The year was 1915.

How do I know? … because baby Norman was on his mother’s lap in the photo.

Baby Norman was born, and died, in 1915.

A little over ten years ago a distant cousin recognised the family I was researching on Ancestry, and reached out with information. I am forever indebted to her because she shared a photo I had never seen.

This is my family.

My grandparents, Alfred and Edith Berg, are on the far right of the photo. Their baby, and the youngest family member, Norman, is on my grandmother’s lap. Norman was born on the 14 April 1915. The most senior family member is on the far left and holds Norman’s two-year-old sister, Alice, on his lap.

Situated between the youngest and oldest family members are the parents and siblings of Edith Berg. The seating arrangement may have been coincidental, or it may hold a key to possible relationships within the family. The photo appears to have been taken professionally, so would the photographer not have noticed a slight gap between those on the left, and those on the far right? My great-grandmother is situated next to, but slightly apart from her daughter, Edith.

When Edith Atkinson married Alfred Berg in Sydney on the 4 May, 1912, Edith was nineteen years old and Alfred was thirty three, according to their marriage certificate. Alfred’s Swedish birth registration said otherwise. He turned thirty five in April, one month earlier than the marriage ceremony.

Was the age difference between Alfred Berg and their teenage daughter an issue for Edith’s parents? Did Alfred’s choice not to enlist in the war bother his in-laws? After all, their son and two of Edith’s cousins had enlisted. Was Alfred’s strong Swedish accent a cause for concern?

Old photos can provide a wealth of information for the family historian or genealogist. And sometimes they provoke questions that beg to be answered.

So, was it a coincidence that the Bergs were seated on the far right of the photo, or not?

We are left to ponder …