My grandpa was from the last generation of Geordie sailors. He was an engineer for the merchant navy, hence the great uniform. Gran stayed home and cared for my mom and her siblings while grandpa was out sailing. He once showed me a map of all the voyages he had been on, and i wish i knew what happened to it.
They look 60, but were probably 18.
He would have been 92 next month, so my guess would be he is mid 20’s in this picture. I’m not sure what year they got married. Living through the Blitz in a strategically important city will do that to you. Grandpa told me a story about how his dad (on the left) had severe shell shock and would refuse to go into their bomb shelter in the back garden. He would make aure the family was safe in there, and them stand outside and watch the planes. My other great-grandfather on the right got an accomodation for helping a wounded Canadian officer get off some beach in WW2, i wish i remembered which one. Those old Geordies lived through some serious shit.
Looks closer to 1850s, not a comment on your relatives, but the picture quality.
I feel you on the last sentence though, my parents used to keep a bunch of these really old photos in an old shoe box. A lot of them got destroyed in a flood, but I spent one summer with a scanner and an old laptop restoring as many photos as I could. Wish I’d done it sooner.
My grandpa died yesterday and so my mom was sending out pictures. She just took a picture of it with her phone, so i cropped out the frame to post it, which definitely makes the quality look poorer. My great grandfather on the left there was an old Geordie dock worker with horrid shell shock from WW1, which you can see in his eyes.
I have a bunch of photos of my American grandma’s photos that i want to start scanning. I even have video film that says “Christmas 1942” that i am eager to see.