A Timeline of Portraits
Candace LaPrade send in several images of one of her ancestors. She's very lucky to have more than one picture of this man! When you have multiple pictures of the same person, try to put them in chronological order using their attire and age as a guide. Peter...
Read MoreTwentieth-Century Mustache Mania
From the White House to Hollywood, mustaches of the 20th century were iconic and considered manly. The underlying message was that strong men wore facial hair. Teddy Roosevelt to Clark Gable and beyond, the presence of a mustache conveyed a sense of strength in personality and actions. Each of these...
Read MoreBeards and Mustaches: Identifying Facial Hair Styles in Old Photos
Here is a quick overview of the history of facial hairstyles in the United States. From frontier beards to waxed mustaches, here’s what you need to know to identify key clues in your ancestors' facial hair.
Read MoreGraveside Clues in an Old Photo
Our family photo collections are full of pictures of happy occasions, such as weddings, parties and kids having fun. But sometimes the camera was used to document a sorrowful family history moment. Pam Fisher owns this graveside group portrait from the Shepardson family. She thinks it was taken in southern...
Read MoreCrowdsourcing an Identity in an Old Vacation Picture
Alex Jenner of Ipswich, Suffolk, England, bought this photo at a "boot sale." He's fascinated by it and he'd like our help figuring out who posed. Crowdsourcing is a way of spreading information on the internet and trying to find answers through the viral qualities of the web. It...
Read More6 Vintage Photos of Fantastic Facial Hair Premium
Leave the clippers on the shelf. For No-Shave November, we take a look back at some of our ancestor's best facial hair.
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Proud Mamas in Old Photos: Finding the Clues
What's the first thing you see when you look at this picture? My eye immediately gravitates to the woman and her slight smile. She's one proud Mama seated with her two children and her husband. Your eye might be drawn to the wicker chairs...
Read MoreDouble-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...
Read More5 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...
Read MoreOld 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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