2017 has begun, and currently my family tree has well over 20,000 names, and 2,700 photographs. I have been in more of a maintenance mode, and doing much less researcher.
I have been fulfilling my genealogical research itch by volunteering a couple hours a week at my local history library, transcribing death records of a city owned cemetery. This has been extremely interesting, and rewarding, but at the same time I feel that I am intruding on the private lives of strangers. However, when I write the history of my own family, I give myself license as a family historian to dig as deep as possible, leaving no stone un-turned.
I recently learned how old photographs can be used as a research tool, and an additional documentation source. I am excited by this, and will share some of my discoveries with you in this post. So, keep reading. I have come a long way in my family genealogy from barely knowing the names of my grand parents a few short years ago, to now having contact with second cousins across the Atlantic Ocean in Sweden. Quite an accomplishment! Hence the name of my blog "A LONG WAY HOME."
I am a member of a couple genealogical societies where I am able to share my experience, and learn from others. One such recent experience was a seminar given by The Photo Detective, Maureen Taylor author of the best-selling book "Preserving Your Family Photographs."
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| Maureen Taylor |
When you see these lost old photos lying around, pawed at by weekend antique scavengers; you might ask yourself how can these family memories end up here? The flip side to this, is your family members who hold on to photos, and never share them with the extended family.
Through my own trial and error. I have sent some unidentified photos off to libraries, and historical societies around the country in an attempt to identify the individuals in the photographs. With absolutely no success, I don't recommend that approach to anyone. It is truly a waste of time, and resources. Really the only real success I have had in the past, was posting the unidentified photographs to Ancestry.com. That might have been in 2008.
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| Audrey S. MacFarlane |
I was inspired by Maureen Taylor's seminar, and the photos she has collected over the years. She describes, and categorizes her photos by type, and in chronological order. The next two photos have been in my possession forty years. They come from what was left of my grand father, William Rider Howie's collection. He was a printer by trade, and a hobbyist photographer as well. In the last years of his life he was living with his son, Donald, and our family; although W.R. Howie passed away months before I was born. After my grand fathers death a few of his photos ended up in the top drawer of my fathers dresser . As a very young child I often would pull them out of the drawer, and look at the photos, and wonder who all the people were, and what was the occasion. The photos brought great intrigue, and interest to me as a boy. Isn't that ironic that here I am attending a seminar, and being told the same thing. That it is important to not only identify the people in the photo, but the date, and the occasion.
This photo is dated on the front lower right corner April 10. I use to think that the year was 1910, but have learned that photographers of that period use to list the month and day of the occasion. I can now place the year between 1913 - 1915, and you will see why shortly. While large photos of unidentified people can be a real challenge, this photo was a true resource, because it turned out that many of the individuals in this 100 year old photograph are related. In identifying old photos, Maureen recommends to start with the physical description, and location. You can see that it was taken in front of a library. There are four rows, the first row is seated, with three rows standing. Most likely on the entry steps to the library. Then, can we identify anyone in the photo, and if so, what is their relationship to the person on either side of them? As a young boy I spotted my grand father William Rider Howie in the fourth back row third in from the right. He is turned slightly in toward the woman to his right. Likewise, she is turned slight toward him. It wasn't until much later that I was able to identify others in the photo, which in turn has helped me to narrow down the location. This photo is taken in front of an unidentified library, somewhere in Los Angeles County, California. If you look closely we can see that most, but not all have a political button of some type pinned to their clothes. Possibly an election year. A fact that has been more of a thorn in my side than any help in the identification process. Over the years I have been able to identify people, and narrow in on the year of the photo, by who they were grouped with. Next, identify who you know.
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| Helen Desdemonia Rider-Howie-Parker |
William must have came out to California to visit his mother, and step-father, and all the cousins as he is still the proprietor of his print shop at Derby Line Vermont in 1914-1915, and gets married to my grandmother in Vermont in 1916. Putting a story together without facts is the pure speculation of my own. He got married late in life, at age 34. As a single male he could still have been drafted into WWI. Skills as a photographer, and a printer would have been a great asset to the war effort. Possibly since he was an only son he was somehow exempt from the draft. Moving to Los Angeles, and possibly joining the military may have taken his life in a complete different direction. I assume it was always on his mind. At the writing of this post, I have not found a draft registration form. Sixteen years later, after the death of his wife he moves his family, and his printing business to Pasadena.
While some of the other people in the photo have similar faces, they are unidentified at this time. The woman seated in the front and center row, has a similar face to Helen Parker. She could be her sister Clara or possibly even, Vera Naomi Gaines who I will identify later. If it is Clara, then the gentleman to her right is possibly Clara's spouse Robert Alexander Butterworth. Still too hard to say at this time. The gentleman is obviously not Robert M. Howie the spouse of Vera. I can only hope, to one day identify what library in Los Angeles this might be. If I was to take an educated guess it would have been the Compton Library. I come to that guess because most of the people I have now identified lived in Compton, and were active in their community. Unfortunately on March 10, 1933 there was a devastating earthquake in Long Beach California which destroyed most of the buildings. I had sent this photo of the gathering in front of the library to librarians in the area, with little to no response.
My second photo is a panoramic view which I especially liked.
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| Green Mountain Club, May 20, 1953, Pasadena California. William Rider Howie & Lula (Karel) Howie |
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| Lulu 'Karel'- Hartley Howie Dec - 1944 |
This photo also was unidentified at first. It took me many years to work it out through use of census data, and using what I already knew, along with finding photos on Ancestry.com of others in this photo. I could identify my great grand mother Helen Parker, and her spouse seated in the chair on the porch was Albert Parker (1856 - 1933). I then found a photo on the internet of James Alexander Howie, and his spouse Clara Elnett 'Hand' Howie (1856 - 1919). They are pictured here on the far left standing against the post of the porch. Then with the two little girls (Marjorie & Mabel), I was able to distinguish that James & Clara's daughter was Flora L. 'Howie' Mayo (1885 - 1966), and the most prominent would be her spouse Thomas Clay Mayo (1885 - 1969), again holding Mabel just as he appeared in the first large group photo above. Mabel appears to be about the same age, as does James, Thomas, and Flora. I place a very high guess that this photo was taken by my grand father William R. Howie during his visit to California. Thus giving me the location of the Compton farm. My grand father took many photographs during his day, he used them to print & sell post cards back in Vermont at his print shop, and post office.
So now lets look at all the photos I used side by side to see just how I arrived where I did.
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| James Alexander Howie & Clara Elnett Hand |
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| James Alexander Howie Family .ca 1914-1915 |
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| Robert Maitland Howie |
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| Robert Maitland & Naomi Howie ca. 1913 |
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| Robert Maitland Howie ~ Vera Naomi (Gaines) Howie, June 8th, 1911. |
I have probably made this reasoning and deduction process look way too simple, but it is not. Having photos of unidentified people is a very painful and difficult process to identify. If it were not for the internet, and Ancestry.com I would probably never in my lifetime been able to have identified anyone. That is why I cannot stress more the need to safely and accurately identify each and every photo you have now, while you or someone can identify the people, location, and occasion. Those photos that you just took during the holidays, or on last years family vacation. You say you know who they are, but the photos go into an album and then years from now who will be around to identify them? Or worse yet, the digital images are never printed. They are uploaded to social media, left unidentified to the world wide web or to some photo storage account. Only you have access to the account, and only you know how you have organized the photos. This is a great way to share current photos, but a horrible way to preserve them for future generations. We need to print out those photos, and start to identify them. When labeling a photograph, Maureen Taylor says start with the name, and date of the photo. Then include where the photo was taken, and the occasion, and finally put your name; who identified, or took the photo. For current photos, anything newer than 1930 where the photo is printed on a smooth surfaced paper you will need to use a special pen. The Zig Memory System pens are currently the best option. They are made of archival-quality pigment ink. Fade-proof, waterproof, non-bleeding, and acid-free (pH 7.0 or higher). They ensure long life for crafts, scrapbooks, and other artistic endeavors. She says if you have photos prior to 1930 to use a soft #6 lead pencil and write on the back of the photo. If you want to learn more you may buy her book, or check out her website at: Maureen Taylor
The way in which Ancestry.com currently works, you cannot see the family connections of anyone living. This was implemented to protect the identities of the living. So, we must wait until someone has passed away, and hope that a family member or other relative has updated, and added photos of them. This has been working, but you can see this is slower than waiting for the government to release the data for the next census. Where am I going you ask? Well, Robert Maitland Howie Jr. died in 2008. I didn't even know that this branch of cousins even existed until Joyce Harrington listed him with a date of death. Then it was not until other photos started to surface, and connections from other trees were made. Distant cousins began to contact me, and then and only then was I was able to piece together the photos which I had, and posted above.
The way in which Ancestry.com currently works, you cannot see the family connections of anyone living. This was implemented to protect the identities of the living. So, we must wait until someone has passed away, and hope that a family member or other relative has updated, and added photos of them. This has been working, but you can see this is slower than waiting for the government to release the data for the next census. Where am I going you ask? Well, Robert Maitland Howie Jr. died in 2008. I didn't even know that this branch of cousins even existed until Joyce Harrington listed him with a date of death. Then it was not until other photos started to surface, and connections from other trees were made. Distant cousins began to contact me, and then and only then was I was able to piece together the photos which I had, and posted above.
Now lets look at another photo which was one of my first attempts to identify, but boy did I get it wrong in the beginning. It has been a work in progress, and I still don't know with confidence, that I am able to identify everyone in this wedding photo.
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| Wedding of William Rider Howie & Ruth Augusta England August 19, 1916, Vermont. |
In 1916, Esther would be 18. Yes, looking at the photo that could be Esther, a young 18 year old bridesmaid. I got the next two photos from my sister recently that were past down from Merrick Belknap (1922- unk). He was a life long friend of Gordon P. England, one of Ruth's younger brothers, and my grand uncle. (See prior blog post) In those photos was a family photo with Gordon, Esther & their father, my great grand father, Clarence Philo England (1870 - 1953).
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| Clarence Philo England, Gordon P. & Esther England holding a hunting rifle. |
Both Gordon Phillip England (1901 - 1992), and Esther Margaret England (1898 - 1971) wore glasses. This was helpful. The unidentified woman standing in the wedding photo is also wearing glasses. One, and the same, this was Esther M. England in that wedding photo, standing in as brides-maid. But the unidentified man is older, and Ruth did not have any living siblings older than her. W.R.H. was an only child. Unfortunately, the male must remain unidentified at this time. Or does he? I can now say for certain it is not, William George Howie, the father of William Rider Howie, and my great grand father. How about Ruth & Esther's father? Could it be him? Reverend Clarence Philo England. Yes! I believe now, that it was him. I look at the ears, the nose, the chin. These are all very similar in all three photos which I have posted here.
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| Rev'd. Clarence Philo England |
(Update: May 2020) Well, I was still wrong! I discovered a wedding announcement in the newspapers. It mentions that the bride was attended by her sister and the best man was Mr. John Holland of Stanstead. I have briefly researched Mr. John Holland, and it turns out he too was a printer. So, he probably new or worked with my grand father, William Rider Howie.
These next photographs are called tinype, also known as melainotype, or ferrotype. These are the oldest photographs that I have. I have blown them up, and digitally restored them myself to the best of my ability using Photoshop.
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| Unidentified - Pos: William George Howie on left. |
So, this brings me to my first tintype. Tintype photos are exciting, and collectible. Before the seminar by Maureen Taylor I thought tintype photos were very old. While they are old, I learned from her they came into high production after ca. 1856. Well, it just happens that my great grand father William George Howie (1856 - 1895), was born December 17, 1856. I know of his health issues, and that he walked with a cane. The gentleman seated to the left of this photo appears to me to have a cane, and has the deep set eyes that us Howie's are known for. Is this William George Howie? Maybe! This tintype, and one other I remember them being in my fathers' top dresser drawer sliding around with keys, coins, tie clips & pins, and many other metal objects which scratched them up over the years. Were these photographs passed down? Did his father William Rider Howie hold on to this photo to remember his own father? Could be! The second tintype is of a little boy. I can only assume was taken at the same time, same location. As you can see in the first image. The photo is very small, and damaged. The second image I have blown up, and a friend helped to restore.
This tintype photo was all scratched up, because I use to play with it as a child, and my father left it sliding around loose in the dresser drawer. The boy looks to be about 5-6 years old. From the 1881 Census of Canada we find that William George Howie, Store Clerk, was living in the same household with spouse Helen D. Howie, and T. Byron Rider. No children yet appear. I know that WRH was born January 15, 1882. Is this five or six year old little cowboy, William Rider Howie? I guess that is possible. Unfortunately, I can't confirm if the two tintype photos are of the same age, or if one is twenty years older, or younger. What I have learned, is that tintypes were produced for many years. My wild guess at this time would be that this little boy is William Rider Howie. That would date this photo to 1887-1888. If it was older, and that of William George Howie the date would be 1861-1862. I must then refer back to the photo expert Maureen Taylor, and her books. Looking at her
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| William George Howie |
There is no way at this point to identify the other man in the photo. If I could that would also help me to prove, or disprove the identity. They appear to be about the same age. The man on the right is a little bit better dressed in my opinion. William George Howie occupation was listed as clerk working in the general store. Was he working for the England brothers, or the Rider brothers? Could that be Hamilton Milford Rider? Someday I may be able to prove that, but not today. I do know that Hamilton & his older brother Timothy Byron Rider were grain & feed merchants, and owned the mill together. In the 1881 Census of Canada, we can see that William & Helen lived in the same household as T.B. Rider. The gentleman seated on the right holding the dog in his lap just possibly could be Hamilton M. Rider. I will have to ask my Rider cousins if they have a photo of Hamilton M. Rider. Until then, you will have to look at the above photos, and make your own guesses. But before we move on, take a second look at the first tintype, the gent on the right with the dog. Then look at this next photo where I have identified Claude Percy Rider. I see a family resemblance. Do you?
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| Claude Percy Rider & William Rider Howie |
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| William R. Howie & Ruth A. Howie & Baby Dorothy Howie |
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| Ruth Augusta England-Howie ca. 1930 |
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| Claude Percy Rider ca. 1905-07 |
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| William Rider Howie |
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| William R. Howie class photo ca. 1898-99 |
I thought about continuing, but I think you get the idea that we should all be working on preserving those family photos. Get them identified, and share on the internet so others might also be able to identify their family photos. Scroll back up to the top, and click on the link to Maureen Taylor, and learn more if you are interested in how you too can learn to identify old photographs.
