A Click Away: Eight Years of Photo Identification Clues
Every week I sit down to write a new blog post about picture mysteries. On this blog that archive goes back eight years. That's a lot of photo clues and picture facts! It's easy to use this blog as a free resource. Here's how...
Read MoreDonating a Piece of History
Now that Yvette LaGonterie knows that the mystery photo discovered in her grandparents' house doesn't show her family members, she asked me for advice on donating the image. The man in the family portrait LaGonterie found is Rev. George Frazier Miller, one of the founding members of the Niagara Movement...
Read MorePosting Photos Online
This week genealogists from all over are gathering in Salt Lake City to talk technology at RootsTech. Unfortunately, I won't be there this year, although I might check out some of the virtual offerings. I'm trying to finish research on a second volume of my Last Muster: Images of the...
Read MorePhoto DetectiveOnline and On the Road
I hope to see you this month in Boston; Burbank, Calif.; or Wellington, Kan. I'm always looking for photos to feature in this space and in the Photo Detective column of Family Tree Magazine, so I hope you'll stop by and say hello (and bring a mystery photo if you...
Read MorePhoto Sites: Read the Fine Print
Yesterday's New York Times featured an article, Guardians Of Their Smiles, on the uses and abuses of photo sites. In it, a woman had posted baby pictures to Flickr without using the privacy settings, and later discovered that someone had used her daughter's pictures on a social networking site in...
Read MorePhotos on the Web: Copyright Woes
If you've ever tried to copy a family photo at a store or photo lab and been denied due to copyright issues, there's an article you might be interested in. On July 19, the New York Times published an article about photos on Wikipedia, "Wikipedia May Be a Font of...
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Postmortem Images
Remember how last week I mentioned that this column would feature a "viewer discretion advised" image? The sight of a deceased person in a photo is the reason for the warning. Like it or not, our ancestors began photographing the dead members of their family in the early 1840s. If...
Read MoreMeet the Photo Detective, Online and at FGS
I'll be at the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference in Philadelphia Sept. 2-6, and I hope I'll see you there. You can visit with me in my booth, #304, in the conference exhibit hall. It's a great chance to chat with me about your family photos or just stop by...
Read MoreHow to Submit Your Mystery Photo to the Photo Detective
Do you have shoeboxes filled with unidentified family photographs? Let photo historian Maureen A. Taylor lend a hand.You can submit a mystery photograph for Taylor to analyze online in the Photo Detective blog or in Family Tree Magazine's print Photo Detective column.See the Photo Detective blog for examples...
Read MoreNew Discovery in Photo History
This story is so good I couldn't wait until next week to blog about it. The April 17 New York Times ran a story, "An Image is a Mystery for Photo Detectives." This is one mystery I wish I was actively working on. Turns out William Fox Talbot probably...
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