Identifying
The Big Picture Premium
Every picture tells a tale—sometimes you just have to tease it out. Here’s how my 10 best photo-identification tips helped solve your photo mysteries.
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Photo Detective: The Plot Thickens Premium
It’ll take more than just visual clues to learn the story that lies behind the scenes of this theatrical image.
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Calling the Shots Premium
Having trouble attaching names to the faces in your family portraits? Fill in the blanks with our step-by-step photo-identification guide and worksheet.
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Which Immigrant is It?
I've been asked to determine which wife is in a picture or which child, but this is the first inquiry that referred to an immigrant-ancestor mystery. Jeanette Bias told me that "she knows everything about her family," just not who's in this picture. It's a scan of a cousin's...
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Photo Detective: Playing Politics Premium
A tiny detail in your photo may reveal a relative's political views.
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Be Your Own Photo Detective Premium
Our expert photo sleuth reveals how she solved eight photographic mysteries—and how you can piece together your own picture puzzles.
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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: 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: The Story Behind the Picture Premium
"Was a formal wedding unusual for the 19th century?" Cora McDonnell asks about this wedding photograph of her grandfather's brother and his wife. In this case, the story surrounding the photograph is as fascinating as the image itself. Cora's grandfather, Otto Frederick Richter, born March 16, 1864, immigrated...
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Photo Detective: Family Resemblances Premium
How do you identify a family photograph if you don't even know what side of the family the image belongs to? The answer is to look for physical features that distinguish one side from the other. In Rita Werner's case, the striking resemblance between two women in her photograph collection...
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