Soldier William Dumas of Wilcox Co., Alabama, died between 8 March and 15 November 1918 while at Camp McClennan, AL. His family sent in the picture above and filled out a biographical questionnaire about his life. But that wasn’t the only picture they sent. They also submitted this: The letter enclosed with the photo describes […]
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Category: Photographs
Dating Family Photographs
I have been interested for a long time in vintage pictures of African-American families, whether they are related to me or not. There’s just something about seeing a picture of someone who we know mostly through the census and vital and the other sources in genealogy. DuBois understood the power of images when he assembled a […]
Tips for Family Photographs
By far, one of the things that has drawn me to family research are family photographs. I have collected hundreds of pictures over the years from various family members. I have “picture envy” for the collections of some of my friends (one of my favorites is the header on Mel Collier’s blog). The idea of […]
Historic Trust Inventories: Search the L...
The image above is from the Inventory of Historic Properties, which is a part of the Maryland Historical Trust. (UPDATE, 9/21/2018: the website has changed in appearance) My cousin Jahrod shared this website with me and it is a goldmine: it contains digitized original applications from historic places in Maryland. Maryland Historic Inventories At the site, […]
William John Smith: Documenting A Life
This post is about the grandfather I never got a chance to meet because he died when I was two years old. William (or Bill as he was called) was born on October 6, 1914 in Jacksonville, Florida. He was born into a working class family and lived in a poor neighborhood on the eastside […]