Old Family Photos
Finding old family photos of your ancestors is always a thrill, but often, they are elusive. Maybe you have photographs of your ancestors, but they are unlabeled! (Sigh...) Who is actually in THAT photo?
You need strategies to understand and identify those unidentified individuals in your ancestors' photographs. Learn about the five different types of photographs, the step by step process of identifying the individuals and important clues that can be found within your family photos.
New to working with old family photos? I suggest you start with 4 Tips to Identify Unknown Family Photographs.
Links to get started exploring our ancestors' photographs:
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Why You Should Save & Share Family Photos
Save family photos to convey chapters of our family history and serve as passports to our family memories and connections. I am so excited to have Rachel LaCour Niesen of Save Family Photos as guest poster today! Welcome, Rachel! Rachel is on a mission to save family stories, one photo at a time. Once you learn more about Rachel and her website SaveFamilyPhotos, you will be motivated to save your own family stories through your photos, too! Why Save Family Photos? How did you get started? Was there one photograph that started it all? As a former photojournalist, I value storytelling and curation. All great photographs tell stories and…
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Sports Memorabilia & Athletes In The Family Tree
Athletes in the family tree? Sports memorabilia can tell ancestors’ unique stories. Baseball cards and news articles can be genealogy records, too! Sports are an enjoyable past time of many individuals both today and in the past. Whether playing a sport for fun, cheering on our favorite team or perhaps even enjoying a sport as a professional athlete, sports were a part of our ancestors’ lives. Sports were important to our ancestors. Because of this, sports are important to us as genealogy researchers. Hold on to your baseball hats, this is going to be fun! ⚾🏈🎾 Was your ancestor a professional sports player or athlete? Whether at the minor or…
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My Favorite 10 Resources for Dating Old Photographs
Explore 10 resources to learn more about your old family photos including how to date antique photos.
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Medical Genealogy + A Photograph = A Young Woman’s Story
Reader Shirleen Reese shared this most unusual photograph in a past 7 Day Challenge: Identify Your Ancestor in That Photo!. She graciously allowed me to share with you! (Thanks, Shirleen!) Photographs can tell an individual’s story. A photograph can lead the researcher to look for previously unknown details about your ancestor’s life. Shirleen’s photo above piqued my curiosity when she shared it in a past 7 Day Challenge focused on identifying ancestors in a photograph. Shirleen was searching to identify all the individuals in her photograph. The only identity she knew was the Cissy, the young girl with the facial disfigurement (second from the right). The family’s oral history reported Cissy…
