What are your oldest family photos?

[skooooo]

I'm just curious if any DUers have extensive family photos from the early 20th century or mid-to-late 19th century. Tin types? Daguerreotypes?

Tell me about them. I've been doing genealogy online and am interested !

[bicentennial_baby]

1. Yes, my family has some

My great-great something or others were the Howes Brothers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howes_Brothers

They were my Grandpa's uncles, I think. :hi:

[MineralMan]

2. My parents have a box of tintypes...

They're probably relatives from the 19th century, but nobody who's alive knows who the heck they are. I'm going to grab the box, eventually, and I think I'll just frame them all up in one frame and label it "Miscellaneous Ancestors." Buncha ugly old farts in those photos, so I'm sure they're relatives of mine.

Geneology isn't a thing in my family.

[seemunkee]

3. I have the family archives

There are a few tin types. How do you recognize a dagurreotype? I would guess there are a few in there.

[skooooo]

6. They're kind of in a box...

I think they used shadow box or something in the photography. Someone can explain better.

[seemunkee]

25. OK, I have a few of those. Non that I have scanned though

Here is one of my great grandmother. Not sure how old she is but I'm guessing this is from around 1870

[skooooo]

31. oh my gosh..

She's so tiny. And look at the fringe on the chair. How interesting! Thanks for posting.

[Gormy Cuss]

4. Civil war photos of soldiers in uniform.

A great-great-great-grandfather and his brother to be precise. The next oldest is from the 1880s or so, then I have about twenty from the first decade of the 20th century (some tin, most not.)

[skooooo]

7. Cool!

Yeah, we have some civil war photos. Interesting stuff.

[Guava Jelly]

5. I have a few

Two of my Grandmas taken in the 1880's

and three Aunts taken around 1912-1917.
The taller one died at age 11

[skooooo]

8. awesome..

We have some photos from studios like the first one you display. Too bad they didn't keep records, or maybe they did... It's a never ending puzzle.

[Nikia]

9. We have tin types

from the mid 19th century. Those were from my dad's mother's family.
Does that mean that they were actually somewhat affluent?

[skooooo]

11. Could be..

Do you know who the people are? their names?

[Nikia]

18. Yes

They were Michigan farmers who are my direct ancestors and families.
My wondering if they were affluent stemmed from the fact that they had a significant number of photographs. Weren't photographs a little expensive then or not really?

[skygazer]

10. I'm fortunate to have a number of them

I'm the family historian so I hold all the old stuff.

My great-great grandfather in 1865, at the end of the Civil War -



Daguerreotype of my great-great-great-grandfather (his granddaughter married the first guy's son :) ) from the early 1800's -



Carte de visite of my great-great grandfather, son of the man in the above daguerreotype in the late 1800's -



And I'm not sure of the exact relationship but she is some collateral relative, an actress from the late 19th, early 20th century -

[skooooo]

13. Wow, that first photo..

...is in really good shape. Our few daguerreotypes are not as nice. I wonder if they can restore them very easily? Probably depends.

[skygazer]

15. That particular ancestor was mildly prominent in the war

The National Archives, Library of Congress and the US Military History Institute have a number of photos of him and I have gotten many copies through them which is why they're in such good shape.

Here's another near Petersburg in 1864 - I have about a dozen -

[whistler162]

26. So do we get a name to go with the face of the

Brigadier, brevet I assume?

Please and thank you.

[skygazer]

37. Brevet Brigadier General Robert Nugent

Colonel commanding the 69th NY Volunteer Infantry, lead regiment of the Irish Brigade for most of the war. Wounded and nearly killed leading the charge up Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg, he was sent back to New York to recuperate where, when the unit was reorganized (because of the appalling loss of men) he was reassigned as a Provost Marshal.

In that capacity, he pulled the first name out of the hat for the new draft, instigating 3 days of rioting that resulted in over 100 deaths and the burning to the ground of his home.

He eventually persuaded the governor of NY and the Sec'y of War to allow him to re-recruit for the brigade, brought it back up to strength and returned to it in 1864, when the photo of he and his staff before his tent was taken. He was brevetted four times during the course of the war and made the army his career (on the advice early in the war of a regular army colonel, one WT Sherman, under whose command the regiment fell during the first battle of Manassas).

I have another nice photo of him posing in New Orleans in about 1880 with the other Captains of the 13th Infantry (his assignment after the war), including one Arthur MacArthur, father of Douglas.

And thanks for the interest. :hi:

[whistler162]

43. Way cool.

thanks for the information.

[skooooo]

14. Wow, that first photo..

...is in really good shape. Our few daguerreotypes are not as nice. I wonder if they can restore them very easily? Probably depends.

[BOSSHOG]

12. I have a very neat picture

of my maternal grandfather (whom I was named after) and his two sisters taken in 1904. He was four years old at the time. Its in very good condition.

[meegbear]

16. My mother has "mourning portraits" of some of her mother's family ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mourning_portrait

[skooooo]

20. Isn't that stuff weird???

Macabre, though, I guess it was the style at the time. I know they did it quite often with babies who died.

[skygazer]

23. Well, people didn't have the access to cameras that we do now

And with childhood mortality high, they had the option of either having no visual record of a beloved child or a photo of them after death. I think I might choose that too in that situation.

I find them very sad. :(

[Lavender Brown]

40. We found one of my uncle who died as a baby

From 30s/40s Italy. He would have been my dad's older brother. We found it after my grandmother died.

[dana_b]

17. a few of my grandfather and his family

from the early 1900s taken in New Zealand. Others of my step dads family from Reno, Nevada. His grandfather drove a Wells Fargo carriage. Wish I had a scanner.

[TZ]

19. We have one of someone

But we don't know who it is or when it was taken exactly..because the writing on it is all in cyrillic (Russian). My family came over here around 1890 or so, so its older than that most likely.

[whistler162]

21. A photo of my grandfather and parents and siblings....

from the early part of the 20th century. Likely just before he immigrated to America.

[applegrove]

22. We have a few old ones that are very old. From 1890 at least. Don't know what type of picture they

are.

[Aristus]

24. My mother is a geneologist, so she has tons of old family photos from the 1800's.

I don't have any of them in my Photobucket account though. You'll just have to be satisfied with these 'Olde Tyme' photos of me as a Civil War Union officer:

[skooooo]

30. lol..pretty good!

I'm sure you would have been a fine soldier.

[grannylib]

27. I have some wonderful family records, my ancestors were packrats

I was just looking at a couple of albums full of wedding pictures of my great-great-grandparents' wedding, and others from their generation. My great-grandparents on my mother's side (her mother's parents)were married in 1883, and I have tons of pictures of their siblings' and friends' and cousins' marriages as well.

[skooooo]

29. That's wonderful!

Wow, marriage pics of your GG-GPs. I have pics of some GG Gps, but only after they are older.

[grannylib]

36. Here's one I just scanned. This is my great grandparents and

their family; my grandma (mom's mother) is standing in back on the left. This would have been about 1908 or so.

[skooooo]

45. Who's the older woman..

..sitting in the chair? She looks like she's got a bit of gumption to her! :-)

[grannylib]

46. That would be my great-grandma.

It's she and her hubby, and the rest are their kids. The two women on the left are Olga and Idelia (my gran) and the two women on the right are Stella and Inga, and the two boys are Conrad and Orrin.
I love the white dress that Olga is wearing; I still have that in a steamer trunk here at home :-)If it fit me, I would have worn it as a wedding dress! Alas, no such luck *lol*

[Roon]

28. I have a picture of my Grandfather's first day of school

I am not sure what year it was taken but you can see all the Model-Ts in the back ground.

[SammyWinstonJack]

32. Here's a pic of my mom and dad.

[skooooo]

34. They look suspicious to me...

Are you sure they weren't a couple of hoods??

[SammyWinstonJack]

35. .

:silly:

[Mari333]

33. have a lot of tintypes

my gr gr gr grandfather was a photog. so i have a lot of his. and then some beautiful photos from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

[frogmarch]

38. This picture of my Indian ancestors

was emailed to me, and I don't know how old it is exactly, but the girl sitting the highest up toward the right is my maternal grandmother. The man above her left shoulder is her father, my gr grandfather. The woman on the end is her mother, my gr. grandmother. The man and woman on the far left are my gr grandmother's parents, my gr gr granparents. This is the oldest picture I have of my family.

[skooooo]

39. That's a very interesting picture...

India, as in the country, right?

I'd treasure that pic, if I were you! :-)

[frogmarch]

42. Yes, India.

I was born there, in the Himalayan foothills.

The English clothing (not to mention the doll) seem out of place. :-)

[oshyposhy]

41. Great thread!

I love family history and have been doing genealogy for years. I have boxes and boxes of old pictures and documents.
Thanks for sharing!

[skooooo]

44. I've got a photo that no one has been able to figure out..

It's an old man. Picture was taken in the late 1800s (or mid?), and he's wearing some kind of ceremonial outfit. Someone said it looked machine-made. Maybe some kind of masonic thing...