Week 33 (August 9-August 15) What images can you add to your family story? Can you date the photos
I don’t have photos of my family from Cornwall, England. They immigrated to the United States in 1892/1893. However, I can find paintings of people in their town that were painted during that time period. Although they aren’t my family that was painted, I can still visualize the types of clothes that they wore and what their daily life was like. Then again, there were only 400-500 people in the town, maybe my ancestors really are one of the models for these photos. How can you enhance your story with information like this?
Do you have family photos that you can include with your story? Have you uploaded them to Memories? Have you tried to date the photos by using information about the type of photo and the clothing that they wore?
Some links to dating photos using historical clothing styles:
https://bellatory.com/fashion-industry/How-Womens-Fashion-Can-Help-Date-Old-Photographs
Resource information from the University of Vermont for dating men's and women’s clothing, hats, hairstyles, fashion accessories to determine when family photos were taken. Search by the decade: 1850s | 1860s | 1870s | 1880s | 1890s | 1900s | 1910s | 1920s | 1930s | 1940s | 1950s
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_fashion
Details about clothing styles through the years: 1830s -1960s
I have checked some of the old photos that I have and the time periods of the photos, based upon knowing information about the individuals and their family members. Sometimes you can determine the approximate ages of the children. I have found that clothing styles really were pretty consistent to the time periods. I have enjoyed learning which time periods that checkered or floral fabrics were used, or even suggested colors of fabric for different time periods. Last weekend, I was researching the clothing of my ancestors from Cornwall, England. It was fun to think about the clothing that they would have worn as they immigrated to America. I liked being able to visualize their method of travel, what they were wearing and what the ship looked like. I found paintings that were painted during the time that my ancestors were in Cornwall, just before they came to America. It was interesting to think about the town that they lived in having only about 400-500 people when my family was there. What are the odds that my family members might have been the people in the paintings?
I was fascinated by the artist's renditions of where my people were from and I plan to use these ideas as I write about my ancestors from Cornwall. I expect that there is artwork from many areas and time periods that could help us understand our ancestors better.
My ancestors weren't fishermen that I know of, but they did make the sails for the sail boats.
Answers
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I have included this picture of my father as a young boy and based on the clothing I would guess the time frame to be around 1930's.
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Such a cute little guy. Have you tried colorizing this picture at https://www.myheritage.com/incolor ?
What have you learned about his life? I am so amazed at how many details I have found for some of my ancestors. I used to be envious of people that had family photos. I learned that I just had to dig harder. It took me many years to find the people that had the photos, but what a joy this has been to make these discoveries.
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