Identifying Children in Photos
The imprint of photographer S. Adamkiewicz appears on this photo of two towheaded boys, but questions still mount up for owner Annette Gathright and led her to post the photo on the Photo Detective Forum. Who are the boys and when did they pose for this darling picture? Gathright’s family...
Read MoreRepairing Damaged Photos
In the Photo Detective Forum, a member of the Ellis family asked about her photo that was damaged from being stored in a damp garage. Family Tree Magazine managing editor Diane Haddad suggested using photo editing software and contacting a professional conservator. That's excellent advice. While I haven't seen the...
Read MoreHumidity and Photos
As I sit in my air-conditioned home office, it's hot and humid outside. The combination of these two weather Hs are bad for family photos. Resin-coated color images tend to stick together when it's humid. The H and H also creates the perfect environment for mold to grow on your...
Read MoreTracking Down a Famous Relative
Attached to the inside velvet of this cased photo is a cryptic note, “may be great-grandfather Swale author of Geometric Amusements.” It’s a mystery to the photo's owner, Susan Wellington, who can’t imagine how Swale might be related to her. Is this a family photo or a 19th-century collectible...
Read MoreLook to the Past (Columns)
If you're new to this blog you probably aren't aware of the lengthy archive of past "Identifying Family Photographs" columns available on the Family Tree Magazine Web site—just click on the Photo Detective Archive link on the left of this page. You can read about submitting your own picures by...
Read MoreUnderstanding a Traveling Photographer
In this Photo Detective article, Maureen Taylor delves into the mysteries of an unknown photographer and when the photo in question might have been taken.
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It’s Confession Time: Developing Old Film
Kelly posted a question to the Forum in February about developing old film.She found a camera with film in it from the 1960s and her camera shop sent it out for processing. It's confession time. This is your chance to sound-off in the Forum about film you've forgotten to...
Read MorePorcelain Complexion (Literally!)
I own a pillow case with a photograph of my grandmother taken in about 1910. You’re probably thinking it’s an unusual picture format, but it’s actually not. In the early days of photography, daguerreotype buttons and jewelry were common. Once paper prints and light-sensitive chemicals became readily available, photographers could...
Read MoreBlanket Backdrop Identified!
Thank you to everyone who wrote in about the beautiful bed covering featured in my April columns. (If you missed reading them, they're posted below.) My public library is a wonderful place for books, but the staff members are also great resources. One of the circulation librarians...
Read MoreChurch Clues
Jan Oliver thinks this picture of an older man and a younger woman shows her great-grandfather John Henry Smith (born 1861) and his daughter Alice (life dates 1888 to 1962). Oliver knows Smith was alive in 1921, but she can’t find mention of him after that year. Will this photo...
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