Uncovering Your Ancestry through Family Photograph (Paperback)

by Maureen Taylor (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
In this visually stunning book of historic family photographs, renown family-history photography expert Maureen A. Taylor shows genealogists, scrapbookers, and history enthusiasts how to cherish old photographs and what clues they provide on ancestors' lives. Readers will learn how to:

-Identify and verify people in family photographs

-Tell the story of identified photographs using the clues in the images

-Locate additional family photographs

-Create worksheets for each image to expand their knowledge about their ancestors

This improved revised edition, full of color photographs, is sure to be instructive and inviting to readers looking to learn more about their family photos and history.

About the Author
Maureen A. Taylor is a genealogist who writes for Memory Makers, Heritage Albums, and is a contributing editor for Family Tree Magazine. She is the author of Preserving Your Family Photographs and Scrapbooking Your Family History.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Family Tree Books; 2 edition (June 24, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558707247
• ISBN-13: 978-1558707245
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #65,813 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful and useful book, January 5, 2001

By	Mark Howells (Puyallup, Washington State, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Uncovering Your Ancestry Through Family Photographs (PBS Ancestor) (Paperback)

This book is an outstanding way to expand your family history skills through photo research. It provides step-by-step advice on how to identify ancestors in photos using their poses, clothes, studio props, and other information.

After giving a history of photography with emphasis on identifying types of photographs by era, the author provides chapters such as "Looking for Clues", "Identifying Costume", and the very important "Identifying the Photographer". The book also gives detailed information on how to build your own family photograph collection including the use of photograph worksheets and proper labeling.

The photographs used to illustrate the book are simply glorious. It is a visual treat to follow the pictorial examples given to explain the text. Each photo is an exquisite specimen of how our ancestors faced the camera.

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real help to genealogists!, April 17, 2001

By	Linda Kleback (Lynn Haven, FL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Uncovering Your Ancestry Through Family Photographs (PBS Ancestor) (Paperback)

This book has great value to the genealogist. When confronted with unidentified photographs, we often despair of ever identifying the subjects. This book offers real assistance with this. Author Maureen Taylor offers detailed information on using clues in photographs themselves to identify their subjects. One example on pages 42-43 shows a street scene in Providence, Rhode Island. Since the photo contains telephone lines, research can place the image after 1881, the year telephone service was introduced there. The date can be even more precisely determined by other internal details of the photo. The book's appendices include a "Timeline of Photographic History" and an excellent bibliography of sources.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best for Photograph Dating, July 23, 2007

By	Carol Boston (Eureka, IL, USA) - See all my reviews

This is an excellent "textbook" for anyone who is getting into dating old photographs. Taylor gives very thorough and accurate information on photography processes and the types of photographs to be found in old collections.

The section on identifying costume is especially fine, although it is just a beginning for learning how to determine age by the clothing being worn. The worksheets provided at the end of the book are especially helpful.

All in all, if you are only going to buy one book on this subject, this is the book for you!