The Melbourne and Strange Family Album

The photographs shown here are from a photo album taken to Canada by the Melbourne family when they emigrated from England to Pine Creek (now Waskatenau), Alberta in 1909. The father, Edward Melbourne had emigrated in 1908 and he was followed in early 1909 by his wife Polly Elizabeth (nee Strange) and their two children, Leonard Edward and Elsie Maud. Also with the family in the 1908 emigration was Frank Scott. The 1909 trip occurred in the spring with departure from England on Good Friday.

The album is currently in the possession of Wayne Scott who lives in Redwater, Alberta. Wayne is a grandson of Elsie who married Frank Scott in 1916.

The photographs are displayed below in the order in which they appear in the album. If more than one photograph occurred on a page, the individual photographs are followed with a copy of the whole page so that a sense of the layout of the album can be conveyed. There are many blank spaces in the album and it appears that any photographs of Edward Melbourne or of Elsie have been removed. Sadly, while we can be fairly sure that the unidentified photographs are of members of the Melbourne and Strange families, we are unable to identify which members.

If you can identify any of these photographs please let me know. The name of each photograph can be seen by holding your cursor over the photograph and reading the name on the status line at the bottom of the browser. For example, the photograph in the top left corner below has the name 'DSCN0998.JPG'. Please email the information, together with any reference information to ken at kenscott.com.

Some Comments on Dates

This album of photographs was taken to Canada by Polly Elizabeth Strange on her emigration to Canada in the spring 0f 1909. It seems likely that none of the photographs in the album were taken after that date. We do have a few ideas on the time frame of the photographs that do appear in the album.

Polly was born in 1866. The earliest photographs that are clearly identified of her show a young girl perhaps in her mid-teens, about 1882 or so. The photograph of Leonard Edward Melbourne in the last row shows a boy of perhaps five years. Leonard was born in 1890 so that photograph was taken about 1895.

Charles William Strange was born in 1840 and died in 1890. The photograph which is identified as him shows a man in perhaps his mid-thirties. about 1875 or so. The photograph of an old man in the first row might also be him and, if so, was probably taken in the late 1880's.

Note: Click on any photograph to see an enlarged image