I know these people must be relatives, but who are they?

Any family photo collection invariably contains those pictures of people whom no one can identify.  Boxes and boxes of photos end up in antique shops for sale because once the older generation is gone, no one knows who these people are, and they never thought (or had time) to ask.  I find myself fascinated by these orphan photos (more on that in another blog post), but I am more intrigued by the photos I know came from my own family’s collection of people who aren’t recognized by anyone still living.

The above photo of two handsome gentlemen is a case in point.  This picture came from my in-laws rather small collection of family photos.  They moved around a lot, so they never accumulated the kind of “stuff” many other people do.  Somehow, this picture was saved in a small cache of old photos, so my assumption was it had some importance.  The other photos in the collection were fairly random, a few of my husband’s grandfather Tom Dougherty in his youth, more of his grandmother Helen Polchlopek’s family.  Another photograph in the collection is below, and shows the above-mentioned Tom Dougherty in the back row on the left.  Next to him is his mother, Regina (Tetrault) Dougherty, and next to her is his father, Thomas Dougherty, Sr.  They were identified by my father in law, Steve Dougherty, as his father and grandparents.  Steve remembered his father had 3 sisters- likely the 3 female adults in the photo.  Research revealed the names, ages and genders of the sisters’ children, leading to likely identification of the youngsters in the photo. 

Looking at the older man identified as Tom Dougherty Sr., I can’t help but wonder if he is the same man who appears on the right in the picture of the two men above.  From what I can make out in the group photo, the facial features look similar.  The way the two men are posed indicates a close relationship of some kind.  Genealogy research revealed that Tom Dougherty, Sr. had two younger brothers, James, who was a year younger, and Martin, who was 6 years younger.  James was killed in a train accident in 1895.  An examination of the original photo would be in order at this point to determine if there is a photographer’s imprint.  It might be possible to use city directories for the location where the photo was taken (in this case, Providence, Rhode Island) to determine what years the studio operated.  This could narrow down the possible years the photo may have been taken, and might help to determine which of the brothers appears in the photo.

The man on the right appears to be dressed more casually than the man on the left.  This might indicate that the man in the suit had a desk-type job and the other man was a laborer.  Thomas Dougherty, Sr. was a teamster, a profession he followed throughout his life.  The style of dress of the man on the right seems to fit this occupation.  James Dougherty worked on the railroad, where he was killed.  The man on the left seems a bit overdressed for a railroad worker.  Martin Doherty had a variety of occupations during his lifetime, one of which was a gardener for a private family.  Maybe he hobnobbed with the better sorts, which might explain the duds.

No matter who they are, the photo shows a couple of genial lads, the kind whom you might expect to find hanging out at the local pub.  I would not mind claiming these good looking guys as my relatives any day.  

I'm back!!!

Pictures were one of the big reasons I became interested in family history.  The above photo especially played a big role in my curiosity about the people in our family whom I knew, but especially those who I didn’t.  Somehow seeing the faces of long-parted ancestors gave them unique personalities and made them more “real” to me.

 My grandparents had a large photo collection which was, in part, kept in an old suitcase under a guest room bed.  One of my favorite activities when I was visiting was to pull out that suitcase and rifle through the contents.  Most of the pictures stored there were of myself, my sister and my 6 cousins, documentation of my grandparents’ life as grandparents.  My grandmother must have sensed a deeper interest, and that was when she pulled out the rarer family treasures, like the photo above.  It shows my grandfather’s 3 sisters, and was probably taken around 1903.  I remember being very intrigued with the girls’ clothing, jewelry and hairstyles, like any girl would be, but also the fact that I had actually known two of these ladies.  The difference between them as little girls and as the older women I was familiar with left a deep impression on me. 

Unfortunately I did not become very involved with family history in time to ask questions of my Aunt Lula, my aunt Emma, or even my grandfather.  All I knew came from some of the random things I could remember them saying, or my grandmother’s memories.  Then, of course, there were the photographs.  My grandfather’s family seemed to have been very fond of photography. The photo collection my grandparents inherited had been gathered from several different sources- my great grandmother, 2 of my great aunts, and also my grandparents themselves. 

So the photos were left to speak for themselves.  They can reveal information from obvious sources- what’s written on the back, what type of material they are printed on, the things we have been told about them, or information stamped on them from developing labs or photo studios.  But then there are things that can be inferred by more detailed observation of the image itself.

 I did know some facts about the photo, such as the girls’ names, approximate ages, and birth order.  Florence in the center was the oldest, Lula on the left was the middle, and Emma on the right the youngest.  All were older than my grandfather, who was born in 1909.  What else could be inferred just from looking at the photo?  All three girls were neatly dressed, their hair tied back in similar pony tails.  They are wearing jewelry- bracelets, rings and necklaces.  Their dresses are all of a shorter length characteristic of children’s wear, and they appear to be made of heavier material with long sleeves, so the season must have been either fall, winter or early spring.  Their pose indicates a close family bond- Florence and Emma are seated on a brocade stool, Florence has her arm around Emma.  Lula stands next to them, her hand on Florence’s skirt.   

This type of “reading between the lines” to look at the photographic evidence in a new way is known as “Forensic Genealogy”.  It’s defined as a creative way of analyzing the data in front of us- using traditional genealogy records as well as photographs to tell the story of our ancestors.  The book “Forensic Genealogy” by Colleen Fitzpatrick is considered the foremost reference on the subject.  You can check it out here:  http://www.forensicgenealogy.info/

In future blog posts, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite photos that have served as inspiration for my genealogy research.               

They're here!!

The Catholic parish records database at http://registers.nli.ie/ is barely 24 hours old, and already I’ve been binge-searching it!  I have to say I’m quite impressed overall.  In 20 years of genealogy research, I’ve had basic exposure to Irish Catholic parish records that probably mirrors the experience of many of us doing family history from here in the states.  Starting with dealing with the county heritage centers in the 1990’s, moving to ordering films from the LDS when they were available, to more recently using the RootsIreland and Irish Genealogy databases online, I feel I’ve got a fairly good handle on the limitations, availability and condition of the records, especially those in the parishes I am most familiar with from Counties Laois, Wicklow, Clare and Galway.  This familiarity, along with the knowledge that these records were going to be searchable page by page only, prepared me fairly well for today’s debut.

Still I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised.  The records are pretty much as I expected, but the website itself and its search features are a definite positive.  It’s obvious that the National Library took great pains to make the database as user-friendly as possible.  This is something I greatly appreciate, knowing the hours of eyestrain that it can take to find a single record on microfilm. 

The search is fairly straight forward if one knows the parish and an approximate date.  Clear details are given as to the holdings of each parish- the years covered for baptisms and marriages, the number of images.  You can click on whichever roll within the parish contains the year you are interested in.  The image quality is also very good- I was able to navigate, and zoom in and out and maintain a clear image.  One function I love is the ease of searching page to page- no need to click a forward arrow to advance to the next image like on Ancestry or Family Search’s databases, simply just keep scrolling down to get to the next page.  Downloading the images was also easy and I was able to import into Picasa to enhance them for better readability.

Traditionally, we are lead to believe that the parishes around Dublin kept better and more detailed records than the “wilder”, more far-reaching parishes in the west of Ireland.  I found the records I looked through for counties Clare and Galway to be much easier to read than those from Laois and Wicklow- all from roughly the same time period.  So expect a few challenges to pre-conceived notions you might be holding on to!

Of course we know that not all parish records are created equal- spidery, faded writing is still going to be migraine-inducing even on an oversized monitor.  “Gaps and omissions” are going to remain a serious problem in many of the records.  (I did notice in the Aughrim, County Galway baptism records the priest had made a notation that the records were missing for an 18 month period of time- which could very well explain the absence of my husband’s GG grandfather’s baptism record)  Despite these unavoidable limitations, I can see many researchers making important discoveries using this database, and it is one I will be returning to frequently.  There’s something simply magical about seeing your ancestor’s name leap off a page of records from his or her homeland- it deepens our connection and solidifies our place in our family history.  Kudos to the National Library for providing the opportunity for people around the world to have this experience!