Archives for Maureen A. Taylor

Evaluating Video Storage Methods Premium

Spotlight on Video, CD & DVD Videotape is a type of magnetic tape that records images on metal oxide-coated polyester tape. Each time you play the tape, the VCR wears away at the metal oxides and degrades the images. Dirt adds to the problem. You should look for several...

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Weather Timeline Premium

These are some of the weather-related events that changed your ancestors' lives. 1588 England triumphs over the Spanish Armada due in part to high winds, and becomes a 16th-century superpower 1747-48 Many areas of the United States experience their highest recorded snowfall 1750 Benjamin Franklin publishes a proposal for an...

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Photo Detective: Maple Sugaring Photo Premium

No childhood in New England is complete without a sampling of maple sugar candy sold in the shape of maple leaves. While it resembles the syrup poured on pancakes and waffles, the candy is even sweeter and a New England tradition. This week, Joanne Gonsalves submitted a picture of what...

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Photo Detective: Posing with the Old Homestead Premium

Photo Detective Maureen A. Taylor examines photos taken in front of the family homestead.

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Photo Detective: Farm Photo Premium

Janet Reese doesn't know who the older couple in front of this house is, but she's hoping someone will recognize them. She found the picture in her grandmother's possessions, but knows it didn't belong to her grandmother's family for a simple reason—they took care of their images. This portrait...

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Photo Detective: Auto Photos Premium

If your family owned an automobile in the late 19th to early 20th century, then you might have a picture of relatives sitting in it. Americans' obsession with cars grew rapidly. In 1900, there were only 10,000 automobiles in the United States; that number grew to half a million...

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Photo Detective: Keeping the Peace Premium

Photographs entertain us with glimpses of the past and trigger long-lost memories, but in this case, one caused a minor family feud. Two of Lisa Wooldridge's aunts disagree with her about the man in this group portrait—is he the children's father or their grandfather? Wooldridge has compared these two...

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Photo Detective: Digital Photo Preservation Premium

This week, instead of identifying one of the many photographs submitted to this column, I thought I'd write about learning how to prevent losing your valuable digital images. Yes, I am supposed to know better, but it takes time to learn how to use all the tools at our disposal...

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