Genealogical Clues in Old Photographs

Every picture tells a story. And every family has photographs. Unfortunately, they are usually buried in shoe boxes or albums--and most of your pictorial family treasures probably have no names, dates or places recorded on them. In these old pictures may be the clues you need to continue your family tree research.

Mother’s Day is a good time to visit not only your mother and mother-in-law, but also grandparents. As the family historian you should inquire about old photographs they have and try to obtain copies. You may have to sharpen your diplomatic skills to obtain them, but once you have negatives, copies can be made and shared with all family members.

To obtain a copy of a photograph which a relative will not part with, place the old photograph in front of a camera and take a picture of it. That will give you a negative from which can be made multiple, inexpensive prints. The simplest camera will do, though this kind of work is best done with a 35mm single lens reflex.

While large and professionally made photographs are usually treasured by family members, don’t overlook the value of lowly snapshots. Many are pictures of trivial things, but they also are recordings of a family’s unique adventures. I have a photograph of my maternal grandmother astride a Texas longhorn. It was taken at the Texas State Fair in the 1940s. At the time she was in her 70s--a smartly dressed lady with flair. And somewhat of a daredevil. This snapshot reflects that part of her personality.

Snapshots can reveal family members’ pride in certain possessions. Probably you will discover photographs of your ancestors with their horses, cows, tractors and automobiles. Ladies often posed in their best Sunday dresses and hats. Pay attention to the style of their handbags; it’s one way to date a photograph.

Photographs with houses in the background can provide important genealogical clues. One researcher tracked down her family in an unindexed 1910 census by checking the address of house which appeared in a family group snapshot taken about that time period.

Sharpen your skills of observation. Train your eye to see every detail in photographs. Cultivate a habit of curiosity about historical facts. This can be of immense help with undated photographs.

Knowledge of costumes and the history of photography also aids in dating old pictures. Learn about different customs. For example, many women who were widowed during the Civil War continued to wear the same style of that time--the full skirts, bordered with braid, with their hair parted in the center. You may find a photograph of your great-grandmother that actually dates from the 1890s, yet at first glance you would assume the time period to be 1865. Knowing about this fashion alerts you to the possibility that she was a Civil War veteran’s widow.

“What People Wore” by Douglas Gorsline, provides a visual history of dress from ancient times to the early 20th Century. Not limited to upper-class costumes, Gorsline provides some captivating drawings of the costumes Nebraska farmers, sod-house settlers, sourdoughs and cowboys probably wore. His book is especially helpful in identifying pictures taken between 1900 and 1925. There were drastic changes in American women’s fashions between 1905 and 1918.

Check your local library for the Gorsline book and others on costumes, and how to identify photographs.

If you frequent antique shops and second-hand stores you know how many boxes of old photographs wind up there--these images of someone’s ancestors, faces that once had names, forever doomed to remain nameless. Don’t let that happen to your family’s photographs.

Genealogists are as guilty as others in failing to identify and catalogue family photographs. And when we die our descendants are left with pictures of strange people and unknown places. Consequently, they are discarded and lost to later generations.