A Welsh woman is unearthing her Galloway roots – thanks to a remarkable collection of old postcards.
Karen Sawyer is the great-great-great-granddaughter of trailblazing Victorian photographer William Hunter who had a studio in Newton Stewart.
Hunter pioneered turning the beautiful Galloway scenes he captured into postcard photographs, many of which survive in private collections to this day.
Karen, from Carmarthenshire in south-west Wales, has already “rescued” much of her forefather’s work and hopes to unearth more with the help of local people.
Meantime, as a first step, she will be curating an exhibition of Hunter’s postcards as part of Doors Open Days on September 4-5.
Karen, 52 – by strange quirk of fate a photographer herself – told the News: “I am really excited – I have never been to Galloway before.
“But having seen the postcards I already feel as if I have a connection with the place.
“My great-great-great-grandfather’s work currently exists mostly as postcard photographs and “cartes-de-visite”.
“All of these I have been collecting, scanning and digitising.
“My aim is to catalogue his work, which is of great historical and cultural importance, before it is lost.“
Hunter, who was born in Girvan in 1838, had a portrait studio at 14-18 Victoria Street until his death in 1916.
Now, more than a century after her ancestor’s death, Karen is on a mission to trace and record as many images as she can.
She said: “I would like to liberate his work from antiques auctions so that everyone can have access to it.
“The first step will be the exhibition in Newton Stewart and Creetown museums on September 4-5.
“I am curating this as part of Doors Open Days and am currently running a crowdfunding campaign to help pay for it.”
Karen, a second year PhD genealogy student with the University of Strathclyde, is determined to make Hunter’s achievements more widely known.
She added: “Going forward, there will be a website where all these images can be preserved.
“They will available for the whole world to see and use.
“That would be a wonderful genealogical resource for the people of Galloway and their descendants.”
Anyone wishing to help Karen with her work can visit https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/help-celebrate-my-scottish-ancestors-photography
Her daughter Eocha Pereczes, and mum Glenys Sawyer are assisting her track down more of William Hunter’s postcards.
