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!

Gather Family for a Group Photo

If you haven't done this already - at your next family gathering (Christmas, Thanksgiving....etc) gather everyone together for a group shot. 

Think of how much fun it will be for the young children in this photo to see this photo 50 years from now. So take your photo, print some copies and identify everyone on the back. 

It's all about preserving memories.

Creating a Wall of Ancestors Using Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner & Shutterfly

One of the things hubs and I like is having framed photos of ancestors hanging on our living room wall. We didn't inherit any large framed photos, so we have created our own.

We hang them on every wall, including up the stairs. Mixed in with these ancestor photos are oil paintings done by hubs' grandmother and great-grandmother, watercolours done by yours truly, antique paintings we buy, and framed family treasures.

Here's how we do it:

1. Take an ancestor photo - a small one from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Make sure it is in sharp focus. Scan it (I use my Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner for this) and have it enlarged to the size you want. I use Shutterfly but you can use any service to do this.

The photo here is of my great-grandmother on her wedding day in 1867. The original is 3x5 inches. The enlargement is 9x15 inches.

2. Have the enlargement placed in a mat and then frame it. You can do it yourself by purchasing frames and mats or you can have this done professionally.

I collect antique picture frames (you find them in antique stores and flea markets) then hubs repairs and repaints them if needed.

3. Hang your portraits and voila! You have a gorgeous Wall of Ancestors!  We also hang antique paintings mixed in with our ancestors for a change of pace.

We have enlarged an antique photo of my 2nd great-grandmother and her first born grandson which was  2x3" into a lovely framed portrait for the wall.

We also took a small photo of hub's grandfather and had a poster made for his man cave. The new poster enlargement is from Shutterfly's College Poster section. We chose 20x30 inches.

Then we bought a cheap black frame from Walmart and hubs used the insert in the frame which he reversed to create a nice white mat around the photo.

Hubs has it with his WW1 military collection and I think it looks amazing!

I also did one of my grandfather in his Kent Buff's military uniform as a poster for my son.

This hobby doesn't cost much and it not only provides us with a great deal of enjoyment it also safely preserves our ancestor photos! The originals are stored safely in archival sleeves and only the digital copies are framed and hung.

WW 1 Photo Album Page 5

Continuing on with the WW1 Photo Album archive of my mother's cousin Doris's photographs that I inherited, here is the 5th page in the album. There were 5 photos all from WW1 era on this page

 Group of WW1 soldiers. No doubt Uncle Ern Simpson is in there!

I am not sure if this my aunt Lily born 1915 or Ern's daughter Doris born 1908 . I suspect it is Doris as a toddler

 Uncle Ern, Auntie Cordie and their daughter Doris in WW1

 Auntie Cordie knitting

I don't recognize these people but it could be Ern's brother Syd and his wife.