Old Photo Mysteries and Genetics
At the recent New England Regional Genealogical Conference (NERGC) I met Pat McHugh. She told me about a very interesting image in her family collection. The name of the couple is currently unknown. Their clothing and the studio setting suggests it was taken in the late...
Read More5 Brick Wall Busters for Old Mystery Photos
Give yourself a present this holiday season by taking time to solve one of your unidentified-photo mysteries. Here are five proven ways to break down that pictorial brick wall: 1. Broadcast your picture. Take it to family gatherings, post it on your social media pages and share it in Facebook...
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...
Read MoreMind-Bending Mystery Photo Revisted
Over a year ago I wrote about this headache-causing mystery photo owned by a husband and wife, Art and Pam Crawford, who claimed the couple pictured as relatives. The problem was that Art and Pam each identified this couple as different people. Are they members of the Jones family or...
Read MoreOne More Photo of Ancestors Goofing Around
A big thank you to Carol Jacobs Norwood! She sent me this 1937 photo of her father at age 16, clowning for the camera in a playpen, wearing a baby bonnet and holding a baby bottle. Carol thinks this picture was taken at her father's home in Gardenville, Bucks County...
Read MoreMapping the Places Your Old Photos Were Taken
There are so many layers to a photo identification and interpretation problem. A family photograph is a lot more than just figuring out who's in the image. Each photo tells a story. This image of billiard players outside a Mulhall, Okla., pool hall appeared in last week's Photo Detective Blog...
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Costumed Old-Photo Mystery
Costumed ancestors in photographs often cause their descendants to wonder about the significance of that head-to-toe attire. Cheryl Jackson has one such mystery. She thinks this man is John Hardy Jackson who lived in the Paragould, Green County, area of Arkansas from approximately 1896 to 1942. He's part of a...
Read MoreDaughters and Sons-in-law in an 1850s Photo
Jim TeVogt owns a copy of this gorgeous image, reported to be three of Horace W. Twichell's daughters and their husbands. A cousin told him that his photo was made from a glass negative in the Twichell family. Could this be:Eveline (born 25 May 1824) married in 1840 to Usual...
Read MoreA Multi-Mystery Historical Baby Photo
Jim Moses recently found himself with a perplexing family photo mystery. When going through a trunk from his great-grandfather Luther Abner Moses (1860-1905) , he found an intriguing photo. It's a wonderful photo of a baby laughing. Everything in the trunk is related to Abner, but this photo is a puzzle...
Read MoreA Piece of Connecticut History
Photo courtesy of Derby (CT) Public Library Could this woman be Nancy Freeman, widow of Roswell Freeman, who was one of Connecticut's "Black Governors"? That's the big question, and this query has a lot of pieces. Janet Woodruff, an archaeologist with the Archaeology Laboratory for African & African...
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