Stephen Mansfield: Retired Photographer and Family Historian

Stephen Mansfield: Photographer and Family Historian

Stephen Mansfield was a photographer for most of his working life and mainly in the field of journalism starting his career with his local paper, the Barrhead News and ending at The Scotsman newspaper.
Born in Newport on Tay in Fife the family moved from Broughty Ferry to Barrhead near Glasgow in the early sixties where Stephen studied at Barrhead Primary, Springhill Primary and the Barrhead High School.
After a brief dabble in architecture he realised photography was his true passion and after a short time as a photographers apprentice, an opportunity arose for a full time freelance with the Gazette Group of newspapers based in Paisley, an offer he gladly accepted. Later, his enthusiasm was noticed by the chief photographer of The Scotsman and he was offered 'day shifts' with the paper and later the newly formed Scotland on Sunday culminating with a staff position in the Glasgow office. In the 14 years as a local newspaper photographer, Stephen took thousands of pictures recording all the news and social events in Barrhead, Renfrewshire and Glasgow's South Side and still has most of the original negatives from those years. Now retired, he is devoting much of his time digitally scanning the images and uploading them to his web site with a chosen selection being published on his Facebook page at regular intervals.
Stephen is also the self appointed Mansfield family genealogist and has been adding to his family tree since he began researching in 2003. A wide geographical range his paternal ancestors decended from Devon while his maternal family began life as weavers in Ayrshire. Through Ancestry.com he has discovered and subsequently met previously unknown cousins in Wales and California.