Which Grandmother is It Revisited
Three weeks ago I posted about a crayon portrait owned by Joan Klein in Which Grandmother is it? Joan wrote and said she's going to use DNA to locate other information and possibly images. DNA can help you connect to other relatives, and it's a good idea to ask about...
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Who’s Who in an Old Family Gathering Photo?
Last week's column explored some of the identification clues in this family gathering. Heidi Thibodeau thinks it depicts members of the Tibbetts and Hodgson family of Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire. Bessie Mabel Hodgdon, born in 1877, owned the picture, and it was handed down to her granddaughter (Heidi's first...
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Old Mystery Photos: ID Clues in a Family Gathering Picture
Heidi Thibodeau's cousin found this image in the papers of her grandmother (Heidi's great-grand aunt), Bessie Mabel Hodgdon Hoogerzeil. Bessie was born Jan. 27, 1877. Heidi thinks she might be in this photo. A caption on the reverse states the picture was taken by Sprague and Hathaway, July 6, 1890...
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Which Grandmother is It?
I own an old "crayon picture" and you might, too. They were extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th century. It's a photo and a piece of artwork. Photographers hired artists to charcoal these oversize pictures, which held a place of honor in a family home. Joan Klein...
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Adding Up the Clues in 3 Old Family Photos
Wanda Allison inherited photos of the McIntosh/Pearson families. Last week we looked at a tintype of this man, wearing Masonic regalia and posed with his wife. Relatives thought the couple could be John McIntosh (1810-1898) and Isabella Rutherford (1806-1894). The problem is the couple in this 1860s image is a...
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Three Clues that Identify an Old Photo
The clues add up differently in every photo. It's never just one thing that helps put a name with a face. In Pat Eiler's tintype the three clues are age, fashion and another picture. There is no mystery as to the identity of these three people. Pat knows they are...
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RootsTech 2016 Wrap-Up
More than 26,000 people attended this year's RootsTech conference, the largest US genealogy conference, held in Salt LakeCity and produced by FamilySearch. Your eyes aren't deceiving you: 26,000. That's a lot of genealogists. Three days of lectures, a full day of Innovator Summit presentations and an amazing exhibit...
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Old Photos in Print: A Collection of Tips
One of the first tips for finding images (photographs, engravings, and paintings) of your ancestors is to start at home and branch out from there. Those images could be hiding in plain sight on everything from passports to licenses. You're probably wondering when you can expect to find...
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Research Family Photographers in Old Newspapers
The name and address of a photo studio usually found on a card photograph contains clues to help you learn more about when and where a picture was taken. That information can narrow a time frame for a family photograph. While city directories are a standard resource for leaning more...
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King Family Photo Clues Found in a Newspaper
Last week's blog post featured three King family photos in Mary Roddy's collection. They lived in Amador, California and Douglas, Alaska. The photos proved that two branches of the family stayed in touch despite the distance. Alice Devlin King and her maid of honor Mary Jane Fields were more than...
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