Researching Found Photos

By Eilene Lyon

A Place to Start

I shop at antique marts looking for 19^th and early-20^th century photos. We have only one antique store in Durango, which I’ve thoroughly gleaned, so this usually happens when I travel.

I look for images that have a name inscribed somewhere on them, first/last or at least the surname. A photographer’s mark or logo is helpful. In one case, I was able to work with just a pair of first names (one actually a nickname).

One time, I had no name at all, but the portrait was unusual, not a studio pose. This enabled me to identify the person with just a photographer’s mark and clues from the image.

Having a full name, and maybe a date, inscribed somewhere on the image usually ensures success. Often photos of children will include their birth date and/or age. My ultimate goal is to reunite the photo with family. I also share the images in the public domain (one reason I work with older photos).

Ancestry and Find A Grave

I have a public tree on Ancestry called “Found Photos Family Tree.” It’s actually a series of small, disconnected trees, one for each photo I research. I post the image there, making it accessible to Ancestry users. If the photo subject has a Find A Grave memorial, I post it there as well.

If there is no date, I research the studio to find out when it operated, narrowing the time frame. The location of the studio also gives me a place to begin searching for my subject.

In the case of David R. Young, the photo was dated in February 1896. The photographer, Arthur Glines, was located in Boston, Mass. I gauged that David was about mid-40s when the portrait was done, giving an estimated birth year around 1851.

My search for David in Boston turned up only a Black man, who was too young. David never did live in Boston, it turns out, so I had to widen my search. Looking at family trees turned up a David R. Young born in 1850 in New York, who died in 1918 in Connecticut. This ultimately proved to be the man I was seeking, but I could not yet confirm it.

The loopy handwriting, fancy apparel, and his inscription to his mother, calling himself her “big boy,” led me to suspect he never married. That turned out not to be the case—he had three wives!

But I found a possibility in Find A Grave: David R. Young, born 1856 and died 1930 in Los Angeles. Neither he nor his two sisters married and all three share a vault with their parents. The L.A. location made me wonder if he might have been an actor. But why inscribe a photo just to his mother and not both parents who were still living in 1896?

Newspaper Research

Searching for David R. Young in the 1890s in California and in three east coast states (New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts), did turn up stories about an actor by that name in all four places. But was the one in the California papers the same as the one back east? Given that the east coast man was absent from eastern news during the period he showed up in California, I concluded there was just one actor by that name.

When I plan on writing a blog for a particular photograph, I will do an in-depth newspaper search to develop a life story.

Finalizing the Identity

Going back to David R. Young (1850-1918), I followed all the leads from Ancestry, including his Find A Grave memorial, which had a photo of David taken not long before his death. From that, though weak evidence, I was convinced I had the right man.

The key document proved to come from World War I. Connecticut conducted a “Military Census” in 1917–1918. According to Ancestry it was done “at the direction of the General Assembly with an eye to assessing manpower available for war and other resources in the state.”

All men over age 15 filled out the form which asked the usual questions found on such a census, but also had many particular questions regarding skills: Can you ride a horse? Drive an automobile? Handle a boat? Experienced with steam engines? Can you swim? Operate a wireless?

David filled out the form himself. Though it was 21 years later than the Boston portrait, his handwriting had changed just slightly. You can see for yourself, particularly with the date, that I had my proof.

Finding Family

My search for family is usually confined to Ancestry users who are related to my subjects. I find them by looking at family trees in my hints. I click to see that person’s page for each tree. Then I follow these steps for each:

1. Click on the Tools at top right and select “View in Tree.”
2. Make sure the tree is in Horizontal mode.
3. Click on the “Home Person” icon (which is often the tree owner, but not always).
4. View the home person’s ancestors, looking for the family name in question. If it isn’t there, I also check their spouse’s ancestry.

In this way, I often find a descendant on at least one tree. Then I send a message. Unfortunately, many messages go unanswered. After a time has passed, I’ll try another descendant. Sometimes I wind up going to a tangential relative, typically a descendant of a subject’s sibling.

I sometimes reach a dead end: no living descendants for the subject or for their siblings. In that case, my blog, Ancestry, and Find A Grave become the only way to memorialize these people.

On the other hand, I’ve communicated with people who are extremely grateful to have their “lost” family photos. I have shipped them to California, Idaho, Indiana, Virginia, and Ontario. Often, the recipients have never seen them, or any photo of the person pictured. It does warm my heart!

Feature image: Front and back of carte de visite of Anna (Stock) Krug, circa 1890. Though Anna had grandchildren, I’ve not yet found a living descendant. The notation “To Sarah” suggests she gave this to her sister. (Collection of the author)