Clues from Hats and Backgrounds
These four are dressed for an evening out. Everyday male attire in this period didn’t include silk top hats and shawl-collared vests, unless you were quite affluent. Sandra Guynn believes the man in the center of this photo is Charles Anthony Doyle (born 1867), and the women, his daughters (born...
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FGS Conference Roundup
Last week I attended the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference in Fort Wayne Indiana and saw lots of folks who told me they regularly read this blog. Thank you!! The content of this space is determined (in part) by the photos and comments you post to the Photo...
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Clues Your Old Photo Was Taken in Summer
Here in New England where winters are long, we embrace summer and often carry cameras to capture moments in the sunshine. When you think about picture-taking patterns in your family, don’t disregard the seasons. This week I’m revisiting some of my older columns to show you how to spot...
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How to Submit Photos for Free Analysis
Each week, I receive mail from folks hoping I'll feature their photographs in this blog. It's no secret that I love looking at your family photos, but identification is a collaborative effort. The more you can tell me about the picture, the better the odds of our identifying the people...
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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...
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Repairing 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...
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Humidity 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...
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Tracking 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...
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Look 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...
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Understanding 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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