Potts Family Photo

In clearing the house in Shenden Way I came across this photograph and took it to the nursing home when I went to visit Pam in August, 2005. I was able to identify six of the people in the group because I knew them personally; my grandparents, A.E. Snowling and Gertrude Snowling; my mother and her first cousin, David Morris; and my mother's uncle & aunt, Harold and Ethel Potts. Pam was able to identify the other six people in the family group; her grandparents, her uncle Billy, David's father & mother, and David's sister Jean.

Joshua & I visited David & Shirley Morris a couple of months ago, and I showed David the photo. He has a copy of the same photo in his collection, and was able to fill in some further interesting details. He said that it was taken to celebrate the golden wedding anniversary of my great-grandparents, Edward Coulthard Potts & Margaret Hall Potts .. they were married in May 1887, so the date of the photo was probably either that day in 1937 or some date in spring or summer of 1937 when all the family could get there (the Snowlings lived in Egypt, Pam Snowling was at boarding school in Darlington, and William Potts worked for Cable & Wireless and spent much time abroad, in the middle east, far east and the Caribbean.) David also told me that the photo was taken in the garden at his parents' house, 8 Holly Gardens, Low Fell, Gateshead. (Google Maps shows that the terraced houses in Holly Gardens have no back garden but there is a communal garden across the road.)

These are the people in the photo, and their relationship to Mr. & Mrs. Potts;
BACK ROW
A.E. Snowling (son-in-law, husband of Gertrude Potts); William Windlow Potts (son); Harold Potts (son); Alfred Morris (son-in-law, husband of Ethel Hall Potts)
MIDDLE ROW
Ethel Potts (daughter-in-law, wife of Harold); Edward Coulthard Potts; Margaret Hall Potts; Ethel Hall Potts (daughter)
FRONT ROW
Pamela Snowling (granddaughter); David Morris (grandson); Gertrude Potts (daughter); Jean Legg (granddaughter, daughter of Ethel Hall Potts & her first husband, Thomas Legg, killed in WWI.)

One reason the picture is especially valuable is that it is so complete; almost everyone is there. All Grandma & Grandpa Potts' children are present, and all their grandchildren. (Only Gertie and Ethel Hall Potts had children, Harold and Billy did not.) The only person missing is Billy's wife; either she took the photo, or she wasn't there that day.