Who is the Man in the Photograph?

Have you ever found an old family photograph that wasn’t labelled and wondered who it was? Through a series of discoveries, I figured out the identity of a family member even though I had no idea who he might be when the search began.

It all started with a family portrait I’d inherited of Adam Darling, my great-grandfather’s half-brother. It was quite a surprise to discover that Adam’s portrait was a rare painted photograph. When a Canadian cousin, Patty Brown, came to visit me in California, she said the signature on the portrait read “Notman Photo, E. Sharpe, 1871.” Patty knew that the collection of Notman photos could be seen on the McCord Museum Website. That was back in 2004!

Fast forward to 2019 when I found myself on the McCord Website, reviewing over four dozen Notman photos taken from the 1860s to the 1920s of people identified as “Darling,” wondering who they were and how we were related. Darling was my maiden name, and I knew my Scottish relatives began moving to Montreal in 1840, so it was highly likely that the people in these Notman photos were family members. Many were identified simply as “Mr. Darling,” with the year the photo had been taken or “Mrs. Darling’s children”—what a tease! So I took it upon myself to figure out who they were, despite never having seen photos of any of these people before. The only thing I had up my sleeve were the names and dates of our Canadian ancestors from Patty Brown, who is a fastidious genealogist.

One photo in particular stood out. This man was wearing a sleeveless shirt showing off his rather muscular arms. He was a good-looking fellow sporting a cute hat and a handlebar mustache. The photo was labelled “Mr. Darling, 1888,” but which Mr. Darling was he? Guessing that he was in his twenties, I got my first clue by determining it was likely that he would be in the third generation of Canadian Darlings since the photo was taken in 1888.

I’d stared at the face of this man many times before noticing the initials embroidered on his shirt. Since Mr. Darling’s photo was taken in Montreal, it seemed possible the M was for Montreal and the C was for Club, but the middle initial was the topic of a lot of debate among family members and friends. The reason is that when the photo was enlarged, one could see just the top edge of his pants with racquets imprinted on the fabric. Were these squash racquets or tennis racquets? That question has never been resolved.

The curlicue style of the letters made them difficult to decipher; the middle letter could be an S for squash or a T for tennis. At one point, I even thought it might be an L for Lacrosse or MSC for Montreal Skating and Curling. My Canadian cousin also suggested the M could be for McGill University. A search of their old yearbooks online revealed photos of many sporting clubs, but none wearing the same shirt as this Mr. Darling.

Then a miracle happened. Because of my interest in the family portrait that began its life as a Notman photo, I had developed a connection with Heather McNabb, Reference Archivist at the McCord Museum. I asked her if the Museum might have additional information about this mystery man. She did some sleuthing and found not one but two additional photos. They were all of the same man, in slightly different poses.

One of these included the initials “T. J.” with Mr. Darling’s name. Aha! These initials indicated he was probably Thomas John Darling, the fifth child of William Darling III and his wife, Mary Davidson Darling. Now that the identity of this man was very likely solved, additional information surfaced that confirmed this conclusion.

Something that made me a little uncertain whether it was indeed Thomas John Darling was that, with his hat on, the man looked to be in his twenties, but if family records were correct, he would have been 36 years old. With the hat on, he looks deceptively young, but the other two photos from the McCord depict him with his hat off, revealing a receding hairline that makes him look much more like the age we knew him to be.

The initials on his shirt were still a mystery. This was eventually solved by going to Newspapers.com and searching in the Montreal Gazette for articles mentioning “Mr. Darling” in 1888, the year the photos were taken. Much to my amazement, I found an article in which Mr. Thomas J. Darling was praised for his work with the Montreal Swimming Club!

This confirmed without any doubt that this photo was indeed of Thomas John Darling, who was very involved with the MSC: Montreal Swimming Club. We get a good feel for what kind of person this handsome athletic man was by reading what’s said about him in this article. He was not only an accomplished athlete, but also an effective manager much loved by his friends who presented him with a glowing commendation.

Other newspaper articles note that Thomas J. Darling had served in the position of manager for three years; he had been serving as treasurer for an unknown number of years prior to 1888 and continued to do so during the 1890s.

One additional newspaper article (Montreal Gazette, March 9, 1904) surfaced about how his life ended.

Our family has photos of William Darling II (May 15, 1796-January 19, 1871) and most of his children, but we had never seen photos of his grandson, Thomas John Darling (1852-March 8, 1904). Thomas lived out his life in Montreal as a bachelor. He is buried at the Mount Royal Cemetery alongside many other Darling relatives.

The Notman photos provided clues that led to discovering the identity of Thomas J. Darling, making him really come to life.

This is one mystery happily solved!