Archives for Maureen A. Taylor
Photo Detective: Preservation Pointers Premium
I'd planned to write about photo identification this week, but then I went to get my eyes examined. At the receptionist's counter, I saw a sign that read, "Do you recognize any of the members of this class of 1949?" Someone had used tape to attach pictures of...
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Photo Detective: Help Identify This Photo Premium
Here's a chance for all you budding photo detectives to help out a fellow genealogist. Paul Murphy sent me this photograph of a girl holding a copy of a 19th-century children's magazine, The Nickell. Here's what we know and what we'd like to find out. What we know: The Nickell...
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Photo Detective: Searching for a Mother Premium
A while ago, Kelly Foster wrote with a very personal request. Her 96-year-old grandfather wanted to know if a particular photograph was of his mother. He never knew her; she died when he was a baby. Now Kelly says her family is "consumed" with trying to find a...
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Photo Detective: Baby Pictures Premium
Dianne Beetler is trying to determine if these two baby pictures were taken of the same child at different times or of two different children. Identifying photographs of individuals taken at various points in their lives is one of the challenges of photo identification. You can do this by comparing...
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Photo Detective: Cased Image of Children Premium
Daguerrotype Case (front and back) "Maybe you could remind people to cultivate memories from old people," suggested Dave and Mary Hughes, who were hoping for identification of this double portrait of two young children. It belonged to Dave's grandmother, Jane Marie Batterson, born in 1888. In 1970...
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Photo Detective: Tell a Story Premium
This charming photograph of a young girl shows how even a simple picture can tell a story when you simply research its content. You can turn any of the portraits in your collection into a tale worth telling by starting with the basics-photographer, type of image, props, clothing and the...
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Photo Detective: Candid Mystery Premium
Discovering clues in a candid of photo of family fun.
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Photo Detective: Two of a Kind Premium
Robert Niles owns two identical tintypes mounted in paper folders. He thinks he knows the identity of all the individuals but isn't sure. He also wants to know how a copy was made of the original tintype. Tintypes are an American invention, first patented by Hamilton Lamphere Smith of...
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Photo Detective: The Plane Truth Premium
It's no mystery who posed for this portrait. The couple on the left are Jacqui Marcella's grandparents Arthur and Theresa Henschel. What she can't figure out is when it was taken, where they were at the time and why they're posed in front of an airplane. This picture proves genealogy...
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Photo Detective: Hand-Colored Images Premium
As early as 1841, photographers experimented with adding color to their images. As much as the popular press praised the first photographs, people criticized the absence of color. So photographers sought ways to increase the realism of their images, and they used colored powders, watercolors, oil paints, crayons and charcoal...
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