A Short and Jeffrey family group

Seven people, most of them elderly, in dark clothes before a pale wall, numbered 1 to 7 in ink along the foot of the print (page 1). The back (page 2) names five of them: “1 Mary Jeffrey Short b 1807 / 2 / 3 / 4 William Jeffrey / 5 Aunt Mary (John’s sister?) / 6 Mrs Short (John’s mother) / 7 John Short.” In pencil down the side, “Copy of old picture taken shortly before Wm Jeffrey’s [?] death,” and at the foot, “Please I have another copy Keep this!”

The names do not all fit. The clothes look of about 1890-1910, after the deaths of Mary (Jeffrey) Short (1883), her husband John Short (1858) and both William Jeffreys in the archive (1852 and 1879), and nos. 1 and 6 would both be John’s mother if John were John Gerald Short. If the picture is as late as it looks, no. 7 might be John Gerald Short (born 1845) and no. 5 his sister Mary (1844-1928) of Woodstock. In the family’s reading (October 2026) the names are mistaken, and one of the women the back calls John’s aunt or mother is his wife, Mary (Pattullo) Short. Who is who is not settled; the back’s names are placed on the faces by the numbers along the foot.