A Photo Mystery and a Family Argument

Photo captions can be short, incomplete, mysterious, or full of clues. It all depends on who’s writing it and when. The caption on this image is different.  It’s in two parts in a different script and the authors are arguing. When I saw this image sitting in a bin, I had to have it.  It’s…

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Love Stories Etched in Time

Valentine’s Day isn’t just for the here and now—it’s a bridge to the past. Behind every name on your family tree, there lies a love story. This month, why not delve into the romantic history of your lineage? How did your grandparents meet? What love letters were exchanged under the watchful eye of a world…

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A Girl and a Dog

There are captions and then there are CAPTIONS full of information. The big question with captions is “Is it true?” In the case of this small tintype, the answer was yes. On the back of this image appears the following: This is “Beautie” an important member of the C.C. Smith Family at #188 Livingston St,…

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Ancestry Stories: Fun and Easy to Make

Short-form videostorytelling is everywhere right now. TikTok, Instagram Reels, and Facebook. With the new addition to Ancestry.com’s app for IOS, Stories has joined in the action. You select profiles from your tree and images to create a series of “pages.” You can add a title page and a general text page too. I like it.…

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Maureen’s Favorite Books from 2021

Now that we’re solidly into a New Year, I wanted to share with you all a couple of my favorite books from the past year, as a fun little list. by Steven Kasher (Fun fact, he was on The Photo Detective Podcast, episode #116) Good Pictures by Kim Beil (Also, on the Photo Detective Podcast,…

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Solving a Photo Mystery With a Little Help

Helmuth Voigt’s story in this blog and that argumentative caption about his life captivated a lot of readers. In that post, I outlined the photo clues in the image then presented what I found. Solving a photo mystery sometimes requires help so I asked for assistance solving the following questions: When and where did Helmuth…

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Photo Code-Breaking

American Views. Concert Grove House, stereograph, circa 1874. New York Public Library. Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views. In Alice Quinn’s new book, The Rose Code, women (and a few men) work tirelessly to break German codes to further Great Britain’s World War II efforts. For them, it’s about recognizing the patterns. If you’ve…

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Summer, Lemonade, and Nana

This week was a scorcher. Three 90 degree plus days in a row. One humid afternoon my grandmother popped into my head. She made the best lemonade. In a second I was time traveling in my memories to when I was 4. My Mom worked and Nana watched me and my sister. It was the…

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An Altered Reality: One Man. Two Photos

One time a reporter asked me to tell them how many photos I’ve seen in my career. I’m simply not able to estimate that number. As a picture person, I look at client images, ones for my collection, and then the ones I use for research purposes. Suffice to say I’ve looked at more images…

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