The 22 February 1911 wedding photo

I am slowly working to personally confirm the people in the photo. Sometimes this is off photographs I have seen, and sometimes using face-matching technology with other archival photos (ideally their passport photos). Children’s faces are hard to match, but once people reach adulthood the face matching technology works much better.

What is needed is more comparison photos. For instance, I have searched for photos of Walter Briffa, but found none. He must remain unconfirmed.

Number 28 was originally given as Giulia (Pullicino) Briffa, however it turns out this person is a 99.5% face match for Emily (Pace) Samut, a woman very close in age. On finding Guilia’s passport photo she was a 98.8% match for 27, the woman to Emily’s immediate left. Indeed you can see how much guesswork is involved, Guilia’s passport photo is also a weak match for 15 at 89%, who is obviously a much younger woman. Sometimes weaker matches can suggest some genetic similarity, but proceed with caution. Face recognition is ideally used with other confirmatory processes.

A note on someone who is missing or unidentified in this photo. I was expecting to see Alfred John Pullicino, Philip’s younger brother (b.1891). He applied for a passport in January 1911, although as my father pointed out, he did not necessarily need to use the passport he applied for in January until a later time.