Photo Detective: Which Husband? Premium
Doris Jordan is trying to identify a pair of portraits in her possession. She believes this picture to be her great-great-grandmother Mary Jane Colburn who was born in Alabama in 1846. The companion portrait is likely to be either her first or second husband. In 1873 Mrs. Colburn's first husband...
Read MorePhoto Detective: Unknown Subject Premium
This week's submission is a photograph of an unknown woman. The owner of the image does not know who the person is or when it was taken. The first step in identifying this picture is to establish what type of image it is so that a tentative date can be...
Read MorePhoto Detective: Year-Long Mystery Premium
It's hard to believe that a year has passed since this column debuted last February. Thank you for submitting your unidentified photographs. Every other week, I review the entire file of submissions and select one to feature in a column. Some of you are extremely patient, having waited months...
Read MorePhoto Detective: Snooping for Pictures Premium
When you visit your relatives, do you pay attention to the photographs they have on display? If you don't, you could miss a vital genealogical clue. Recently, when visiting a distant cousin, I asked if she owned any photographs. She said no and led me to a seat in...
Read MorePhoto Detective: First or Second Marriage? Premium
Anne Sadrakula submitted this photograph of her great-grandmother Bridget White (born circa 1865) posed with one of her two husbands. Is the gentleman Maurice Keane who married Bridget in 1883 or from her second marriage in 1901? This carefully arranged photograph of the young couple contains a series of...
Read MorePhoto Detective: Photo Riddles Premium
What's old, made of glass and found in a photographic case? If you answered "an ambrotype," congratulate yourself on your knowledge of photo history. Unlike the innovative daguerreotype and the widely popular tintype, ambrotypes are misunderstood and often confused with other cased photographs. It's time to give...
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Photo Detective: What a Doll Premium
This photograph of two girls belonged to LaVonne Murray's great-grandparents Maitland Willits House and Louise Anna Gonion. The younger girl bears a resemblance to another relative, Lydia Lymburner (1867-1947); Murray wonders if the girl could be Penelope Lymburner (1897-1980), Lydia's niece. Assigning a date to this photograph would allow Murray...
Read MorePhoto Detective: Clues to Connections Premium
Figure 1 Figure 2 Rosemary U'Ren inherited a velvet album of photographs that her grandmother rescued from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. While her grandmother obviously thought these images important enough to save, no one took time to identify the people in the album. Rosemary is now...
Read MorePhoto Detective: Cartes de Visite Premium
In the 19th century, small photographs called cartes de visite served a variety of purposes from business advertisements to family portraits. They were even sold in sets that both children and adults collected by subject. In addition to pictures of ordinary people, cartes de visite featured royalty, Civil War generals...
Read MorePhoto Detective: Dead Men Tell No Tales Premium
Figure 1 Figure 2 After Joe Sanchez's father died, he found these two post-mortem photographs in his belongings. These photographs are a mystery; all Joe knows is that his father was born in Durango, Mexico, in 1913. At first, it seems unlikely that either of these images will yield...
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