A Picture Pile-up

I love unusual surnames. It’s probably because my last name and many of my ancestral surnames often end up on those top 10 lists of popular names.

Laurie Clement has a great chance to identify the folks in her unidentified image. She thinks this large family group shares the surname of Burkepile.

All she needs is a date and she’s on her way.

I think this could be an impromptu itinerant photo studio shot. The whole family is standing in front of a white backdrop that looks suspiciously like a sheet. Mom, Dad and seven children stare directly at the camera. There’s a single boy in the back row. Finding this family in the census should be possible.

The tight dress sleeves and hairstyles suggest a date of circa 1900. It’s a great picture of a family caught on the cusp of a new century.

A quick look at the 1900 federal census using HeritageQuest Online (available through many libraries) found families of Burkepiles living in Kansas, Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania. I didn’t find any obvious matches, but Laurie and her distant cousins are working on a solution.

My fingers are crossed!

Solve your family photo mysteries with these books by Maureen A. Taylor: