A Southland historian is hoping Otago Daily Times readers may be able to find the proper home for a collection of Victorian-era photographs of a southern family.
The photos date from the 1870s and 1880s: some were taken in Ireland but the majority were taken in Dunedin, including some in the studio of famed early photographers the Burton Brothers.
The family is believed to be the Hayes family, which settled in Waipahi, east of Gore.
Cartes de Visite — visiting cards — were highly popular in the 19th century.
Images of famous people were swapped in a manner akin to trading cards today, while images of loved ones were often exchanged within families.
"Cartes de Visite are quite rare — a lot of people couldn’t afford to have them taken," historian Iain Davidson said.
"This is a nice historic lot, if we could ever reunite them with the descendants."
The cards took a circuitous route to Australia.
Their current owner’s late father worked at Conical Hills, near Waipahi.
He was given a family bible which contained the photographs by a workmate called "Jimmy" after Jimmy’s son had died.
"The owner inherited them, and moved to Australia," Mr Davidson said.
"The bible has [been] her family keepsake ever since, and she has kept it for sentimental reasons."
Mr Davidson’s investigations have found an Edmond Hayes (d 1919) and his wife Bridgett Hayes (d 1917) buried at Waipahi, and a Thomas Hayes on the region’s electoral roll in 1919, but no further trace of any Hayes descendants.
"I have found newspaper clippings for a Father Hayes from Felling in the United Kingdom, dated 23 June 1882," he said.
"He could well be the man of the cloth in the Dunedin carte de visite."
• If you recognise the photos, email mike.houlahan@odt.co.nz
