In 1982, when my Great-Aunt Alice died, the few personal belongings she had in the nursing home came to me. Among them were a couple of pieces of jewelry, a photo album and some larger loose photos, her art portfolio from when she was drawing in the 1940s and 50s, and her father’s collection of writings. Her father was a writer and a sports reporter for the Chicago Inter Ocean newspaper during the post-Civil War days through the late 1800s. The story of her father and mother I’ll save for another blog, but I’ll tease you with this: His writings include several semi-pornographic poems circa 1877. Yup, there’s really nothing new under the sun, is there?
When the Meehan branch of my family—my mom’s side—had a Cousins Reunion about fifteen years ago, I dug out the photos from Aunt Alice and brought them with me. They were a treasure trove of family history, except that many of them were unlabeled. Unless someone recognized the folks in the pictures, we had no idea who we were seeing. After looking at dozens of old pictures, dating back as far the 1860s, I began to understand how some family pictures end up in antiques stores. When you’re cleaning out your grandmother’s house of fifty or sixty years of clutter, and there are no names to attach to photos, perhaps it is easier to just abandon them. Thankfully, we didn’t do that.
One of the unlabeled, rather tattered pictures became known as the “mystery photo” and all the cousins took a turn examining it, comparing it to known pictures of ancestors, and peering at it endlessly with the magnifying glass. The photo has five young women, dressed in what appears to be wedding garb—long lacy dresses, headpieces with veils—a photo expert dated it somewhere between 1900 and 1920.
I’m fairly sure that I know who two of the women are: One is my Great-Aunt Alice (upper right) and one is my Great-Aunt Ruth (upper left). Alice, we verified with a known photo of her taken at roughly the same time where she’s wearing the same necklace she has on in the group shot. We did the same with Great-Aunt Ruth, although she’s very distinctive looking anyway. The one sitting on the cushion down in the front could be my grandmother, also named Ruth, but when she was very young. That young girl looks remarkably like my own mother when she was in her early teens.
We still have no clue who the others in the photo are or what the event is—we’ve considered that it might be a wedding since they’re all dressed in fancy clothes and carrying flowers. We also thought maybe it was a Job’s Daughters photo or a Sunday School class or a graduation. We seriously have no idea, but we’re kinda going with wedding idea.
But whose wedding? Which young woman is the bride? The one sitting on the settee on the right seems to have a fancier dress and her flowers look more like a bouquet and not a basket like the others—is she the bride? If so, why isn’t she front and center? The ancestor she looks most like is Great-Aunt Emma, but we don’t believe she’d have had such a fancy wedding. This appears to be a really extravagant affair with four bridesmaids in pretty snazzy dresses. Honestly, no one in our family could’ve afforded a big fancy wedding, so at this point, it remains a mystery.
I’ll continue to research this photo, as well as several others that we pondered over during Cousins Reunion–I’ll keep you posted if I find out anything new about these lovely ladies. Do any of you have any mystery photos? Pictures with no information written on the back? People you have zero idea who the folks are? Tell all!
Nan Reinhardt is a USA Today bestselling author of sweet, small-town romantic fiction for Tule Publishing. Her day job is working as a freelance copyeditor and proofreader, however, writing is Nan’s first and most enduring passion. She can’t remember a time in her life when she wasn’t writing—she wrote her first romance novel at the age of ten and is still writing, but now from the viewpoint of a wiser, slightly rumpled, woman in her prime. Nan lives in the Midwest with her husband of 52 years, where they split their time between a house in the city and a cottage on a lake.
Of the photos from my in-laws, my MIL had labeled everything. I think my parents may have photos without labels.
I agree with you on which one is probably the bride.
Hi, Denise! I thought she looked like a bride… if this is indeed a wedding photo… sigh.
Good morning Nan! What a beautiful picture! What a mystery to solve! I really need to get out the album my Aunt Mavis left me. She did label most all the pictures she had. And those through her genealogy research for our family. I have one picture of my parent’s wedding outside reception at my Grandma Tom’s which is my favorite of them! Which I could post it!
Happy investigating! Hope you solve your mystery photo!
Good morning, Tracy! How cool that you have that photo from your parents’ wedding! You should totally post it!
I too have found unlabeled pictures when looking at old photos. My mother sometimes know who they are and sometimes doesn’t.
With digital photography the way we do things now, I hope our pictures can be more clearly labeled.
My mom who died very young way back in 1988 had no idea who anyone was… one of my cousins is a genealogist and she was the one who always knew who people were… but this one was a mystery to her too.
What a delightful find! I would love that.
It’s a treasure for sure, but I’d sure love to who I am treasuring!
I have quite a number of pictures that I don’t recognize
I think even back then, when cameras in the general public were pretty new, we assumed that we’d always remember…
It’s so strange that you would post this now. I have been doing a deep dive into buried treasure hidden in my house. Buried under years of collecting things inherited from family members who are no longer with us, and things left behind by our children when they moved out. Things that you don’t dare part with, yet have no place to display.
Just two nights ago, I was going through old photo albums with my daughter. The photos are falling out of the old books and need to be redone. The repeated question was, “Who is that?” Too many times, the answer was, “I have no idea.” The names weren’t on the back, and we have no one to ask, which is sad.
I told my granddaughter months ago that I have lots of things to pass down to her, but each thing has a story. She looked at me with confusion and I explained. Not knowing who the items belonged to, or what sentimental value is attached, makes it another dust catcher that could be bought in an antique shop. The same is true with photos. I think it’s a good time to start attaching those names and sentiments to things so we don’t lose any more pieces of our past.
Excellent point, Lynne.
Don’t you just love to ponder over old photos and trying to determine who they all are and the occasion?
Ka noodling into one’s history is very rewarding.
I do love it, Judy! You discover things you never knew. I’d love a long day with my grandmother and mom just to find out the things I should’ve paid attention to when I was a kid.
My mother-in-law and I went through her photo albums a number of years ago and I had her tell me who the people were. Unfortunately I mostly wrote on the page instead of the back of the photo. Now some of the photos have fallen off of their original pages and mil is no longer here to identify them for me. Moral of this, label the picture don’t just make a caption.
My husband’s family has a lot of pictures taken in the early 1900’s with a Brownie camera or something similar. It always intrigues me to see the background of many of the pictures because that tells the history of their farm and the community in which their relatives lived.
Nan, is it possible this is a confirmation picture? Some of the old pictures at churches in this area show girls in fancy white dresses with flowers or a scroll tied with ribbons.
That got mentioned at Cousins Reunion. Except that is the Catholic church the only one that does confirmations? If so, my family isn’t/wasn’t Catholic. And the girls almost appear too old to be a confirmation class. Interesting thought…
Here it is Lutheran and Congregational churches of German and Germans from Russia heritage that have the pictures. Most confirmants were in their early teens.
Hi, what a treasure to find. Well, I have a photo of my paternal grandmother when she got married, it is only of her though. I also have a photo of when my maternal grandmother and grandfather were married, I know who they are because my mom told me, I also know who one of the maid of honor is because my grandmother had told my mom and actually she was my grandfathers ex girlfriend who my grandfathers mom(my great grandmother) had asked to be the maid of honor as she did not like my grandmother at all, which I think was pretty sad and not very nice that she had asked my grandfathers exgirlfriend to be the maid of honor. again, I have no idea who the other people are. I am guilty of not writing dates on the back of pictures when my 2 now grown adult children were little, now that is a pet peeve of mine, for awhile now, I have been writing the dates on the back of photos.
I keep thinking I’ll go through all my old photos and identify people… But when?
I do have many pictures that I know little about. When we cleaned out my Aunt Helen’s house there was a box of photos. I know two of the people are my Uncle’s siblings who grew up with my aunt and uncle after their parent’s died. They all appear to be from my uncle’s side of the family and I have no way to get the photo’s to them. I am not even sure if his siblings are still alive. They would be in their late 80’s or 90’s. I know she had a photo album of my baby pictures, as did my grandmother. I was the first grandchild, plus my aunt came down to the navy base where my dad was stationed to help my mom after I was born. Those albums were nowhere in her house when we cleaned it out. They are my only pictures of when I was little.
I have a nice portrait in a large oval frame with all the information about the woman and family written on the back. I cleaned out my boss’s house when she hurriedly moved out of the area. (Her husband had Alzheimer’s and she wanted to get him to better treatment.). The phot is a portrait of her mother that was left behind along with all the information and paperwork for her certification for membership in the DAR. We stopped in DC to visit her and she took the DAR info but didn’t want the portrait. I have no idea what that is about.
I bought a couple of 1940ish suitcases at a thrift store. When I opened them, they were full of family pictures. Family get togethers, children at play, holidays. It is so sad. Someone needs to have these back. We are not from this area so really didn’t know who to contact. We recently had a speaker on the history of blacks in this area. There is a black heritage center in town and I spoke to him and a fellow volunteer there. I told them about the pictures and will be bring them in. They or someone that comes through may recognize someone in the photos and help them get home.
As for my family’s pictures, for some reason, my dad gave them to one of my brothers. Unfortunately, he is Mr. Minimalist, He copied them onto a disc and threw them out. Needless to say the rest of us are not happy. Luckily one of my other brothers has the old pictures from my grandparents, so they are safe.
Thanks for bringing back some interesting memories.
Wow, I can’t believe somebody just left a bunch of photos in a old suitcase and gave it away to the thrift store. That’s so sad! So is the DAR story–I wonder why she didn’t want the photo. Bet there’s a story there… hmmm…