Who is your longest-surviving ancestor for whom you have NO photo?

Question

Among your ancestors for whom you don't have photos, who died the most recently? This would be someone who died well into the era of photography, but for some reason, no known photos of them exist. For me it would be William Alexander Jones (1858-1937) and his wife Elizabeth (Helton) Jones (1858-1939). Here's hoping that photos turn up for your photoless ancestors.

Answer 1

Ferdinand Boutin (1845-1927). There are enough extant descendants that I believe someone must have a photo, but alas I have yet to track one down.

Answer 2

Your text doesn't really match the question title... longest-surviving ancestor, or most recent ancestor?

For me, the most recent that would be my great-grandfather on the Neff side, who died in 1948 (at age 82) .... but now I'm going to have to search my photos and make sure I really don't have a picture of him.

The longest-surviving ancestor in the photographic era (of whom I don't have a picture) would be John Gynne Bean, who lived 1791-1883, and died at age 92.

Comments

I wasn't super clear, but I think you figured out that I was interested in someone who died most recently, as opposed to someone who died at an old age.

Answer 3

For the longest living ancestor who has no photo, I am going to have to go with my 2x great grandfather - Isaac Burrow (1824 - 1913)

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Burrow-403

He grew up in the county of Devon in England and died there in 1913. Out of his 5 children, only 1 child emigrated from the UK to New Zealand. That was my great grandfather William. Everyone else stayed in England and I have very few photos of any of them.

Once the family moved to NZL - everyone started happily snapping and there are tons of pics of the NZL family!!

Answer 4

Well, this is embarrassing, well not for me, I wasn't alive yet. My great-grandfather died in 1957. As far as I know there are no photos. He even lived on Long Island, near everybody else.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Catania-41

Answer 5

For me it’s my great grandfather James Wilkinson who died in 1958 at the age of 68. my mum says she doesn’t remember ever seeing a photo of him. She remembers him says she would recognise him. I’m trying to track one down. I wrote to her first cousin who says he vaguely remembers seeing a photo when he was young but has no idea as to where it might be. 

I don’t think my grandfather owned a camera in the 50s pictures of my mum as a child are a studio photo and a school photo. So he couldn’t have taken one of great grandpa. 

So there may be a photo out there or they may not. I will keep hunting. 

Comments

Some employers took photos of employees for various reasons: ID cards, newsletters, etc.

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It’s a possibility. He was a steelworker there may be something in a local history archive.

Answer 6

I have two sets of great-grandparents for whom I have no photos. My maternal grandfather’s parents died in 1894 and 1908. My paternal grandmother’s parents died in 1907 and 1920.

Answer 7

One of my maternal 2x great grandfathers, Jesse Thomas, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Thomas-14709, lived from 1799 to 1883. There are no known photos of him. This family lived in a very rural area and evidently photographers did not visit that area until much later.

Comments

Until about 1900, you pretty much had to go to a studio and have your picture made there. Most towns of a reasonable size had a studio. There were very few outdoor or on-site pictures taken (Civil War battlefields being a notable exception) until the Brownie camera came out.

Answer 8

My paternal grandfather's paternal grandfather died in 1925, and no-one has seen a photo of him. But of his first wife who died in 1882, we have one photo. Perhaps he did not want to be photographed?