EB Family Day Blog

Adding photographs of your relatives and their environment can add realism and a touch of class to your family tree. But how do you make sure that you are putting the correct face with the name? There are many clues in the picture that can help put the appropriate age to a photograph. Be sure to use the same methodical approach to dating the picture that you use in the researching of your family tree and be sure to document everything.

First the physical photograph is a clue. Was it made with the tin-type or older method, or a paper print? How heavy is the paper it is printed on? In the case of a portrait, are there any identification marks or labels from the photographer’s studio?

Next, if you enlarge the print either digitally or with a magnifying glass, what is in the background? A newspaper headline or better yet a date may be seen. An advertisement in a store window or the population count on a city limit sign can give the approximate age of the photo. Are there automobiles, or horses, on the street? Of course, if the family homestead is the backdrop, a definite assumption can be made.

The style of clothing is one of the best ways to date a picture. The style of women’s hats, the hairstyle, the sleeve style of a dress, the neckline, or the style of the collar, are all clues.

With men, hairstyle can be a hint. The width of the necktie, the cut of a suit, again, as with women, the collar of a shirt, maybe a military uniform.

Unfortunately, all babies in pictures look alike, unless they are of my adorable grandchildren, so you may have to rely on the other people in the picture or the background.

Comparing what you believe about the age of the photograph and the approximate age of the subject, with what you know about the person in your family tree, is not 100% accurate. But, you can be pretty sure you have matched the name to the face.

Other photographs, the homestead, the ship they arrived in America on, school yearbook pictures, wedding portraits all add realism and a touch of class to your family’s story.

Craig Hinz is a genealogist with over 15 years of experience. you may contact him at craig@searhforrelatives.com or visit his website at http://www.searchforrelatives.com

Tags: Ancestors, family, genealogy, Relatives

I’ve sat and watched the cursor blink on the clean white page for a week. What shall I write about? Yes, my daughters, even newsletter editors lack inspiration at times.

Having no direction, my mind wandered toward the family. Natural, eh? I killed time by skimming my genealogy page and whamo, the proverbial ton of bricks fell. Of course! With real people and events you can write about anything.

I picked up a few lines here and there and my goodness! I found a writer’s jackpot, and you all have one. It sits neatly among the limbs of your own Family Tree. Have you discovered it yet? Just think of the many genres and topics a good writer could pick up.

I found a Tudor diplomat, who worked along with Cardinal Woolsey and Erasmus. Richard was an official in the Church. He helped write the Kings James version of the Bible, working primarily on the Book of Psalms.

And, John the Jester – Brother of Richard

Although a scholar of King’s College, Cambridge, in 1539, and being a Master of the Arts, he was soon attached as the Jester in the household of the Duke of Norfolk before Henry VIII’s death, and in Elizabeth’s reign, he was transferred to the court.

That a man of education like Pace should have voluntarily assumed ‘the fool’s coat’ often excited hostile comment. To such criticism Pace’s friend, John Heywood, the epigrammatist, once answered that “It is better for the common weal for wise men to ‘go in fools’ coats’ than for fools to ‘go in wise men’s gowns’”
Camden, Remaines,ed.857 p314

Another Richard founded Paces’s Paines across the river from Jamestown

It took 112 years to get Priscilla’s hollyhock seed from Georgia to Oklahoma, according to John W. Allen, curator of history of Southern Illinois University Museum.

I found stories of Priscilla, a young girl of ten or eleven, who gathered the seeds of the hollyhock plant to take with her from Georgia (some versions say North Carolina) to her destination in Oklahoma during the tragic Trail of Tears era of 1838-39.

She was befriended and adopted by my husbands ancestor during a rest camp on Dutch Creek, in Illinois. Today, Priscilla Hollyhocks are known by their unusual red color and small size and cover the hills of certain areas.

What could be done with a story of a hanging that failed during a civil war raid? A relative was among those hauling supplies for Col. Mulligan at Lexington. He was alone that day and he wouldn’t talk, so the raiders hung him and left. The knot slipped, he fell to the ground and wormed his way up to a house where the rope was cut by a woman.

Way back in history I roamed and found reference to a family named Rolfe and Pocahontas.

The John Wayne movie, Rooster Cogburn, carries my mother’s family names and was set in Arkansas, her birthplace. I have an old picture in my album of a man with the name ‘Rooster Cogburn’ written across it. It isn’t old enough to be the original, but he carries the nick-name forward. The only claim I have to this reference, are the names. They all match and it’s fun.

I believe we each have so much history bound up in our family trees, we should never run out of ideas or inspiration. I’m lucky to have a genealogist brother to do all the searching and verifying, it’s more work than I could handle. http://www.rootsweb.com/ Thanks, Lee.

Go directly to the Message Boards and type in your family name. It’s free and it’s fun to read others looking for the same information – your family. This is not a site to do research unless you want to pay. If you do, it’s very good – one of the best. If you don’t have time to do a thorough search, just visit and search your family names. You’ll be pleasantly surprised, and you may decide to work on your own history.

Write your fictional story on true events but don’t worry about keeping them factual. That’s why you call it good fiction.

Harriet is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/
which is a site for Poetry. Her portfolio can be
found at http://www.Writing.Com/authors/storytime

Tags: family history, family trees, fiction, genealogy, inspiration, storyideas, writers block, writing ideas