#FearlessFemales - Day 2 - Share a photo of a female ancestor

March 2 — Post a photo of one of your female ancestors. Who is in the photo? When was it taken? Why did you select this photo?

The #FearlessFemale I have selected for today's post is my Great Grandmother Mary Mullen

Mary Mullen c1891

The above photo is one our family thinks is of Mary was taken by H Thompson from Tatham Street Sunderland. He (Henry) is listed as a photographer living at 39 Tatham Street in the 1891 Census.

If the photo was taken around that time, then Mary would have been the age of 20. She got married in December 1891, so the timing certainly fits in regards to why she might sit for a studio photograph.

The other photo of Mary I have is this one with her family about 1915 (the year 3 of her sons enlisted in the armed forces during WW1 and her youngest daughter (my grandmother) was about 3 years of age.

Mary Mullen and her family c1915

So why did I pick these photos? Because these are rare family photos - very few exist beyond my parents as young adults, so having 2 photos of the same person from over 100 years ago is a bit special.

Mary was born in 1871 in Jarrow Durham England and passed away in 1950 in Sunderland Durham England. She was married to Nicholas Dobson (the subject of my week 4 #52Ancestors post) and was the daughter of Thomas Mullen and Catherine Casey (the Casey family is going to be the subject of my week 11 #52Ancestors post next week)