Whenever I meet new people, a lot of people ask me, “What does a Photo Detective Do?” I explain that I study the evidence in pictures to assign names and dates. I also fit the images into the context of family, local or national history.
I thought you’d like a peek into what a month is like. Some are busier than others, but here’s a sampling of what I worked on last month.
- Consulted with a client who’s a scrimshaw historian. He wanted me to provide a time frame for the carvings on a series of tusks and identify the source of the drawings. [I was able to tell him that most were derived from early nineteenth century magazine illustrations and mid-nineteenth century photographs of notable figures.]
- Researched Civil War uniforms for a series of cold cases I’ve been working on. [No answers yet!]
- Spoke with a client about two paintings in her family. [The work I do with photographs translates into other types of family artifacts as well.]
- Consulted on a photo for TLC’s Accidental Fortune. [The producer wanted information on how to determine if an image was a particular photographic method.]
- Began working with a client on a previously unknown picture of Lincoln’s funeral. [This is fascinating]
- Woman’s Day magazine interviewed me about magnetic photo albums. Watch for the August issue!
- Developed new lectures for upcoming conferences.[I have new photo presentations. My fingers are crossed they'll be accepted for next year's events.]
- Started laying out photographs for a new book. Ran through a lot of ink cartridges.
- Wrote articles for Ancestry.com, Family Tree Magazine and Irish Roots Magazine. Oh yeah…my blog and social networking sites as well.
What a month! Client meetings, lectures, article writing and book planning. I had a great time!
Ask Maureen to Analyze Your Family Photos
Don’t let heaps of unidentified, damaged, or disorganized family photos get you down. The Photo Detective can help!
About Maureen Taylor
Maureen Taylor AKA the Photo Detective is a professional genealogist, author and journalist on the topic who’s written tons of books and magazine articles, as well as being a contributing editor at Family Tree Magazine and editorial board member of Legacy Magazine. She’s also been a featured expert on CNN, the Today Show and in Martha Stewart Living. Maureen can be contacted through her website Photo Detective or on Twitter at @PhotoDetective.
At each junction of your family tree photographs and other visual representations of ancestors are either handed down or discarded. Before you claim that your ancestors weren’t interested in pictures or were too poor to afford them, remember that photography began in 1839, which means it’s possible your ancestors sat for a picture anytime in the last one hundred and seventy years. Even before the first camera, individuals captured their visages in paintings, sculptures, engravings and silhouettes. The fact is you just never know where they are going to turn up.
Ask Maureen to Analyze Your Family Photos
Tucked away in historical societies, archives, and family attics are the forbearers of today’s scrapbooks. These testaments to personal expression are a lot more than just scraps and paste.
By Maureen Taylor
And while we’re on the topic of preserving your old scrapbooks, our team at ScanDigital would like to remind you that having your scrapbooks digitally preserved is a great way to assure they will be around for future generations. Physical scrapbooks will fade, curl and yellow over time, and no matter how well you preserve them, will run the risk of decay. Once your memories are digital, that aging process in essence will be stopped. Our highly trained editors can enhance the photos on your pages almost back to new, leaving you with a better-than-the-original copy. For more information, please learn more about our 
Have an old family photo but have no idea where it’s from? You know, the ones you’ve forgotten about or didn’t know you even had and found unlabeled? That’s where Maureen Taylor, also known as the 
Maureen is famous in the world of genealogy and really knows her stuff. She’s written a bunch of book and magazine articles on the topic, as well as being a contributing editor at Family Tree Magazine and editorial board member of Legacy Magazine. She’s also been a featured expert on CNN, the Today Show and in Martha Stewart Living.
