Identifying those who came before us…

How many of you have ever gone through a box of your parents’ old photos and wondered: Who’s that? Where was this taken? How is she/he related to me?  Have you tried the same process with your grandparents’ pictures? Take it a step further. Have you ever gone through images left behind by say, a second or third cousin, who you knew briefly, and had only ever sat with in person three or four times? You see where I’m going with this. If you’re lucky enough, you inherit your family’s photographs, tintypes or even Cabinet Cards, but there is something deeply inherent and obsessive about wanting to put a name to every face. If there is the tiniest genealogical instinct in your soul, you’ll feel it come to the surface when you make it your mission to bring the family ghosts into the light.

It is just such a mission that has driven me to create my pet project, ‘Familiar Faces’. It’s experimental, but I think it’s well worth the effort. I have created a gallery for those nameless faces with the hope that someone, somewhere might recognize them or might have a similar photo in their collection with a name written on the back. It’s a longshot, but it’s at least a shot. While I am currently adding my own pictures from the past, I would like to share the gallery with others who need help. So, if you have an old photo of someone you know is related but you just can’t identify, feel free to send me a scanned image with as much pertinent information as you have. In other words, the name of the family who had possession of the image, what area that family was from and any other details you know. Then, send your family and friends to this page to see if they might recognize the face. If we all work together, perhaps this project will be a success and no photo will remain untitled.

Scroll down to see gallery images. All visitors to this page who believe they can identify someone among these images, please leave your thoughts in the comments section or contact me here.