This is a replica set of pages derived from the material supplied to us many years ago by Peter Matthews, whose family lived in Sea View and St Helens. Many of the photographs come from the hand of his great-uncle, Henry Edward Matthews, a keen amateur photographer. We have augmented these with copies of photographs from two albums donated to us in 2023 by Lynne Smith via Jon Matthews (who is not related to this family).
Flickr albums of Matthews family and friends can be found using these links : (note that the majority of the subjects in these albums are unidentified - if you can identify any, let us know!)
Matthews Carte de Visite album
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Peter Matthews wrote this in 2011 : with comments from IWFHS in 2023
Welcome to my web page about the Matthews family who originated from the Isle of Wight, England. The earliest parish records show Matthews living near to Newtown and being baptised at Shalfleet, they then moved to Seaview in the parish of St Helens Church. The St Helens graveyard contains a large number of Matthews graves running from the early 1800s on up to the present day.
It was most fortunate that my Great Uncle Henry Matthews of Seaview born in 1849 was a keen photographer and many of his photographs exist today. Henry is sitting in the car above on the RHS. The top photograph is an example of the work of Henry Matthews and is the Matthews Bakery established in 1805 and was taken about 1870, the Matthews lived next door to the shop and the bakery is at the back through the side passage. The property was built by the Caws family for the Matthews about 1800 and can still be seen in Seaview today. The shop has been converted to a separate self contained house. Another Cousin was "F. J. Matthews and Sons" Photographer of St Johns Road Ryde who also took a number of family photographs.
I have included a link * to a comprehensive Family Tree of the Matthews Family from Seaview which was generated from my Family History Program. I have also included another link to a set of photographs of the Matthews some of which originated back in the early days of photography.
* nb this link goes to the Internet Wayback machine with a copy of Peter's website from 2011. Navigate from the home page to the family tree link. Many links in the Wayback machine images are now obsolete.
I have been collecting Family Photographs over a number of years, some going as far back as the 1860s. A big thank you to all of you who have contacted me and contributed to my photograph archive and the Family Tree.