Historical Photos and Sketches of People (Wednesday's Webpage for Genealogy)

This week's featured Web page is Historical Photos and Sketches of People.

All family historians are curious to know what the people in their family tree looked like. With that in mind, I am searching through various series of records in Government Archives and creating a name index for photographs or sketches of people. The original records include biographical or background details about the subject. This is a superb resource for family history!

My index includes photos (portraits) or sketches of:

• people sought by anxious relatives/friends
• people believed drowned or murdered
• other missing persons (some were children)
• wife / child deserters
• deserters from ships or military service
• fathers of illegitimate children
• prison escapees
• criminals and suspects.

Most of the subjects were born in the United Kingdom, Ireland, western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, USA or Canada. A few were from other countries.

This is an ongoing indexing project, with 1,700 names online now and about 1,000 names yet to be added. Check the list of names, which is spread over two pages. If you find a name of interest, scroll down to the 'Copying Service' section on that page. It explains how to get a copy of the photograph or sketch and its associated document.

This post is number 3 in my Wednesday's Webpage series. Each week I will focus on one page that either describes genealogy sources or research strategies, or lists names from indexes to original records in Archives or elsewhere.

(This post first appeared on http://genie-leftovers.blogspot.com/2016/02/historical-photos-and-sketches-of.html.)

Genealogy Do-Over or Source-Based Incremental Fix?

Image by Stuart Miles, FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Recently there has been a lot of discussion about the 'Genealogy Do-Over' or 'Go-Over' proposed by Thomas MacEntee. I am taking a different approach. I'm doing a 'source-based incremental fix'.

Starting again from scratch is not an option for me because...

• Some archival records that I used are no longer open to the public. The Government has since changed the access restrictions.


• Talking to relatives in the 1970s gave me vital details that I have never found in documents - and those relatives are now in Heaven.


• Many records that I used are on the other side of the world. They are not indexed and not digitised.


• I have never copied details from online trees, and I never will. I might treat them as clues for further research, but that's all. About 90% of my research was done in the 1970s and 1980s, long before I had Internet access, and I used original records in State and national archives. I have since used a wide range of online resources, but I have not found any mistakes in my original research.

Louis Kessler has suggested a source-based incremental fix, which will suit me perfectly. Taking one document at a time, I will analyse it carefully and check that every bit of information has been extracted and entered into my family tree programme, with the source reference. Then I'll file the source in a new and separate location. As I work, I'll note gaps in my knowledge and list my ideas for further research.

First, though, I need to decide how to organise my records. This is what I've done so far (and no.5 is actually the most important).

1. I've gathered together all my paper documents and research notes.  There are fifteen ring binders and one archival quality photo album from which data has already been added to my genealogy programme (The Master Genealogist). There are also two 52 litre storage boxes with countless unscanned photos and unprocessed photocopies and research notebooks. Eeek!  (Note to self:  Don't panic.)


2. I've read Nancy Loe's guides.  These three e-books are very practical: Organizing Genealogy Research Using Archival Principles;  Cataloging Digital Family Photographs and Records; and Simplifying Genealogy Sources and Citations.


3. I've read those guides again, this time making notes about how I'll modify Nancy's method so that it fits the way I think when I look for records in my files.


4. I've downloaded source checklists for Evernote, via CyndisList. (Thanks to Michelle Patient for bringing these to my attention.)


5. I've started creating a 'style guide' to ensure that I name and store files (especially digital files) consistently. (Nancy Loe says, 'Using controlled vocabulary is the single most important thing you can do to keep your research organized.')

(This post first appeared on http://genie-leftovers.blogspot.com/2015/01/genealogy-do-over-or-source-based.html.)

Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century

On Blogger's Dashboard, on the 'Blogs of Note' tab in 'Reading List', I rarely find anything of interest to me. This week I did. Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century has some excellent photographs. Can you find similar moustaches (that's how we spell it in Australia) in your own family photographs?