Philetus Sawyer Family Photo Album

8. May Eugenia Ellsworth
taken circa 1864-1866

The Philetus Sawyer Family Photo Album from the Civil War era is now online on my Lost Faces website. I rescued this album several years ago and am delighted to present it today for all to enjoy freely.

It consists of 50 gorgeous cartes de visite (CDVs) in the 1860s such as the beautiful child on the left.

Be sure to check out all the photos I have rescued at Lost Faces.

Preservation of a Lost Faces Album Part 4

Please see Part 1 , Part 2 and Part 3 for the start of this process of how I rescue, archive, and publish on Lost Faces antique photo albums I save from disappearing.

After I remove all the photos from the album, and notate on the verso (back) of each photo in pencil, it's time to scan and store them in acid-free containers.

My husband scans the front of each image. If he has time he also scans the verso so that I have a record of the photographers' logos and addresses. He works with a flatbed scanner in jpg format at a resolution suitable for publishing online. Resolution and format are important and the better quality image you require means you need higher resolution and a better file format. jpg is used when small file size is more important than maximum image quality such as my use on the Lost Faces website.

Here is a good explanation of types of file formats you can use when scanning, and the pros and cons of each. 

My storage boxes from pfile.com

Once my husband has scanned all the photos, I place them in acid-free "sleeves" and store them as a unit (an entire photo album) in acid-free boxes. I used to store them in acid-free binders for ease of looking through the photos but as my collection of rescued photographs grew, that system became too cumbersome. 

Using the boxes instead of binders has other positive effects. I can easily open a box and sort photos by years or fashion choices or hair styles or genres. Because I have the photo album number and photo number notated on the verso I will never lose the place where any particular photo belongs.

Last item is uploading and publishing these gorgeous rescued ancestral photographs online on Lost Faces.

 

A Beautiful Confirmation Photo

This gorgeous cabinet card is one of the photographs in an antique photo album I rescued.

Her name is Elsie Steffenhagen and it was her confirmation day. The photographic studio was in Lake City Minnesota.

You can view more of the beautiful photos I have published online for all to enjoy at my new website Lost Faces

The Santelmann family photo album can be found at http://www.lostfaces.com/album-24-santelman.html

Enjoy!

Preservation of a Lost Faces Album Part 3

Please see Part 1 and Part 2 for the start of this process of how I rescue, archive, and publish on Lost Faces antique photo albums I save from disappearing.

After I have finished documenting every page in the rescued photo album, I sart the process of gently and carefully removing the photos. This can be a very laborious process are many are "stuck" to the pages with 100 or more years of dust and grime. I use a very thin plastic flexible ruler when necessary to gently assist each photo out of its slot. My goal is to not damage the album pages or the photo of course, so I do not want to just grab the photo and pull it out.

As I remove each photo, I assign a two letter abbreviation designating the name of the album and a number consistent with the order the photo was placed in the album on the verso (back) in pencil. If there is anything written on the album page that is not also written on the photo, I add that information to the photo back.

I also note (in pencil) the album number and name in the front inside page of the album. This allows me to reassemble the photos with the correct album in the future.

The next stage involves scanning, then storing each photo in an acid-free sleeve and storage box. More on that in my next blog post!

Continuing Preserving Another Photo Album for Lost Faces

A fascinating image on the right
identified as the daughter of Oscar Knapp

Going through the newly rescued photo album for Lost Faces was my fun time over the weekend.

It's a challenge for me to go slow, document each page before I start the process of removing the pictures from their pages.

Many of the album pages had identification of the people in the photos. The names were written in a  contemporary hand, and was not period handwriting or ink from the 1860s. My hope was that once I removed the photos I might find period handwriting on the backs.

If you are wondering why I'm being so fussy it is because any identification written at the time the photos were put into the album is bound to be more accurate than identification entered many years later.

One very interesting notation was entered on the album page below. This was  in the same handwriting as the rest of the album and reads "Great Grandfather and Grandmother Ostrander". What a great clue as to when these labels were entered on the album pages!

 

These photos appear to be Civil War era (early to mid 1860s).  I know that one of their great-great grandchildren wrote in this album. I am theorizing that this great-great grandchild was probably born around the turn of the century and may have written in the album as an adult, say around 1930 to 1960. I'll know more when I remove the photos, check the backs, and start my research on everyone who is identified in this album.

Removing the photos is a slow and careful project. You don't want to tear the album pages or bend the photos. Often they are stuck in the slots which is not surprising after being in there over 150 years! I use a very thin, pliable plastic ruler to help ease the photos out if I can't just slide them gently with my hands. 

I can hardly wait to get at that stage of the process! 

Please see Part 1 and Part 2 for the start of this process of how I rescue, archive, and publish on Lost Faces antique photo albums I save from disappearing.

So Many Goodies Coming to Lost Faces Photo Albums!

Look what arrived yesterday! Yep, another rescued antique photo album! Number 81.....and yes, it will be going online on my Lost Faces website ASAP.

I can't resist these beautiful albums with identified photos inside. They're never my ancestors but I still am driven to save them from being lost and forgotten.

I finally had a chance to unpack this album today and believe me, it was hard to wait. I'm like a kid at Christmas with these gorgeous albums chock full of family memories and treasures.

It's easy to picture what the album looked like when new. It would have been gleaming, clean and shiny. Imagine the family's excitement (or more likely the wife's excitement) when she bought it to put her treasured photos in.

Just look at this beauty! I am always so anxious to get going on the photgraphs - the CDVs, cabinet cards and tintypes, but I force myself to go slow. My first step is always to document the album and the order of photos inside, with camera pictures. That can help identify any photos that do not have names on them.

So I had a sneak peek and took a few camera photos to start the process. Let me share those with you.

 first page. It is empty but the name of the person whose photo was originally there is intact. That helps put together family groups and identify the family who may have originally owned the photo album. This empty page has the inscription  And the hunt is on! I'm so curious - who was Aunt Mariah? And was her husband's name really Whittier? It is difficult to read and I'm hoping that getting further into the album will reveal if I've managed to decipher it correctly.

The next page was just as intriguing. The photo slot was empty but written on the album page was "Aunt Hattie White's child" When oh when will I get to that ingriguing photo peeking out on the right? That was all I had time for today but tomorrow I will be back at the puzzle and continue with taking my camera photos and carefully documenting the album.

Please see Part 1 and Part 2 for the start of this process of how I rescue, archive, and publish on Lost Faces antique photo albums I save from disappearing.

Don't Miss My New Website Lost Faces!

Sarah (Page) Simpson 1840-1920

When I was about 11 years old, my grandmother gave me this photo of her grandmother (my great-great-grandmother), Sarah Simpson. Grandma told me it was taken in Ramsgate England sometime in the 1890s.

I was fascinated - she wore such a beautiful ornate hair piece! The gorgeous blouse or dress thrilled me with its ruffles and high collar. I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that I had part of this fine lady in me, in my blood and my genes.

I learned a lot about Sarah - widowed at the young age of 34, and pregnant with her 5th child, she was forced to work as a charwoman to feed her children. 

Not only did that spur me on to delving deeper into my British side of my family, it also sparked an immediate love of antique photos of ancestors. I thought about their lives - were they happy? Did they enjoy the same things I enjoyed? Did they get angry, or cry at the loss of a family pet. Yes those are the odd things I thought about as a youngster.

This early fascination with ancestors and photographs that captured one brief moment in their lives led to my determination to rescue and preserve as many old photos as possible. Several years ago I began purchasing entire albums of named photographs (Cartes de Visite and tintypes mostly) from the Civil War era, and offering scans of the photos to interested descendants. My dream was to one day publish them all online for genealogists to freely copy for their own personal use.

A few of my rescued Ambrotypes & Daguerreotypes

I am excited to announce my dream has come to fruition. Several years ago I was able to purchase the domain name "Lost Faces" from a woman who no longer wanted it.

This year I completed scanning and uploading approximately half of the precious albums I have rescued over the years. Every album is online with a description, a list of names, and at least a few photos from the album.

 There are 81 albums online at this point, and approximately half are complete, meaning all the photos in the albums are online for visitors to enjoy. Most albums have 50 photographs so you can see that is a lot of photos for visitors to enjoy and hopefully find an ancestor or two!

1916 Ramsgate England

As well as these wonderful album photographic treasures, Lost Faces contains dozens of single photos of groups - sports teams, class photos, and more. I also have vintage postcards for your enjoyment, and explanations of various early photograph types such as Cartes de Visite, Cabinet Cards, Tintypes, Ambrotypes, and Daguerreotypes. To top it all off I've added some brief tutorials on dating photographs through fashion, hairstyles, photographer marks and more.

Enjoy your visit to Lost Faces and feel free to download any photos for your own personal use. The only thing you cannot do is publish the photos anywhere else offline or online. Perhaps you'll find an ancestor in my rescues!

Finding Ancestors: A Beautiful 1862 Cartes de Visite

This beautiful photo is labelled "Mrs. Joseph Curtis ​1862". It is one of the Cartes de Visite in my Civil War Era Photo Album which is now online at my new Lost Faces website.

Her full sleeves and full skirt are typical of the Civil War era fashions for women, as is her center-parted hair. 

Mrs. Curtis' husband's photo is also in the album and I suspect it was taken the same day as hers - July 2, 1862.

As many of my readers know, I rescue antique photo albums that have the names of the people in the photos. My dream of one day putting them all online to be freely viewed has finally come true and I now have over 80 albums published on my new Lost Faces site.

I've also added vintage postcards, and individual group photos of sports teams, school classes, and military. There's much more to come but I wanted to share this photo today since it is one of my favourites.  Below you can see the front and back of the Cartes de Visite of Joseph Curtis.

  
Surnames in the album include: Fobes, Tucker, Curtis, Gilbert, Peabody, Spear, Blake, Mansfield, Bassett, Botton, Williston, Nilliston, Kimbal, Daniels, Sutherland, Schaffner, Keith, Towne, Low, Wilder, Holden, and Whitemore. Locations of photographers include Massachusetts, New York, Illinois

Could one of your ancestors be featured? 

How an antique Illinois Family Photo Album came to Canada via New Jersey

My good friend Illya of LiveRoots.com sent me a gift several years ago of an antique photo album. The Album has had a rough life, and needed a good home, so Illya bid on it at a New Jersey auction, won the album and shipped it to me here in Canada.

Bertha Timmerman Fichter

The album has slots for 64 cabinet cards, and one tintype. 2 Cabinet Cards are missing, for a total of 63 ancestor family photos in this album. 15 of the Cabinet Card photographs were identified with writing on the album pages.

With the identification of those 15 photos and the clues from the photographers who took the photographs, I was able to find the family in the census for Chicago Illinois and determine that this album belonged to the Timmerman Family.

The Timmerman Family Photo Album is full of beautiful photographs, most taken in the period 1890 - 1910. Most of the photos were taken by photographers in Chicago Illinois - Morrison, Jaeger, Hoffman Studios, Vahlteich and others. A few were taken in Omaha Nebraska.

I wondered how a Chicago Photo Album over 100 years old ended up at a New Jersey auction, but research found that one of the Timmerman daughters (Bertha Timmerman) married a man named George Fichtner and moved from Chicago to Boontown New Jersey sometime between 1910 and 1920. No doubt the album was cared for by this daughter and her descendants for many years.

Olive Tree Genealogy has scanned several of the photos and published them online for all descendants and interested researchers to enjoy. I will be scanning all the photos and placing them all online in hopes that genealogists will recognize an ancestor. I've also written up the genealogy research I did on the Timmerman family and published it online as well. Hopefully interested descendants will enjoy this look into the family photographs of more than 100 years ago.

There are 63 other antique family photo albums (mostly from the Civil War era) online on Lost Faces on Olive Tree Genealogy website. More are being added as I scan them.

Fannie Slaven Family Photo

Fannie Slavens Family

This photo was tucked inside an antique Civil War Era Family Photo Album I purchased. Inside the album the inscription read "Sarah J. Taylor Album Presented by Thomas Taylor June 1871"

Can you identify anyone in this photo? For a list of other identified photos in this album, see Civil War Era Taylor Family Album with CDVs (Cartes de Visites)

Rescue Photo Album 1930s Carillon Quebec page 7

Continuing with the Flynn family photo album that I rescued from a nearby antique store:

 

This page is labelled "Carillon 1930" The photo on the left has "Age 4/30"

Rescued Photo Album 1930s Carillon Quebec

Old family photo albums are such precious items. Often they can be found lying neglected and in sad shape in flea markets and antique stores. When I can afford them, I rescue them and put the photos online in hopes a descendant will spot the treasure.

Recently I stumbled on this 11x7 inch photo album from the 1930s. It is chock full of family photos of individuals, of tombstones and even a photo of students in a school classroom from 1934.

Almost every page is dated and has the location noted, but there are very few names. However the tombstone photos provided wonderful clues and I was able to solve the mystery of what family is represented in this album. I won't make you wait - the family is the Flynn family of Carillon (near Montreal) Quebec. This album also reveals the intermarriage of the Bradley family and others.

Here is page 1 of the Flynn family album. 

This tombstone reads:

In Memory of William Flynn
died 29 December 1905
age 57 years 5 months

Agnes B. Flynn
died March 16 1899 
age 21 years

Jane Dundon
wife of John Flynn
died 18 June 1899
age73
a Native of Co. [Limerick?] Ireland 

The tombstone photo is labelled 1928. There are two missing photos, each labelled with dates but no other information.

To follow this project as I scan and place the photos online, just choose "Flynn Photo Album" in the right side bar. If you are related to this family, and would like to own the album, email me at olivetreegenealogy@gmail.com for details.

Is Your Ancestor on Lost Faces?

Have you ever wished you had a photo of a long ago ancestor? Wouldn't it be great to find out what great-grandpa Bert or great-grandma Olive looked like?

Lost Faces is a section of Olive Tree Genealogy website where I post photos from mid 1800s photo albums I rescue.

I choose albums with identified photographs so most photos have names attached. Civil War albums are gorgeous and here is a photo of a typical one.

Currently I have  70 antique photo albums online and each has from 30 to 50 photographs, so there are lots of photos and names. One might be your ancestor!

Here are a couple of examples to show you what might be found. This is a Carte de Visite taken during the Civil War

A small head and shoulders of a young man, identified by his initials.

A Cabinet Card of a young child, identified

Some albums have a great deal of information written on the album pages

If you have a few extra minutes, check out my YouTube video Five Types of Early 19th Century Photographs 

Learn to Recognize 5 Types of 19th Century Photographs

Personal Collection L. McGinnis Schulze

Do you need help to date a treasured photo found in grandma's trunk or shoebox in the attic? Were you lucky enough to inherit great-grandma's antique photo album? Then the video I created is for you! 
 

My  video shows early 19th century photographs and explains how to recognize each one. You can watch it on Olive Tree Genealogy YouTube Channel.

In the  video I introduce five types of photographs from 1839 on - Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes, CDVs (Cartes de Visite) and Cabinet Cards. In the video you will learn about the time periods in which these various photographic techniques were used and see examples from my personal collection. 

You can also visit Lost Faces for more information on 19th Century photos and examples from Civil War era Photo Albums. Lost Faces also contains over 1,500 CDVs, Tintypes and Cabinet Cards from my collection.

I plan to make more videos on Dating Photographs Using Fashion, Hairstyles, Revenue Stamps, Type of Photograph and Photographer's markings.