A Family Portrait Photo Mystery
Lauren Hamilton submitted this photo with a few questions, but as soon as I saw it I thought, "uh oh, this might not be who Lauren and her cousin think it is."The cousins' great-great-grandfather John McCauley was a Mennonite minister in Ontario, and later an Evangelical minister in Iowa...
Read MoreA Southern Photo Mystery
The story of a photograph is so much more than its simple details. This is a carte de visite (CDV) image. The mounted size of a CDV is 2.125 x 3.5 inches. The slight oval shadow on this picture signifies it was once in an album...
Read MoreFathers and Sons from Readers
Last week I wrote about two famous fathers and asked you to submit photos of fathers and sons in your family album. Thank you very much for sending in your photos!Geraldine Rudloff emailed this photograph of her immigrant ancestor Hans Christian S. Hegsted holding one of his...
Read MoreFamous Fathers: Happy Father’s Day
Father's Day wasn't official until 1966, when President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation making it the third Sunday in June. President Richard Nixon made it a permanent holiday in 1972. Other presidents wanted to designate a day to honor fathers. President's Woodrow Wilson and Calvin...
Read MorePart 2 of an Italian Photo Mystery
Last week I introduced Eileen Poulin's mysterious photos on tin and showed you one of the two images of her Italian relatives. Poulin's mother left her the pair with a note regarding the identity of the individuals in the photos—but the details are confusing: On the paper with the above...
Read MoreMind-Bending Photo Mystery: Part 2
Last week I wrote about Pam and Art Crawford's family photo dilemma. With both the Crawford and Jones families claiming this couple as their relatives, it's a pixel puzzle. This week I'm tackling the costume clues in the image. Men's ties and collars can help pinpoint a date...
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Mind-Bending Photo Mystery
Isn't this a nice picture? It seems so innocuous. Yet this picture is BIG photo mystery that has a couple puzzled: I met Pam and Art Crawford at last month's RootsTech conference. Using my iPad as a voice recorder, I interviewed them about this picture. You can listen...
Read MoreTurn-of-the-Century Family Photos
Terry Graham's mother showed him a few unidentified photographs and now he's using the power of the web to try to identify them. He's posted them on his Ancestry.com family tree so that family members can comment on them. He thinks the mother's maiden name could be...
Read MoreMore on Backyard Snapshots
Last week I focused on the details in the background of this backyard snapshot of Francis (Frank) Q. Donnelly. It's a great picture of a man taken in the first half of the 20th century. His relative, Dennis Rodgers, has a lot of information about him.Frank Donnelly (1879-1940) was...
Read MoreBackyard Snapshots
Studio portraits are lovely and very formal, but to find signs of everyday life, there's nothing like a snapshot. Ever since George Eastman introduced the amateur camera in the late 1880s, our ancestors have taken informal pictures. Dennis Rodgers sent in this picture of a known relative—his great-uncle...
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