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...
Read MoreOld-Time Baby Pictures
Social media today is full of pictures of children and grandchildren, but posting historical, black-and-white baby pictures hasn't really caught on yet. Babies born 100 years ago are just as cute as the darlings posted today. Take this image for instance: Maria Baker submitted it and wants to...
Read MoreReligious Clues in Old Photos
A single photo tells a story of a person, place or event, but an album often tells the tale of an entire family. Katy Krause inherited a photo album. It all started with single question. Katy asked her father-in-law about his family history and said, "I wish I had a...
Read MoreOld Family Photos: Mystery Child, Part 2
Last week I shared Jacqueline Curry's 1910s mystery photo of a woman and a young child. The family identification didn't hold up. Several people commented that the tot could be a boy. I'm waiting for a bit more family information from Jacqueline to help answer that question, but it certainly...
Read MoreOld Family Photos: Mystery Child From Across the Pond
This week's mystery comes from a woman in the UK. I love the way the web connects us all. Jacqueline Curry found this photo in her grandmother's photo album: Look at the curls on that child! The woman is trying to get the child's attention and elicit a...
Read MoreThe Ring Brothers: Triplets in the 1850s
Multiple births aren't uncommon today, but they were rarer in the 19th century. Four years ago I wrote about Judy Linnebach's photo of an unidentified set of triplets. This week, it's the adorable Ring brothers. Image copyright: David Levy. Not to be used without permissionMeet Charles, Eleazer and Millard Ring...
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Boyish Charm in an Old, Unidentified Family Photo
Can a photograph help connect two families? Erin Garcia received this picture from a distant cousin. She thinks they're related through her great-great-grandmother Martha Ann (Robertson) Potterfield Murphy (born about 1835). Garcia hopes that these three boys are the children from Martha's second marriage to Nicholas...
Read MoreNorth of the Border Old-Photo Mystery
Jane Smith owns this lovely photo of a young girl and an older man. She hopes it depicts her great-grandfather Patrick Hughes, born in 1836 in County Down, Ireland. He died in 1899 in Toronto, Canada, after a successful career as a merchant. The picture was found in a...
Read MoreForeign Photo Mystery
This damaged image depicts one family line of Julie Townsend Gontarek's husband. Julie knows the image shows relatives in Poland, but not their identities. There are three possibilities: The Gontareks, Klamsky and Otrasek families all lived there. Before she can delve deeper, Julie wants to know when the picture was...
Read MoreA Photographic Link to the Underground Railroad?
The condition of this photo isn't unusual. The heavy acidic cardboard mount is very fragile. It's rare to find a photo of this type in perfect condition. Store a photo like this in an acid- and lignin-free folder made of heavyweight cardstock, so it's supported. If you've ever found a...
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