Update: New Photos on Lost Faces

From the Pratt Morse Photo Album

On the weekend I added more photos to my new website Lost Faces. The Pratt Morse photo album is an amazing rescue - not only was I able to purchase two of the three Civil War era albums from this family, I was also able to save several individual cased daguerreotypes. I wish I could have purchased the third album but they were very expensive. 

Two male members of the Pratt family, Franklin Amos Pratt and Charles Pratt, were both in the 1st Regiment, Connecticut Heavy Artillery and R.S. Morse Sr may have also been in this regiment.

So far we have scanned 7 of the over 100 photos and these are online where they can be freely viewed and saved for your own personal use. I hope to have many more from this album completed and online over the next two weeks.  

Photos still in the beautiful Pratt Morse Family album

Surnames: Pratt, Morse, Morgan, Wilcox, Johnson, Pond, Stephen, Brach, Andrews, Steele, Lisdale, Wooster, Blakesly, Stevens
Locations: Connecticut, New York 

I also re-scanned several CDVs from the Kelley Family Photo album and replaced the poor quality scans with better ones.

Nursing Sister Philips WW1 Photo Album 64R

This Photo Archive consists of a small autograph album (6.5" by 5.25") kept by Constance (Connie) Philips as a memento of her time serving as a nurse during World War One.

The majority of the photos and items are from 1915, when she served as a nurse in France and Britain.

The album and all photographs, postcards, and other ephemera contained in the album belong to Karin Armstrong and may not be copied or republished without her written permission. The images will be published on Olive Tree Genealogy with permission.

Le Treport. "From Sister Ponsey?"

Each image has been designated an "R" for Recto or a "V" for Verso plus an album page number. Recto is the right-hand side page of a bound book while Verso is the left-hand side page.

I will be posting the entire album and my additional research on the individuals identified in Connie's album over the coming months so please check back frequently to view these historic photos. The easiest way to see what has been published is to click on the topic "Nursing Sister WW1 Photos"

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!

Update on 1943 Wedding Dress - it has a Home!

Last week I wrote about a 1943 Wedding Dress that had come down in the family and was now in our possession. What To Do With a 1943 Wedding Dress
explained that we have a beautiful dress worn by my husband's grandmother's sister Florence Elgie when she married Wilbert Hooper in St. Mary's Ontario.

As well as the dress we had the original marriage certificate and a newspaper clipping which contained a photo of the wedding party. I asked for suggestions on what we should do with this dress. One I received was to donate it to a local museum, so I contacted St. Marys Museum and Archives and a few days later received a reply that yes they were interested.

Then the fun began! We knew that my mother-in-law had more items that related to this St. Mary's family. Because they owned the Hooper Dairy in that small town I decided the museum would probably be delighted to receive everything we had.

You can see from the photo on the left all the goodies, such as Hooper Dairy milk bottles and milk tickets and tokens. We even have a photo of the original building for  "C.F. Hooper, Exeter Ontario New Laid Eggs". The wedding dress went back into its original box (top upper right of the photo above) wrapped carefully in its original tissue paper.

I'm excited about getting this packed up and shipped off to St. Marys Museum o Monday. Thank you to my readers who had suggestions and especially to daven5port whose idea it was to ask a local museum.

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!

Nursing Sister Philips WW1 Photo Album 45R

This Photo Archive consists of a small autograph album (6.5" by 5.25") kept by Constance (Connie) Philips as a memento of her time serving as a nurse during World War One.

The majority of the photos and items are from 1915, when she served as a nurse in France and Britain.

The album and all photographs, postcards, and other ephemera contained in the album belong to Karin Armstrong and may not be copied or republished without her written permission. The images will be published on Olive Tree Genealogy with permission.

Each image has been designated an "R" for Recto or a "V" for Verso plus an album page number. Recto is the right-hand side page of a bound book while Verso is the left-hand side page.

I will be posting the entire album and my additional research on the individuals identified in Connie's album over the coming months so please check back frequently to view these historic photos. The easiest way to see what has been published is to click on the topic "Nursing Sister WW1 Photos"

Kiss Me, I'm Irish!

Famine Emigration

In honour of St Patrick's Day, when tradition has it that we all want to be Irish, I shout out THANK YOU to my Irish ancestors who came from Ireland to Canada. 

John Greenlees and his wife Elizabeth Johnston came from Fermanagh Ireland to the wilds of Upper Canada (present day Ontario) with three children - George about 5 years old, Thomas about 3 years old and my 2nd great grandmother Jane who was under 2 years old. The year was some time between Jane's birth in 1819 and the birth of their next child in Upper Canada in 1821. What a perilous journey that must have been!

Joseph McGinnis and his wife Frances (Fanny) Downey from Co. Down made the journey from famine stricken Ireland with their year old daughter Bridget (Delia) in 1846. They were both barely 20 years old.

It must have been a nightmare voyage and I am sure that like most of the Irish who left Ireland during the Famine Years, they and their loved ones suffered greatly at home. Joseph and Fanny arrived in Ontario and settled near family who had arrived much earlier. They were my 2nd great grandparents. They were very poor Catholics and the land they settled on was more swamp than anything else.

So - I have three Irish great-great grandparents (Joseph, Fanny and Jane) and two Irish Great great great grandparents (John & Elizabeth). Out of that mix I get four Irish surnames: Greenlees, Johnstone, McGinnis & Downey.

I hope this Irish blessing worked for them! "May you be in heaven a full half hour before the devil knows you're dead."

The Peer Family in North America: V6 Jacob Peer Jr. and his wife Lucy Powers and their Descendants to 2 Generations

The Peer family, loyal to the British Crown, suffered from persecution in New Jersey throughout the American Revolution. Jacob Peer Jr. and his wife Lucy Powers settled in the wilderness of Upper Canada (present day Ontario) after the American Revolution. After suffering losses during the War of 1812, they left Ontario for Michigan in 1821.

This book discusses the lives of Jacob, his wife, and their children in those early years.

Descendants will enjoy seeing early documents such as land petitions, family photographs, probate records and wills.

The Peer Family in North America: V6 Jacob Peer Jr. and his wife Lucy Powers and their Descendants to 2 Generations

Available on Amazon.com or Amazon.ca

Note for the book on his parents you also need to purchase V. 1 Jacob & Anne Peer available at Amazon.ca

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.

Sprague Letter 1917

Annette P. has generously donated ephemera from various families to be shared on Olive Tree Genealogy. This set is a photo of a man and a 3 page letter signed "L. P. Sprague, Dowager" and dated October 3, 1917 from Lexington, Kentucky.

The letter does not have a salutation other than "My dear ---" but in the first paragraph Ms. Sprague writes that she isn't sure whether or not to address the letter to "Miss James" or "Mary Elizabeth" so we might assume the person she is writing to is Mary Elizabeth James.

There are many names in the letter: Mrs. Sprague, Miss Curry/Carry Breckinbridge, Miss Kraft, Miss McClure.

 

Unknown but with Sprague Letter

Nursing Sister Philips WW1 Photo Album 43 R

This Photo Archive consists of a small autograph album (6.5" by 5.25") kept by Constance (Connie) Philips as a memento of her time serving as a nurse during World War One.

 

Envelope

Letter p1

Letter p 2

The majority of the photos and items are from 1915, when she served as a nurse in France and Britain.

The album and all photographs, postcards, and other ephemera contained in the album belong to Karin Armstrong and may not be copied or republished without her written permission. The images will be published on Olive Tree Genealogy with permission.

Each image has been designated an "R" for Recto or a "V" for Verso plus an album page number. Recto is the right-hand side page of a bound book while Verso is the left-hand side page.

I will be posting the entire album and my additional research on the individuals identified in Connie's album over the coming months so please check back frequently to view these historic photos. The easiest way to see what has been published is to click on the topic "Nursing Sister WW1 Photos"

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.

Library of Trinity College in Dublin

There are so many amazing genealogical and research websites out there, and more surfacing all the time. As wonderful as that is for us genealogists, it also becomes challenging to find out about all of them.

I recently became aware of this wonderful site's collection of genealogical materials. The Library of Trinity College Dublin will undertake limited genealogy research.

Some of their digitized records consist of School Entrance records 1637-1961

Be sure to also see my article Irish Lands Stolen By Oliver Cromwell


Do yourself a favour and check out the site if you have ancestors who might have been in the area.

The Peer Family in North America: V. 5 Stephen Peer & His Wife Lydia Skinner and their Descendants to 3 Generations

The Peer family, loyal to the British Crown, suffered from persecution in New Jersey throughout the American Revolution. Stephen Peer was born circa 1780 in New Jersey to Jacob & Anna Peer. His father left New Jersey for Upper Canada (present day Ontario) in the summer of 1796.

Stephen married Lydia Skinner, the daughter of the Loyalist Haggai Skinner & his wife Elizabeth Westbrook. Stephen was killed at the Battle of Chippewa during the War of 1812.

This book discusses the life of Stephen, his wife, and their children and grandchildren in those early years. Descendants will enjoy seeing early documents such as land petitions, family photographs, newspaper clippings, and wills.

The Peer Family in North America: V. 5 Stephen Peer & His Wife Lydia Skinner and their Descendants to 3 Generations

Available on Amazon.com or Amazon.ca 

Note for the book on his parents you also need to purchase V. 1 Jacob & Anne Peer available at Amazon.com or Amazon.ca

What To Do With a 1943 Wedding Dress

This is a photo of my husband's Aunt Florence Hooper (nee Elgie) on her wedding day in 1943. The dress and veil Florence wore in 1943 is now in our possession.

On the left is the lovely dress worn by my husband's Aunt Florence at her wedding November 6th 1943. Florence, born an Elgie, married Wilbert Hooper in St. Mary's Ontario Canada.

After her death, her lovely dress and veil came to my husband and we've been debating what to do with it ever since.

Today we decided to donate it to our local theatre group in hopes they can use it in one of their productions.

Below see the Wedding Invitation for Florence and her marriage certificate. It makes a lovely group of family heirlooms and I wish we didn't have to separate the dress from everything else but we cannot care for it properly.

What would you do with a family heirloom like this?  

clipping from the local newspaper

 

 

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!

Postcard to Ruth Vessey from Elizabeth Finger 1910

Annette P. has kindly donated ephemera items to Olive Tree Genealogy for sharing with other genealogists. This is an early postcard, perhaps 1910 (date is hard to read) sent to Miss Ruth Vessey in Pennsylvania. It is from Miss Elizabeth Finger in New Jersey

 

 

Nursing Sister Philips WW1 Photo Album 42 V

This Photo Archive consists of a small autograph album (6.5" by 5.25") kept by Constance (Connie) Philips as a memento of her time serving as a nurse during World War One.

The majority of the photos and items are from 1915, when she served as a nurse in France and Britain.

The album and all photographs, postcards, and other ephemera contained in the album belong to Karin Armstrong and may not be copied or republished without her written permission. The images will be published on Olive Tree Genealogy with permission.

Each image has been designated an "R" for Recto or a "V" for Verso plus an album page number. Recto is the right-hand side page of a bound book while Verso is the left-hand side page.

I will be posting the entire album and my additional research on the individuals identified in Connie's album over the coming months so please check back frequently to view these historic photos. The easiest way to see what has been published is to click on the topic "Nursing Sister WW1 Photos"

Pic Scanner Gold - a Treat to Use!

Recently I was offered a free copy of a new app called Pic Scanner Gold. Since I'm all about rescuing, scanning, and preserving photographs, I jumped at the chance to try it out. Long story short, I love it! If you're a genealogist this app is for you. I have other scanners but what I like about this app is that if I don't have my mobile scanner with me, I can just pull my phone out of my purse and bingo - I'm set to grab scans of documents or family photos at auntie's house.

The Details

There is so much this scanner app has to offer - blemish control, crop, rotate, blur, focus, and more. The tools are a lot of fun to play with but make sure you have lots of time to try various things!

Easy Instructions
 
When you first start the app you are at the Home page. Select your photo, choose Scanner, and the app detects the photo. Snap it and the photo pops into Gallery where you can select it and start playing with the tools. Here are a few screenshots I took as I played with my first photo:

My scan was crooked because I held the camera incorrectly

The crooked scan can be easily fixed using the Rotate tool

Photo scan rotated

Photo scan sharpened

Add a free frame for fun

Maybe you prefer Vignette

You can create albums to keep your scans organized - and that's a real boon for genealogists! You can even create slide shows. You can add notes to your scans. All in all there are many goodies with this scanner, and they're easy to use with great results.

One piece of advice - don't use your iPad to scan as it is a bit more challenging to hold steady. I used my iPhone with no trouble.

Pic Scanner Gold has a FAQ online which has more information. The app is available in the App store

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?