This winter I am working on Far Guys Family History..the Paternal side.
Years ago Uncle Jimmy gave our daughter Jennifer an old family photo.
Here I have made a copy of it and taken it into my scrapbook program and identified everyone. There is more than one way to skin a cat nowadays..and more ways to mark group family photos without marking up the original.
Xaver and Christiane are his Great Great Grandparents and Martha Jane off to the right is his Great Grandmother.
Cousin Jay has a copy of the photo also. He let Far Guy hold it so I could get a photo. 
I found a few photos that I cannot identify.
This is an old tintype. It is marked Aleck girls! Which ones? There are six sisters. It is a lovely tintype. It looks to be taken sometime in the 1880’s. Ladies dresses were often severe and tight fitting, might have a bustle, skirts often had pleated edges. Hair plain and pulled back, high white collars , lots of buttons in rows.
Martha Jane was born in 1868. If she were 17 in this photo the year would be..1885. I think she is the gal standing on the left, but I will probably never know for sure.
Mark your photos..do your relatives down the line a big favor:)
The family portrait is wonderful and magnificently framed! Your husband's great-great-grandfather, Xaver, must have been a young adult in the Civil War-era. It's interesting how generations can quickly become skewed. My paternal-grandfather [my father's father; no "greats"] fought in the Civil War but died before I was old enough to know him. And both of my Colonel's grandfathers were a few years older still but didn't fight in the Civil War. They weren't the argumentative type.
ReplyDeleteBoth of my parents came from families of ten children but Xaver and Christiane had twelve offspring. There must have been some colder nights at the Aleck place.
ReplyDeleteThat is so interesting.....ya, guess marking photos is a great idea.....Blessings Francine.
ReplyDeleteTreasured photos. I am trying to "mark" everything for our newest family member!
ReplyDeleteThat is a good idea. My late mother had WW II photos of soldiers, but I have no idea who they are now! Beautiful photo!
ReplyDeleteCheers from Cottage Country!
Wonderful photos. "Kudos" to you for marking them for future generations.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that gets me is that the next generation won't see ANY of my photos unless they have a computer, since everything is now digital. Maybe I'd better print out my favorites, huh? :-)
ReplyDeleteWonderful photos ! That's a great way to keep the photos alive isn't it for the future generations ! Have a good day !
ReplyDeleteI'd almost guess like you that it is the 3 oldest of the family. I found at least with our old photos, as the family grew, when a photo was taken it was of ALL the family or ALL of the kids at that time because it was such a big deal. Aren't they fun to see though ... love old photos!
ReplyDeleteI love old photos. I have a tin type photo of my great grandmother on my dad's side. Your old photos are awesome!
ReplyDeleteSo many questions! So many answers! These old photos really keep us guessing.
ReplyDeleteTINTYPES usually have reversed images [left to right] so it is sometimes hard to recognize people when comparing people in tintypes to people in reality-correct, paper photographs. Holding the tintype up to a mirror can help. But, to add to the confusion, some tintypes [though a small minority] were made with much more expensive cameras that did result in reality-correct/positive images on the tintypes. Unfortunately, one cannot tell if a tintype has a commonplace reversed image or a relatively rare positive image -- unless something in the image can be discerned as reversed or otherwise. People's facial features are rarely perfectly symmetrical so the reversed images on most tintypes do make a difference. Also, those who are interested in other details [hairstyles, jewelry, clothing details, furniture/props, scenery, etc.] should always keep this aspect of tintypes in mind.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to read your advice to mark our own photos. As much as I share your frustration about these antique, yet unidentified, family portraits, do I go out and make it a project to mark my own photos? No, of course not! I'm too busy trying to figure out the mess my own ancestors left behind! ;)
ReplyDeleteThat is a great idea, using the scrapbook program to digitally label an old photograph. I've run across some family keepsakes where someone did try to mark the face of the photo...with ink...which smudged, aged and made a total mess of the rest of the photo.
And, of course, just having the capability to scan and digitize these gems and multiply them for all the descendants to have a copy of...such a wonderful tool in its own right!
With some of the old photos I'm working on, I've noticed that the owner--usually an older woman mindful of the inevitable--goes back through her photo collection, and tries to write down everything she remembers about the subjects on the reverse of each photo--age, relationship, address, etc. Unfortunately, at such an age as some of these relatives were when they got the urge to do so, they sometimes appeared to get things mixed up. But with some diligent research, I've discovered that, yes, they were right about that seemingly disjointed information in that unintelligible scrawl, after all!
Those are great picture:) Martha Jane, or whoever it is in that second picture, looks scary!
ReplyDeleteGreat advice, and can you imagine what people will think of all our family photos decades from now?
ReplyDeleteJen
Those old photos are fabulous! I guess it was the fashion to look serious in them though?
ReplyDeleteAccording to my information you are also missing Agatha Magdalen who just had one date 1861... but I have more birth dates than death dates written here... She would have been their first.
ReplyDeleteThe Three women are: Standing -- Treasea Marie "Trace"
ReplyDeleteSitting - Chritstine
On Lap -- Rosa or Rose was born 1883 and died in 1908 she looks about four or five in the picture so I would date it as 1886/7
I am still working at being at the right place at the right time to find the cousin that holds the third generation family photo. I have bad copies of it and I want to photograph it for a clear photo. I have never heard of the program you are using. There is too much out there for me to keep up.
ReplyDeleteWe have a lot of pictures from the grandparents where we will never know who they were.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if any of these new facial recognition programs would help?
I guess I should go through my old pics, myself--LOL! ;)