Internet Tag: Happy Baby Photo
I love the blogosphere! This week the sharp-eyed Kathryn M. Doyle of the California Genealogical Society sent me a posting she spotted on the Genealogue blog about a baby photo. Chris (the Genealogue) threw out a comment that he'd love to see what I'd say about this smiling...
Read MoreBaby Photos
In honor of Women’s History Month, I’ve decided to run another picture of a woman and baby—but this time only part of the woman appears in the picture. I’ve taken to categorizing images like this as “hidden mothers.” There's no way to say for certain the arm extending...
Read MoreMulti-generational Portraits
There's something special about seeing a grandmother and grandchild posed together in a photograph. This little tyke is the spitting image of her grandma. Emma Dempster-Greenbaum owns this picture. It's labeled "Grandmother & Sarah Ann." The photographer was J.C. Cone and Sons of Farmington. Emma dated...
Read MoreBackgrounds in Old Photos
In mid-December, I asked readers to submit photos with interesting backgrounds. Thank you for images. I'm conducting an informal study of the different types of backgrounds in photos—it's a vastly understudied area of photo history. Here's an overview:In the 1840s and 1850s daguerreotypists really didn't use backgrounds. Their focus was...
Read MoreMourning Photograph?
This week's picture comes from the Photo Detective Forum. This is used by folks who want their pictures analyzed for this column, but you can also post a photo-related question. Alissa Booth wrote that someone crossed out the original caption, C.C. Smock's wife and wrote Mother. A little girl...
Read MoreCrayon-Enhanced Portrait of a Child
Last week I wrote about Carolanne’s portraits of her relatives Laura Gilman and her husband James Wyatt Weed. Here’s a third, unidentified, picture. Behind each picture is a story, and Caroleann's three portraits are no different. Photo identification techniques can tell you when a person sat for a picture, but...
Read MoreSign up for the Family Tree Newsletter
Plus, you'll receive our 10 Essential Genealogy Research Forms PDF as a special thank you!
Get Your Free Genealogy Forms
"*" indicates required fields
Identifying People in Two 1890s Photos
This week two photos have tentative identifications, but in both cases, the time frame of the image and the life dates for the individuals don’t compute. Thomas Wetten suspects the girl in this portrait below is his great-grandmother Margaret Ellen Atkinson, born June 1870 in Durham, England. &...
Read MorePhotos of Summer
Two weeks ago I asked readers to submit their summer photos. I received a wide variety of mystery photos and one that fit my request. Sandi Gill e-mailed this lovely photo of a group of children, one of whom is her mother. Even though Gill doesn't know the names of...
Read MoreIdentifying Children in Photos
The imprint of photographer S. Adamkiewicz appears on this photo of two towheaded boys, but questions still mount up for owner Annette Gathright and led her to post the photo on the Photo Detective Forum. Who are the boys and when did they pose for this darling picture? Gathright’s family...
Read MoreYou’re Kidding
Kathy Culbert owns this carte de visite captioned "Dora and Frank" and is having trouble dating it. Children's clothing can be confusing. Mothers often dressed boys like girls until they were school age, but you can tell the difference by their hair. Girls had center parts; boys had side parts...
Read More