Archives for Maureen A. Taylor
Photo Detective: researching Settings Premium
Most submitters to this column ask for help identifying or dating a picture, but occasionally a reader has different questions. Barb Groth knows this image depicts her grandmother's family. She even can date it: Since the baby on his mother's lap was born in 1907, the picture was taken...
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Photo Detective: 1860s women’s clothes Premium
Figure 1 Figure 2 This week let's look at two portraits of unidentified women taken between 1850 and 1865. In some periods, clothing styles changed quite dramatically from one decade to another. (Think of the period from 1965 to 1980, for instance.) In the 15 years depicted in...
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Photo Detective: Class Pictures Premium
School's out for summer, but the memories live on in the class pictures of your ancestors. This week, Eileen McFall asks for help in identifying students in this class portrait of the Holy Rosary School, Pittsburgh, Pa. Her goal is to place names with all the faces. Do you...
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Photo Detective: Picture Puzzle Premium
Identifying family photographs for this column has been a wonderful experience. Almost every day, someone invites me to look at a photograph in his or her collection, and we work together to solve the photo mystery. This partnership usually starts with an e-mail request similar to Nancy Mitchell's: "Can you...
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Photo Detective: Searching for Photos on the Web Premium
I have a friend who tantalizes me with her genealogical success stories. One of my favorites is about how she used a standard Web search engine to locate an ancestral photo on the family Web site of a distant and unknown cousin. Suddenly she had additional information on that line...
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Photo Detective: Get a Free Photo Analysis Premium
Do you have a photograph you've always wondered about—when it was taken and who's in it? Help is just a mouse click away. In this FamilyTreeMagazine.com Identifying Family Photographs column, I take on photo mysteries that readers like you send in. And here's the best part: It's free...
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Photo Detective: Piecing Together Postcards Premium
When our relatives had a paper photograph taken, they usually had their choice of formats. In Paula Wolek's case, her family chose to use a postcard for their portrait. This was less expensive than mounting the image on heavier card stock and it enabled the picture to be sent...
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Photo Detective: Grand Army of the Republic Image Premium
Front Back (detail) This portrait is a wonderful example of how family history is about putting all the pieces together. Elaine Clark submitted this picture because "it has been giving her fits." Almost forgotten, it once had a beautiful frame and, according to Elaine's elderly mother, hung...
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Photo Detective: Unraveling the Past Premium
This week, while I continue to work on some challenging submissions from readers, I thought I'd tell you about a picture puzzle of my own. I'm always on the lookout for unusual photographs or those that fall into the specific categories I collect. But sometimes a photo that doesn't fit...
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Photo Detective: More Than Meets the Eye Premium
In each column, I try to focus on one aspect of identification to help you understand the process of unpuzzling your pictures. Sometimes it's possible to put a name with a face, and sometimes it's not—there might be missing genealogical information or insufficient photographic evidence to compare to known...
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