Have you ever wondering who was staring back at you in a old photographs or perhaps your missing a date on a photograph from an old postcard. Some time ago, I acquired a 19th century family photo album. I wondered if there would be a way to determine who was in those photos. Unlocking the Secrets in Old Photographs by Karen Frisch-Ripley was very instrumental in helping me identify at least some of those photos.
Karen’s step by step approach is easy to follow. A first step in the process is to identify which family the photo might belong to. Perhaps there are some family resemblences. For my 19th centutry photo album identification, I already knew the family. Knowing the genealogical details of the family (spouses, children and other extended family) is a must. For most readers of this blog, pull out your family group sheets.
One of the best keys I used was being able to date the photograph. Various clues abound which aid in the dating process. What type of photograph is it (tin type, cabinet card or something else)? When was the photographers studio in existence. Karen’s advice in these areas specifically helped me date some of my photos and led to a cabinet card of a six month old baby being identified.
As an added bonus Karen describes how to restore and care for old photographs, along with methods to locate additional old family photographs.
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The Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc. will be having a free genealogy luecture on September 22, 2012. The lecture will be held at the Stamford Historical Society located at 1508 High Ridge Road, Stamford, Connecticut. Registration begins at 10:00am and the lecture starts at 10:30am.
Nora Gavin will be presenting “Research with Probate Records”. Nora is a professional genealogist. She specializes in Connecticut, New York and Irish Research. A pdf brochure about the lecture is available on the societies website.
This Follow Friday’s pick is Genea-Musings . Genea-Musings is a large genealogy blog run by Randy Seaver which has been around for quite some time. I make it a point to check Genea-Musings daily to see what new topics have come up.
There are thousands of past blog posts and over 200 labels or categories. There is never a shortage of genealogy materials to read. According to the statistics published on the website, the site has had more than 1 million page views since 2008.
For those of you who may have Dorman, Bertrand, Laurie and/or Banks ancestors from Connecticut, there is a little known published book which might be helpful in your research. The book is called “One Dorman family of Connecticut” and was written and published by Lillian R. Malone & Dorothy M. Stroble in 1991. The book contains the ancestry of the authors. Major lines of the authors include Bertrand, Laurie and Banks.
A copy of this book was donated to the Connecticut State Library and is available in the Genealogy Room there. I also have a copy of the book and am willing to do a lookup for my readers. If you are interested in having me lookup an ancestor in the book, please leave a reply to this blog post with names, dates and any other information which you think would be helpful in identifying the individual you’re looking for.
