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THE STORY OF A FAMILY IN FRANCE OVER THREE CENTURIES

There are only three individuals in the five generations of Marie Aymard’s family of whom it has been possible (so far) to find any sort of visual depiction: her great-great-grandson, Charles Martial Allemand Lavigerie (1825-1892), his sister, Louise Lavigerie Kiener (1832-1906), and their third cousin, Edouard Dinochau (1823-1871).

Charles Martial, Cardinal of Algiers, was by the end of his life one of the most famous people in the world, commemorated in thousands of photographs, prints, paintings and sculptures. The only photograph of Louise is a blur; she was there in the panorama of Charles Martial’s obsequies in 1892. Edouard Dinochau, their third cousin, worked in an inexpensive restaurant on the Rue Bréda in Paris that was much frequented by photographers; he is depicted in a sketch, illustrating a memoir of Bohemian life in 1860.

All the family photographs here are from the remarkable collection of photographs of the Order founded by Charles Martial, the Archives de la Société des Missionnaires d'Afrique, Via Aurelia, Rome.

The collection includes an undated photograph taken by Louise, of her brother with five companions, in the oasis of Biskra.