William James Boucher
Status: looking for family
"Released from the surly bonds of this mortal coil" is what a fellow carte de visite aficionado suggested may be the meaning behind the curious "release" date written on the back of this little CDV, found in Magazine Antique Mall in New Orleans.
This CDV caught my eye, not only because it was a relatively affordable option and its subject had been identified, but because of the photographer's location: Belfast. It would mark my first finding of a photo taken outside the United States, and I was also curious as to how a Belfast photo ended up in the Crescent City.
I searched for William James Boucher in Belfast on FamilySearch, but it returned a handful of options to overwhelm me; so, armed with curiosity about the date written on the back, I posted in one of my favorite Facebook groups: Carte de Visite and Cabinet Card Photography. Why would a photographer write a 'release' date on the back of the photo, I wondered? Did this signify the date the photo was released from the studio? It certainly wasn't anything I had come across before.
As I awaited response, I turned to trusty Google, and searched for 'William James Boucher Belfast'. If the release date was somehow related to a prison sentence, surely something would come up.
One of the first search results was a webpage for the headstone inscriptions at Friends Burial Ground in Belfast, and sure enough, it listed a certain William James Boucher. Curious, I clicked on his name, and there it was: his death date. May 15th 1894. The same date written on the back of his photograph. That couldn't be a coincidence.
So, it turns out that 'release' on the back of William's CDV indeed referred to his being released 'from the surly bonds of this mortal coil'. Now, armed with the correct William James Boucher, I return to FamilySearch. Here is his story.
William was born on June 5th, 1844 and married Isabella Logan Auld in Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland on June 9, 1875. Considering they are both buried in a Quaker cemetery, we can assume they were, indeed, Quakers.
Isabella was born in Scotland, as evidenced by the 1901 Irish census. I could not find any definitive source for William's birthplace, but one personal blog, likely written by a family member, stated that William was born in Belfast and Isabella went to live with him there.
It would seem William Boucher once operated a family grocery, as evidenced by a notice of dissolution published in the Belfast News-Letter on June 11, 1894. Interestingly, points us to a family relation of Isabella: William Auld, a solicitor - likely her brother.
In fact, here is an 1870 advertisement for William's grocery:
By the next census in 1901, Isabella is, of course, widowed. One personal webpage online, written by someone obviously related to the family, stated that following William's death in 1894, Isabella wore black for the rest of her life, until her own death in 1943.
Also living in the house, at 51 Botanic Avenue in Belfast, are William and Isabella's children: Elise, aged 21 (born September 16, 1879), Kathleen/Katherine, aged 19, Josephine, aged 17, and Marion, aged 12. The eldest three were born in County Down, while Marion was born in Antrim, leading us to believe that William and Isabella lived in Down from at least 1880 until 1889 before hopping over county lines. In addition to the children, Isabella has a servant from England and her sister-in-law Mary living with the family.
Ten years later, in 1911, Isabella, now 60, lives with daughters Kathleen/Katherine, aged 29, Josephine, aged 27, and Marion, aged 22. Interestingly, it also lists a daughter, Isabella, aged 26, who wasn't present 10 years before. In addition, it appears a son, Maxwell, aged 24, had returned home from wherever he was 10 years earlier. In total, Isabella reported in 1911 that she had 7 living children. Also living with the family at this time was an 18 year old male boarder and a 28 year old female servant.
It is at this point when we must diverge from telling the story of our photograph subject, William, and instead turn to his wife Isabella and her family because, well, wowee. What an interesting story.
A quick Google search led me to find that Isabella, along with her daughter Kathleen, were mentioned in the will of 'Roderie Bryant Shearburn of Snaith Hall, gentleman'. With a title like that, I knew this had to be good.
It turns out that the Shearburn family of Snaith Hall were influential solicitors and landowners in Snaith, England. In an attempt to find a relation between Isabella and this this family, I stumbled across this webpage which informs us that Roderie married a woman named Jane Auld, who he likely met through her brother, Archibald, a doctor living in Snaith. Bingo - Auld was Isabella's maiden name. Jane and Archibald must have been Isabella's siblings, or so I thought, until it was miraculously confirmed by the next thing I saw on the webpage:
Could it be? Is that our Isabella? And if so, who are the grandchildren?
Thanks to the fantastic Facebook group 'Belfast Genealogy', we have been able to shed a bit more light on the lives of William and Isabella's children, hopefully leading us to track down some descendants.
Some details of their children are as follows:
Elise Boucher married Charles Stanley Sinclair on June 28 1909. Charles was born to Samuel Sinclair, whose other son, Thomas, was a well-reputed professor of surgery.
Josephine Marguerite Boucher married John Henry Hamilton Redmond on February 24 1914. They had a daughter, Barbara Hamilton Redmond, born June 24, 1915.
Maxwell Stuart Boucher married Marianne Killen Simms on June 11, 918.
Marion Norah Boucher married David Thompson on August 11, 1921.
Katherine Mary Boucher and Isabella Boucher never married.
Charles James Boucher, who became a doctor, married Martha Louise Dennison on June 1, 1911. They had a son, Charles Maxwell Boucher, on August 3, 1916 and a daughter, Isabel Mary Kinsley Boucher. Charles Maxwell would go on to become a distinguished doctor like his father. In fact, a fantastically helpful member of the Belfast Genealogy Facebook group found this article written on a U.S. National Institutes of Health webpage. His obituary also appears in the British Medical Journal.
Do you recognize this family? Help send William Boucher’s photograph home.