I've been spending time recently looking through our family photographs. These range from the more recent ones to the oldest ones I have, which date from the early 1870s. I consider myself fortunate to have this rich visual legacy of my family and, although there are chronological gaps and missing images of some family members, these provide a vivid representation of the family's appearance over time.

Over the years, I have written a number of detailed biographical sketches of certain ancestors. My great-grandfathers were so honored when I wrote mini-histories of them for the Floyd County, Georgia, book a couple of years ago. Recently, however, I have begun considering a broader work about each of these two branches of the family and have been reviewing the family pictures looking for inspiration.

It is possible to write a compelling biography or family history using photographs. I've done this before and want to share a few thoughts about the technique in "Along Those Lines . . ." this week.

A Good Place To Start
We've been told by genealogists many, many times to start with ourselves and work backwards. I think our approach to reviewing photographs and biographical material tends to be in chronological sequence. After all, that's how we live our lives. What I have done with the photographs I have of the people about whom I plan to write is compile them in chronological sequence. I place them in archival safe photographic accordion file folders by family.

The most important job is to properly identify the subjects in the photos and the locations. This is emphatically not the easiest part of the process. If you're lucky, someone in the family has already done much of this work and labeled the photos. If not, you will need to make this a high priority. You may want to consider making complete sets of photocopies and sending them off to relatives and old family friends to help with the identification process. On the photocopies, you can always make notations of those who have been identified and/or circle people with whom you need help.

The study of the type of photograph, the card stock on which it is mounted, the card stock's color, embossing, and edge treatment all help you home in on a time period.

Clothing can be a tremendous help in identifying people in the photographs. It takes a little study but you can learn about clothing fashion for men, women, and children and use this knowledge to isolate the subjects to a specific time frame. For instance, on one style of women's dress I found in a photograph, I noted the balloon shoulders and could therefore say that the photograph was taken after a specific date. In another, the striped stockings and dress worn by a baby boy helped isolate the time period for that photograph.

Another approach to the identification process is to review the photos you have and to A) use family resemblance to help group people together, and/or B) use a process of elimination to hone in on who a person is NOT and then speculate on who the person IS. Sometimes for me it has been a combination of the two. In one group of photos taken by my grandparents and great-aunts and -uncles in the early 1900s, I employed an interesting and rewarding process. The subjects included my grandmother and grandfather before they were married in 1908. Four of my grandmother's five sisters were included, as well as another man. I needed to isolate who was who. With the four sisters, it took some careful examination of the photos with a magnifying glass to verify the identities of three of them. Their identities were confirmed by using other, later picture. The fourth woman was a problem. It was not until I sent copies to a cousin who had different photos taken at the same time that I was able to make the necessary connection. My cousin copied her photos for me. Then, using the plaid, full-length skirt to verify it was the same person, along with my magnifying glass, I was able to connect the sister to an identified professionally-taken photograph made a few years later. Success!

Next, I work my way through the collection, not once but twice. First I work through the file in chronological sequence, and then I work backward. I make sure that I have the photos in the right order. This means trying to group them into what might have been the right order both by year and then by season of the year.

Next I try to determine just where the photograph was taken. Photographers' imprints on card mountings can be helpful. If you find multiple picture taken some time apart by the same photography studio that could indicate the subject lived close by. If you find a single photograph like this, it could be a secondary source of verification of residence. Look, too, at casual photographs for clues to location: landmarks, street signs, business names, events—all of these can contribute to identification of place, and sometimes the date.

Writing The Story
The old adage, "One picture is worth a thousand words," really is true. For a writer, a photographic image of an ancestor in a certain locale at a specific point in time can translate into a rich narrative. For example, I wrote:

"On 28 May 1900, Green Berry Holder filed an application with the United Daughters of the Confederacy to be considered for the award of a Confederate Cross of Honor. At that time, he was living in Lindale, Georgia. It was not until 1912 that the honor was bestowed. "On the appointed day, Green Berry arrived at the Civic Auditorium in downtown Rome, Georgia, with his wide, Penelope, for the awards ceremony. At sixty-seven, he still cut quite a figure. He was five feet ten inches tall and slender, sporting a full grey moustache and beard down to the middle of his chest—so full and brushed so that his mouth was not visible. He was dressed in a frockcoat and vest, a black round-top hat with a silk band, his cravat completely hidden by his beard. His gold watch chain stretched across his torso and the timepiece rested in a vest pocket."

A further description of the ceremony, the speakers and the presenter from a newspaper account of the event, as well as a description of the venue as shown in a photograph in the newspaper would contribute to the text concerning Green Berry. Additional descriptive material about Mrs. Holder also would be appropriate to incorporate her into the event. And while no mention was made of other family members' attendance, you can be sure that some or all of the local family were there. Perhaps additional material about other Confederate veterans on whom the UDC bestowed the Confederate Cross of Honor would be appropriate, especially if the rest of the biography described interaction with some of these old friends and colleagues.

The use of 'props' such as buildings, automobiles, pets, furniture, tools, and other things you see in the pictures, can add atmosphere. They bring the stories to life and help humanize the subject.

Incorporating Other Facts
The research you have compiled over the years should provide you with a rich set of details. For instance, I could include the information from the marriage certificate, including the names of the clergy and witnesses. Information on where the person lived and with whom can be derived from census records, along with the occupation and the value of the property. I could even provide a description of the death, funeral, and interment from the obituary. A visit to the cemetery and photographs of gravestones, dates, and epitaphs add to the story.

Pulitzer Prize?
My motivation is not to win a literary award for my work, although I do want to produce a quality piece of work. My goal, and probably yours too, is to document the collected facts into some semblance of factual (not fictional) biography to preserve the story of the ancestors. I'll never win a Pulitzer Prize. My reward will be compiling quality family historical information. Not only will the photographs contribute to the text, they can complement it when I publish the history.

Research, methodology, planning, and dedication to documenting the facts (complete with citation of your sources): these are the components of writing a quality history. But organize and date those old photographs, identify the people and the places that are portrayed, and let the photographs speak to you. You'll find that the stories may write themselves because your ancestors will come back to life in front of your eyes.

Happy Writing!
George