Photos
Three Techniques for Solving a Military Mystery
You know the expression, "There's something about a man in uniform." Well I can finish that phrase with "that's so mysterious." One of the most difficult photo mysteries to solve is a person in a uniform. There are a few reasons why that's true. First there were...
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Double-Checking Photo Clues to Solve a Mystery
James Dinan and his wife solved their photo mystery using the resources of the Photo Detective blog archive. You can access it using the navigation on the left. Here's the photo they submitted:It's a group of men gathered for an outing. They call themselves The Fatal Nine Spot, and the...
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5 Clues to Solve an Old-Photo Mystery
Every old mystery photo is full of clues if you know where to look. Let's break this one down into five steps: 1. Consider the provenance.Phyllis Reakes' first cousin gave her this photograph. Phyllis knows the man sitting on the far right is her great-grandfather, born in 1839. That...
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Old Mystery-Photo Success Story: Six Years Later
So how long does it take to identify an old mystery photo? Sometimes it happens quickly, sometimes not. It all depends on how many facts you have about a photo and if you can rule out possible subjects. In Michael Boyce's case, it took six years. He's determined to bring...
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Identifying Mystery Photos in an Old Family Album
A family photo album opens the door to new genealogy discoveries, but reading the clues in an album isn't always easy. It often comes down to what you know about your family and who's depicted on each album page. The most important people to the person who laid out the...
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Twentieth-Century Childhood Fashion
Kyndahl Carlson's aunt is writing down all the family stories she can remember. A family photo album in a cousin's collection may contain key details to add to those tales. The album may have belonged to the cousin's grandmother, Ruth Scrivner Laughter. The photos are laid out with the elders...
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Spotting Light-Eyed Ancestors in Old Family Photos
Paul Newman, Frank Sinatra, Cameron Diaz, Daniel Craig and other Hollywood actors and actresses draw attention with their variously shaded blue eyes. Eye color is easy to spot in contemporary color pictures, but how can you tell if you inherited your baby blues from your maternal or paternal great-grandparent? The...
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Organize Your Digital Photos Like the Pros With a DAM Workflow Premium
Find out how a digital asset management (DAM) workflow makes it easy to organize and back up your family photos.
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Finding Your Ancestors’ Graduation Photos
This time of year makes me think about graduations. I live near two universities and often see graduates in cap and gowns smiling for pictures. Our ancestors also posed for school pictures, whether they were graduating from eighth grade, a trade school, high school or a college/university. In the mid-19th...
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Head-to-Toe 1920s Wedding Fashion
June is a popular month for weddings, so Diane Smith's submission of a mystery photo is a perfect way to start off the summer bridal season. Her maternal great-grandmother owned this picture. Could this be a picture of Diane's great-grandfather's parents, who married in Poland in 1876? Diane's in for...
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