Family History Mystery Photos

Question

Stemming from some awesome ideas by Heather Morgan in one of our Friday Chats, I think we need some sort of addition to our Family History Photo of the Week Project, focusing on identifying these awesome photos y'all are finding at thrift and antique stores and the like.

Heather had some great ideas for how she is working with them:

1) I will not publish the subjects of the photos unless I am relatively certain they have passed away, so as not to violate any living person's privacy.

2) Once I've discovered the identity of the person(s) in the photograph, I will try and trace their family history as far back as I am able.

3) I will attempt to find living descendants for the person(s) in the photographs, and see if they want their family photos, and let them know where the photo was found in case they want to try and go back to look for more, and see if they want to take over as managers of their family's profiles on Wikitree.

What are all of your thoughts on this? What should we call it? I think once the photo is uploaded, we should definitely have them put in the Photo of the Week contests to try to help gain some attention, too, and just note they're one of our mystery photos.

Comments

Fantastic idea! 

Answer 1

I love this.

Another idea would be to make some sort of contest out of the Family History Mystery Photo of the Week. Like a hybrid of the Photo of the Week and Connection Combat. First one great photo is found and highlighted. Then there's a game to identify the people.

Comments

I like that idea, Chris! I will work on some details with Eowyn and we can see what kind of response we get.

Answer 2

This is a wonderful idea it would add something extra to the Family History Photo of the Week I am sure there would be a lot of photos that are a mystery and members would love to find out who is in the photo tracking down the relatives is such a wonderful idea

Comments

How about finding a portrait? I found a reference in a letter that mentions the existence of a portrait of Keziah Burr Howell wife of governor Richard Howell painted by a well known artist but have been unable to find out where it is currently located.

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Berry, maybe you should post a question on G2G itself, tagged with howell and burr. Maybe someone who is familiar with your family surnames can help track it down!

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Thanks Abby, however my point was that maybe highlighting a lost picture along side a found picture might be fun. I was using my example to show that there are lost pictures out there. If or when I find time and decide to resume my search for my lost portrait I will keep your suggestion in mind. Maybe I should have have made my point clearer. Cheers Berry!