sisters at any point in time.

Third is a photograph that is a little bit more problematic.

Mary Anne Orr, by T Plimmer of Belfast, circa 1867 - 1875

Provenance of this photograph is unclear. A digital image of the front of the card was posted to an ancestry.com 'personal family tree' in 2015, and labelled as 'Mary Ann Orr Rogers'. The person who posted the image is quite a distant descendant of Thomas & Mary [nee Dunlop] Orr, being a descendant of their oldest child, Elizabeth Orr. Elizabeth was born in Antrim County, Ireland, around 1845, married John JOHNSTON in Belfast in 1864, emigrated to Canada around 1870, and died in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, in 1889. Mary Anne Orr was an almost 10 years younger sister of Elizabeth [nee Orr] Johnston. The posting person is not a descendant of Mary Anne [nee Orr] Rodgers at all.

Mary Anne's mother, Mary [nee Dunlop] Orr died in Belfast in 1868. Mary Anne's father, Thomas Orr is known to have stood for a portrait with his son Edward (Mary Anne's much younger brother, born in 1860) in Thomas Plimmer's studio at No. 19, High Street, Belfast in the early 1870s. The photograph showing Thomas & Edward Orr was a small carte-de-visite photo pasted to card which looks remarkably similar to the one above - the difference being that the card bearing Thomas & Edward's image is printed with red lettering, while this one appears to have been printed with black ink. Otherwise, the styling of the front of the two cards are identical (see A Photographic Image of Thomas Orr, Grocer of Belfast for the image of Thomas, and for a discussion about clothing styles of the period and details about Thomas Plimmer the photographer).

Following suggestions found in Stephen Gill's enlightening book "Dating by Design", the clothing style worn by the young woman in the above photograph, and her hair style, would seem to be indicative of something one might expect from the early to mid-1870s. The styles are not what one might expect to see worn by a woman who would have been Mary Anne's mother's age. So, it seems quite plausible that the above photo could show a likeness of Mary Anne herself. The carte-de-visite style associated with this photograph also suggests production in the early to mid-1870s.

The 'PhotoDater' app at MyHeritage suggests that this photo was taken in about 1871 (+/- 4years).

But the young woman in the immediately above photo seems to look nothing like the woman we know as Mary Ann [nee Orr] Rodgers, as seen in two photographs taken after 1900.

Certainly the time span between about 1871, or so, and 1900 is great, and giving birth to six children and living in ship-building labourer's conditions could alter appearances. But is this really a photograph of Mary Anne Orr? If so, it must have been taken before she was married in Belfast to John Rodgers on 17 March 1875, aged 20 years!

The fourth photograph said to show a likeness of Mary Anne [nee Orr] Rodgers seems to suggest some things that I find difficult to resolve.

A Photograph Said to Show Mary Anne [nee Orr] Rodgers

This photograph was posted to the same ancestry.com 'personal family tree' as the Plimmer photo above, at the same time, by the same person. The image as posted was labelled as 'Mary Rogers'. Only an image of the front of the photograph was posted.

This photograph was taken at the Pittaway & Jarvis studio at 117 Sparks Street, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Alfred Pittaway and Samuel J Jarvis apprenticed together under Samuel J Jarvis's uncle Samuel Jarvis on Sparks Street in Ottawa between 1879 and 1882. They opened their own studio on Sparks Street in 1882, but severed their association in 1890. The above photograph, then, could only have been taken between 1882 and 1890. During this period, Mary Anne [nee Orr] Rodgers was living in Belfast; in Sunderland in Durham County, England; and in Wallsend in Northamptonshire, England, and giving birth to children every 2 years from 1875 [excepting a period between 1883 and 1890 when no children appear to have been born, or perhaps survived. No traces of children named Rodgers or Rogers whose mother's maiden surname was Orr are evident in either the civil birth or death registration indexes from Sunderland or Tynemouth in England, or from Belfast in the 1883-1890 period.].

The person depicted in the above photograph seems to show no resemblance to the two post 1900 photographs which are unquestionably images of Mary Anne [nee Orr] Rodgers aged 46 and older. Nor does the person depicted in the above photograph seem to show any resemblance to the circa 1870-1875 Thomas Plimmer photograph which is reputed to show a likeness of Mary Anne [nee Orr] Rodgers.

The above photograph could show a likeness of Mary Anne [nee Orr] Rodgers. One could surmise (given a black & white photograph) that the woman in this photo was wearing mourning clothes. Is this, then, truly a photograph of Mary Anne, who travelled to Ottawa for the funeral of her older sister Elizabeth in 1889? Mary Anne would have been about 35 years old at that time. I think that the woman shown in the photo above was younger than 35 years. It seems unlikely, in my mind, given the probable economic circumstances Mary Anne might have experienced at that time, that she did travel to Ottawa. But.... one never knows.

There are almost no other candidates for the identity of the woman in this photograph. Who else was associated with Elizabeth [nee Orr] Johnston's family who could have been identified as 'Mary Rogers'. No one that this author is aware of, so this is a very problematic photograph!

Your observations and comments are welcome.