Graveside 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...
View DetailsCrowdsourcing 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...
View DetailsWhat Does It Take to Solve a Mystery?
Bet you're thinking this is a good question. Solving an old photo mystery relies on different things. It all depends on the picture but there are certain family facts that help. Denise Valentine submitted this 20th-century picture. She's unsure who's in the picture but she has some ideas. I...
View DetailsFoolin’ with the Past in Old Photos
At historical sites around the country, it's not unusual to see men and women dressed in fashions of the past. The same is true for parades and town anniversary celebrations. If you have a photo of a relative in historical garb, it can make you do a...
View DetailsLives Cut Short Premium
There's more to find in old family photos than just what your ancestors looked like. Here is an example of how to delve into old photos and uncover clues to your family's history.
View DetailsProud 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...
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Facebook and Family Photographs
I'm always looking for more family photos, trying to fill in the pictorial blanks in my family tree. There are a LOT of people in my genealogy that fall into that "blank" category. Searching for "new" family pictures means asking distant relatives and trolling the internet. There'ss one very popular...
View DetailsThree Techniques for Solving a Military Mystery
You know the expression, "There's something about a man in uniform." Well I can finish that phrase with "that's so mysterious." One of the most difficult photo mysteries to solve is a person in a uniform. There are a few reasons why that's true. First there were...
View DetailsDouble-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...
View Details5 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...
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