Archives for Maureen A. Taylor
Photo Detective: Hunting for Clues Premium
"I'm full of hope you can help me figure out anything about this mystery man," writes Marjorie Osterhout. No one knows his identity, and his clothing is just part of the enigma. She wonders if this is a picture of Samuel Downs (who lived from 1831 to about...
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Photo Detective: Antique Shop Photo Premium
Have you ever bought a photo at an antiques shop because the caption led you to believe the subject might be a relative? Susie Vodopich did. She purchased this portrait of a woman identified as "Mrs. Stowe" in an Iowa shop. Vodopich hopes someone will recognize the woman and...
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Hiring a Conservator Premium
I love digital imaging. The technology certainly makes it easy to share pictures and improve the quality of damaged photos. As a former photographic curator, though, I can't ignore original pictures. If you have a family photo that's faded, rusted or broken, you can use photo-editing software to create a...
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Photo Detective: Same Name, Different Faces Premium
Vicky Hess' mother-in-law gave her several photographs tentatively identified as Catherine Johnston. But that name belonged to two women in Hess' family. Is the child in this tintype Catherine Clark Johnston (born in 1819) or her daughter, Catherine Johnston (born in 1857), who married Thomas Parker? Let's see how the...
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Photo Detective: Making Dates Premium
Questions from readers of this Identifying Family Photographs column range from "which wife is it?" to the more-general "who is it?" In the case of this photo, a date would go a long way to helping Kellee Eubanks-Stevenson determine the woman's name. Is it her great-great-grandmother...
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Photo Detective: Crayon Portrait
William Poe owns a number of identified pictures of his ancestors. He's even posted an illustrated family tree online. Yet, this double portrait remains a mystery. Poe believes the photo depicts John Poe (1785 to 1859) and Sarah Threet (1794 to 1861), but he'd like to confirm that identification. It's...
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The Best Way to Safely Label Photos Premium
Should you write on the back of photos? Learn how to identify people, places and events in photos using photo-safe techniques.
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Photo Detective: Funeral Portraits Premium
Family photograph collections contain a wonderful variety of pictures documenting all aspects of life and, in many cases, death. In the Elliott family for instance, this funeral photograph memorializes the death of an unidentified young girl. While it can be a startling experience to find postmortem or funeral images in...
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Photo Detective: Real-Photo Postcard Premium
Eighteen-year-old Peter Gordon of Middlesbrough, England, submitted this photo he found a box of his great-aunt's things. Gordon has a fair amount of information on his family members, but he needs a date for this picture to identify the sitter. When I look at any photo, I see it in...
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Photo Detective: Silhouettes Premium
Judi Fuller's curiosity led her to submit this image with a single question: "What is it?" A caption identifies this woman as Anna Upson (1809 to 1863), Fuller's fourth-great-grandmother, so it's not the person but the image we're investigating in this case. The desire for a lasting likeness...
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