photography – Our Casbon Journey

At this moment, most if not all of my readers are practicing some form of “social distancing” because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. I hope you are all staying well and coping with the difficulties associated with this historic situation.

With today’s post, I have a suggestion that will hopefully lift your spirits and alleviate any boredom you might be experiencing. The suggestion comes courtesy of the MyHeritage genealogy website. Back in February (it seems so long ago!), MyHeritage introduced MyHeritage in Color™, a feature that automatically colorizes black and white photographs. As an introductory offer, users could upload and colorize up to ten photos. Once the limit was reached, a user would need a paid subscription to continue using the feature. I tried it out and was impressed with the results. However, I did not opt for the paid subscription.

A few days ago, I was surprised to receive this email message from MyHeritage.

Yes, they are offering “free and unlimited access” to this feature. I took them up on the offer and went through my collection and colorized about 200 photos. More importantly, if you have old photos stashed away, you might want to try it out yourself. It’s a good way to stay active if you’re stuck at home. This shows what a photo looks like before and after colorization.

Sylvester and Mary (Mereness) Casbon, with Sylvester’s descendants; about 1905,
Valparaiso, Indiana; author’s collection (Click on image to enlarge)

The results are impressive. The process uses artificial intelligence (AI) to decide which colors to use and where to place them. The computer algorithms are very good, but not perfect. If you look carefully at the photo above, you’ll see that the right hand of the girl standing in the front row is still gray. The AI failed to identify it as a body part. You can see a more extreme version of this in this detail from a photograph of Amos and Carrie Casbon’s family.

Detail from photograph of Amos and Carrie (Aylesworth) Casbon’s family and
home near Boone Grove, Indiana, about 1911; courtesy of Ron Casbon

The AI has missed two of the children altogether, making them look like clay sculptures.

On the other hand, some of the results are amazing. The AI seems particularly good at producing flesh tones, hair color, and vegetation. In most cases, it seems to do a good job with clothing as well. I would think that better quality scanned images are more likely to fare well, but I’ve had good results with poor quality originals.

Jesse John II and Elizabeth (Ryan) Casbon, Cocoa Beach, Florida; adapted
from an iphone photo of the original; courtesy of John N. Casbon

You can also see that the MyHeritage logo gets added to the colorized image—a small price to pay, in my opinion.

Do you have old black and white family photos or snapshots? I encourage you to try this out. Visit https://www.myheritage.com/incolor, where you’ll need to sign up for a free account. You’ll need to scan your black and white photos to make digital copies so you can upload them to the web page. I suggest you use a scanning resolution of 300 dots per inch or better.

Here are some of the favorites from my collection.

Left: Sylvester and Mary (Mereness) Casbon, courtesy of Ilaine Church;
Right: Reuben and Elizabeth (Neyland) Casben, courtesy of Phil Long

Lawrence and Kate (Marquart) Casbon and family; seated on the horse, L to R, are Lynnet, Loring and Leslie; about 1898 near Hebron, Porter County, Indiana; courtesy of Don Casbon (Click on image to enlarge)

Left: James Casbon; Right: Amos and Carrie Belle (Aylesworth) Casbon; both courtesy of Ron Casbon

Left: Donald Glen Casbon (L) and Herbert Aylesworth (R) Casbon, undated; courtesy of Michael J. Casbon;
Right: L to R—Herman, Harriet, and Floyd Casbon; courtesy of Claudia Vokoun (Click on images to enlarge)

Lynnet Casbon and an unidentified man delivering a refrigerator in
Valparaiso, Indiana, about 1940; courtesy of Dave Casbon

Margaret (Donovan) Casban (second from left), her daughter Nell (third from left),
and others, hops picking in Sussex, England, early 1930s; courtesy of Alice Casban

This is my ninth post in the Guild of One-name Studies (GOONS) blog challenge 2020.

A post by fellow GOONS member Vivienne Dunstan was the inspiration for today’s post. She reported on a photograph she found on eBay that showed someone with her surname of interest. I was curious whether I could do the same so I logged into eBay and typed in “Casbon.” The search mainly turned up a few books (not mine!) and marketing items such as t-shirts with “Casbon” printed on them. However, one item of particular interest turned up—a photograph taken by Charles Casbon of Hornsey, London, England. The owner of the photograph was kind enough to let me use the images.

Carte de visité (front and back), portrait of two young girls, taken by “Chas. Casbon,” undated
(courtesy of Helen Flavin, Black Cat Books & Ephemera, Wiltshire, United Kingdom)

The little girls are cute, but I was interested in the photographer, not his subjects. We see that Chas. Casbon was a professional photographer with a studio located at 6 Alexandra Road, Hornsey. The picture on the back of the card depicts a camera on a stand in front of a screen. The information given about the photograph on the eBay site says that the original size is 4 by 2.5 inches.

A website dedicated to London photographers says that Charles Casbon had his studio on Alexandra Road from 1888 to 1892,^[1] while another source says he was located there until 1896.^[2] Thus we can date the photograph to this range of dates.

This kind of photograph is known as a carte de visité. They consisted of small photographs mounted on card stock measuring about 4 by 2.5 inches, and usually containing printed information about the photographers on the back. Cartes de visité were immensely popular in the late 1800s and early 20^th century. People collected and kept them in albums.^[3]

Charles Wheeley Casbon received brief mention in an earlier blog post about his father, Thomas, who was suspected of jumping into the Thames in an unsuccessful suicide attempt. (See also “Lost Man, Found”) Charles was descended from the “Peterborough Casbons,” a family that settled in the vicinity of Peterborough, Northamptonshire, in the mid 1800s. I have never been able to connect this family to my own. The earlier generations, including Charles’s father, were all gardeners (see “How doth your garden grow?“). Charles was probably the namesake for the “Charley Casbon” flower I discovered in an 1871 Washington, D.C., gardening catalog a few years ago.

Advertisement for “Charley Casbon”; John Saul, Descriptive catalogue of new, rare and beautiful plants, dahlias, chrysanthemums, geraniums, fuchsias, carnations, verbenas, phloxes, &c. for spring, 1871 (Philadelphia: Horticultural Book & Job Print, 1871), p. 30; Internet Archive

Charles was born in Peterborough on 18 June 1866.^[4] His given name on the Peterborough St. Mary’s parish baptismal register was Charles Thomas Casbon.^[5]

Detail from Peterborough St. Mary’s parish register, 1866; note the father’s occupation: “Nurseryman”

His mother, Emily (Cantrill) filed for divorce when Charles was 2 years old, and it appears that he lived with her after the divorce. Her dislike of her former husband must have been intense, because at some point Charles’s middle name was changed from Thomas to Wheeley, the middle name of Emily’s father, Samuel W. Cantrill. Charles, his mother, and his sister were enumerated at Samuel’s residence for the 1871 and 1881 censuses. In the 1891 census, we find Charles as the head of household, residing at 6 Alexandra Rd. in Hornsey, a district in North London. This is the same address as that given for his studio. His occupation is recorded as “photographic artist.” His mother and sister are also in the household, along with a visitor, a boarder, and one servant.^[6]

Detail from 1891 England census for Hornsey, Middlesex; Ancestry (Click on image to enlarge)

In the 1901 census, he is listed as a visitor in a different Hornsey household; his occupation is given as “photographer’s draughtsman.” This seems like a step down from having his own studio.

I haven’t found Charles in the 1911 census, but he does appear in 1910 and 1912 London city directories, still living in Hornsey, but now living at Rathcoole Gardens (road). It is unknown whether he was still in the photography business at the time. The only other record I have is a copy of a French death certificate from Levallois-Perret, a suburb of Paris, showing that Charles had been residing in Paris. He died at the age of 63 on 6 August 1930.^[7] The death certificate includes the word “artiste,” so this probably explains what he was doing in France.

There is no record of a marriage or of children being fathered by Charles; therefore no descendants to preserve his memory.

[1] PhotoLondon website (https://www.photolondon.org.uk/).
[2] Photographers of Great Britain & Ireland website (http://www.victorianphotographers.co.uk/).
[3] Richard Davies, “The First Great Photography Craze: Cartes de Visites,” 14 Mar 2019, PetaPixel (https://petapixel.com/2019/03/14/the-first-great-photography-craze-cartes-de-visites/ : accessed 4 Feb 2020).
[4] “Casbon vs. Casbon,” Court Minutes, Her Majesty’s Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, no. 787 JS; image copy, “England & Wales., Civil Divorce Records, 1858-1915”, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2465/ : accessed 19 Feb 2017); citing The National Archives; Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, later Supreme Court of Judicature: Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Files; Class: J 77; Piece: 84; Item: 787.
[5] Peterborough (Northamptonshire) parish register, baptisms 1866, no. 494; image copy, “Northamptonshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1912”, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/9200/).
[6] 1891 England census, Hornsey, Edmonton, Middlesex; image copy, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6598/); citing The National Archives, RG 12, piece 1059, folio 130, p. 51.
[7] “UK, Foreign and Overseas Registers of British Subjects, 1628-1969,” image copy, Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1993 : accessed 18 September 2018) ; citing The National Archives, RG 32/16.

Tag: photography

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The Photographer