Boulton Family History: Old Queensland Photos

Friday, May 1, 2020

Old Queensland Photos - Proudfoot Family?

In my great-grandmother Dora (Dolly) Mary Flockton’s old photograph album are three cartes de visite taken in the studios of Albert Lomer in Brisbane, most likely in the 1880s. I wonder if they depict some of the children of Rev Alexander Proudfoot, of Geelong and Gladstone. He died in Rockhampton in 1873 but his widow ran a boarding and day school for girls in Rockhampton for a number of years afterwards.

Here’s why I think these photos may depict members of the Proudfoot family:

Dolly migrated from London to Queensland in December 1882 and left that colony in 1889.
I suspect that Dolly worked at Mrs Proudfoot's school in Rockhampton before her marriage.
Dolly’s bridesmaid when she married Philip Boulton in Gladstone in December 1885 was Frances Janet Proudfoot.
In Dolly’s 'birthday book' are the birthdays for Frances Janet Proudfoot, her sister Alexandra Mary Proudfoot and their eldest brother George Jacobus Proudfoot.
The Proudfoots moved permanently to Melbourne around 1890 and Dolly and her husband Philip Boulton also lived in Melbourne from 1891-1895
Mr & Miss Proudfoot attended a cricket match with the Boultons at Cheltenham in Melbourne on 2 Dec 1893.
Philip Boulton died in 1895 and Dolly moved that year to NSW where her family lived.

I can’t think who else these photos might represent. Does anyone recognise these people? I'm hoping someone from the Proudfoot family will contact me with their thoughts ... or someone else might know these people and be grateful for these photos.

The Proudfoot connection is mentioned briefly in my book 'Margaret Flockton: A Fragrant Memory', available through Wakefield Press, but I'm preparing a more detailed account of them in a book I'm writing about Philip Boulton.