The first clue is the format. Many were only used for a decade or so, making dating easy. “Daguerreotypes” were sold from 1841 to around 1855, “cased collodion positives” retailed from the 1850s until the 1880s. The “ferrotype” became popular in Britain from the early 1870s. The postcard format did not appear until the early 20th century.
It’s the card-mounted formats, the carte de visite and the “cabinet”, that cause problems. These dominated the market from the 1860s to the first world war. Happily there are all sorts of clues to the date of the image connected with the appearance of the cardboard mount, its style of decoration and the advertising it carries, especially the photographer’s name and address. By consulting records of when photographers were working (see resources information, below) this information will often help us date the picture.
In addition, we have the information contained within the image itself, particularly female fashion details. This means that most photographs can be assigned a date within around five years of their production.
Once we have a date, we need to ask why the portrait was taken. What activity or event does this photograph record? Our ancestors courted the camera to celebrate special occasions and those events which presented the individual in a good light. Career success, for example, was recorded through portraits of people wearing uniform or badges of office. The special occasions most commonly celebrated in portraits were rites of passage: christenings, comings of age, engagement, marriage and anniversaries. But it is not always easy for us today to identify the rites behind the picture. In some cases we have ceased to observe them altogether, as in the case of breeching, or we celebrate them in a very different way, as in the case of weddings.
Finally, anybody who has looked at a series of studio portraits will be struck by their uniformity. Our ancestors did not smile. They adopted stiff poses. They wore their best clothes and sat on stage sets. Once we can recognise these conventions, we can begin to pinpoint those features of a photograph that are distinctive. If an unusual prop or accessory appears, for example, it probably belonged to the sitter, and its appearance indicates that it has significance – study it, and it could help identify the sitter.
Armed with a date and an event, and perhaps some other significant information, you can now turn to parish registers, census returns and trade directories to see if you can match these findings with a likely candidate among your ancestors.
To continue to read this article at the theguardian.com click here.
It’s as true now as it was 150 years ago: the fashions people wear are indicators of their times. In fact, styles of clothing and accessories – as well as hairstyles and makeup — can be used to help you assign a decade or even a specific year to your family’s vintage photographs, which can be invaluable to your genealogy research! Here are several sites that can help you put your aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents on the right branches of your family tree.
Even if you think you’re on the right track, identifying fashions can help you confirm information. For instance, the portraits at right were labeled, so I know them to be my grandmother’s two grandmothers — and the photo albums they came from suggested that the photographs were taken in the 1880s or 1890s.
Despite the womens’ different cultural backgrounds and individual tastes in fashion, the similar type of high, standing collars suggest that they’re on the earlier end of that time frame, most likely the mid-1880s.
If I needed more data points, other style cues I could research would be the fit of the dresses, the hairstyles, and their jewelry.
While all the clues you gather from appearance can be very helpful, they’re not always precise. By way of example, your relative might have been a trendsetter… or perhaps she cared little about fashion and was always a few years behind. Location (city or country, US or abroad) and income level can also impact a woman’s style choices.
By combining various modes of research, however, you should be able to discover the essence of the era — and your family’s place within it.
To read this article further on sheknows.com click here.
Databases and search engines make information accessible in a way in which it wasn’t before: searches now take only a few minutes.
There is an overwhelming amount of information on the internet, and it’s difficult to know which of the pay-for services are of value to you. It is fair to say that most genealogy sites for which you have to pay have some worth – it just depends whether they are going to be worthwhile for you. Here are some tips and guidelines to help make order out of the chaos so you can make the right choice when it comes to selecting your website.
The bottom line in genealogical research is that you are going to have to pay for it. You cannot manage without the basic building blocks of certificates and census returns, and money can be liberally spent in travelling to archives, paying online fees, hiring private researchers and whatever else you deem necessary as you continue your research. But there are good reasons why more and more genealogists are going online.
There is a wealth of material available on the web, and it is being added to every day. Databases and search engines make information accessible in a way in which it wasn’t before: searches that used to take weeks or months now take only a few minutes. And sometimes it’s cheaper and easier to do what you can online and in your own time than travelling to archives and bowing to time pressure there. You may find that you can use online resources for free or more cheaply at archives, but is it worth the time and expense of travelling there? And you will still have to pay for the photocopying!
To read this bbc.co.uk article in full click here.