Tackling an Albumful of Mystery Photos
Bobbi Borbas wrote back after I posted her unidentified group portrait to say that after looking at her family history, she still isn't sure who the folks are in her mystery image. Some photo mysteries take a great deal of time and patience to solve. I still think the case...
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Photos Handed Down in the Family
Raise your hand if you've discovered a cache of family photos you didn't know about after the death of a relative. I'm sure if I asked an audience of hundreds, few hands would remain down. You'd think there wouldn't be any surprise photos in my family, but no...
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Orphan Photos and Photo Sharing
Last week on the Today Show I mentioned DeadFred.com. It's a fun site for folks trying to reconnect with lost family photos or to post pictures if you want photos to lead the way to a reunion with lost family. It's a win-win either way. There are...
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Photo Detective Talks Roots on Today
This isn’t Maureen. I’m Diane from Family Tree Magazine’s Genealogy Insider blog—I'm dropping in to share the video of Maureen’s spots on NBC’s "Today" show this morning, giving tips on how to trace your roots. She answers viewer questions in the first spot with Al Roker, and talks about photo...
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Postmortem Images
Remember how last week I mentioned that this column would feature a "viewer discretion advised" image? The sight of a deceased person in a photo is the reason for the warning. Like it or not, our ancestors began photographing the dead members of their family in the early 1840s. If...
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Photo Detective: Maple Sugaring Photo Premium
No childhood in New England is complete without a sampling of maple sugar candy sold in the shape of maple leaves. While it resembles the syrup poured on pancakes and waffles, the candy is even sweeter and a New England tradition. This week, Joanne Gonsalves submitted a picture of what...
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Photo Detective: Posing with the Old Homestead Premium
Photo Detective Maureen A. Taylor examines photos taken in front of the family homestead.
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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: 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: Keeping the Peace Premium
Photographs entertain us with glimpses of the past and trigger long-lost memories, but in this case, one caused a minor family feud. Two of Lisa Wooldridge's aunts disagree with her about the man in this group portrait—is he the children's father or their grandfather? Wooldridge has compared these two...
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