Posted on 11/19/2018 8:38:32 PM PST by thecodont
When Kurt Luther walked into Pittsburgh’s Heinz History Center in 2013 to attend an exhibition about Pennsylvania during the Civil War, he didn’t expect to be greeted by his great-great-great-uncle. A computer scientist and Civil War enthusiast, Luther had been drawn to researching his own family’s connection to the conflict, gradually piecing together information over years and years. But his searches had always failed to turn up a photograph, and Luther was ready to give up on the possibility of ever seeing his ancestors’ faces. It was only through sheer happenstance that, walking through the History Center that day, Luther had spotted an album of portraits of the men of Company E, 134th Pennsylvania––his great-great-great-uncle’s unit. Laying eyes on his relative’s face for the first time, he later wrote, felt like “closing a gap of 150 years.”
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
I have a cousin who buys pictures with some identification, and then locates descendants. He mails the pictures as a gift. They have been thrilled to find pictures of ancestors they have never seen. This is a dawning process.
Luther was ready to give up on the possibility of ever seeing his ancestors’ faces.
Then came the day he found a Civil War era photo of a relative who isn't his ancestor? How nice. Must be great to be a journalist.
Watched this today -- note that the bungler who pirated it to YouTube included the bonus of being able to watch about half of again, after watching the whole show.
Masks of Death: Death Masks of Lincoln, Shakespeare and Others
That's a great thing to do. I've found a few ancestors' photos on Find-a-Grave.
There was a Jerry Lewis movie where he proved he was an heir to a fortune by shaving the beard of a portrait of an ancestor.
From the mere outside appearance, the identifiers are the ears, mostly, and the nose, secondarily (investigation studies that go way back). With special equipment, it’s the irises and retinas (newer stuff).
I would love that.
I have a box of pictures inherited from my Grandmother, unlabeled - other than ‘just for fun’.
Probably not relatives, but who knows?
Same here. I have stacks of images going back to the late 1800s. No names. Just (mosty) grim stares.
And then there was the “unmasking” of the villain in The Hound of the Baskervilles via an ancestral portrait...
This topic was posted , thanks thecodont.
Found a photo of my great-grandfather on Ancestry.com. According to the text with it, he worked for the railroad in Holland. He was actually wearing his uniform in the photo. Looked like a conductor's outfit. My father came here from Holland when he was 8 in 1912. I don't know if he ever knew his grandfather...he never mentioned it, but he was named after him (Abraham), and looked just like him. And, my father worked on the New York Central Railroad his whole life.
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