I’m Blogging: The Year of the Photograph

Welcome to my new blog.  This is my very  first post ever! I know, you’re wondering what took me so long. I’ve been looking at blogs. Hundreds of them. Thousands, it seems. Genealogy is everywhere and the interest in old photographs is exploding. I’ve seen so many old photos on websites that I’m calling this The Year of the Photograph. The albums are coming out; the boxes are emptying. “Who Do You Think You Are” and “Finding Your Roots” are using more and more photos to add to the dramatic stories of  celebrities. The blogs about real, everyday people that  I’ve seen are really well done and they have one thing in common:  they are about an individual’s own family. To those bloggers I want to say that I’m in awe of your dedication and creativity

My plan is to make my blog different than most that I’ve seen.  Since I spend my time researching the photos of your families, I want to tell the details of dating and placing your families’ photographs and telling the stories within them. Occasionally I may put in a blog about my family but most of what I’ll do will be about sharing the skills and knowledge to help you and your family. I hope, too, to make some family connections for you. My new MatchMaker page on this website is a gallery of mystery photos, ones that I’ve worked on but for various reasons, haven’t been able to identify the Mystery Man or Mystery Woman in the photo. I hope that you’ll check out the first photos in the MatchMaker Gallery and come back often as I add more of my clients’ mystery photos. If you recognize anyone in the photos, please contact me and I’ll help make the match between you and the photo’s owner.

In the coming months, I hope to bring you more stories about our family photos from Eastern Europe, Western Europe, America, Canada and where ever else we’ve wandered. And I’ll explore how to look at our  family photos  in entirely new ways that can help you overcome the brick walls in your genealogy searches and learn more about the lives of those who came before us. I love, love, love, love, love  photos and  I’d love to get your feedback on my new venture, so please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email.

Now I know I said that I would mostly write blogs about your photos, but I’d be amiss if I didn’t dedicate my first blog to my origins,  with a photo of my family. This is the only photograph I have of my Grandpa Abe (standing alongside my mother and grandmother). It was taken in 1918, just six months before Abe died of the Spanish flu at age 31.  How do I know this date? Besides the clothing clues and my Mom’s age in the photo, my family passed down the information that my grandmother was pregnant with my aunt when the photo was taken. My aunt was born just two weeks before the day of Abe’s death. My Mom became the keeper of the family stories and now it’s my turn.  I hope that all in the photo are looking down and wishing me well.