11 Ways That Historical Photos Provide Clues About Our Ancestors Lives

I have always been mesmerized by my ancestors’ photographs. Just to see what they looked like and to compare their facial features with those of my close relatives has been a very interesting endeavor.

But as I have been able to collect these old photos, I have also been quite interested in the surrounding “information.”  For example, the clothes that they wore; the props in a portrait taken by a professional photographer; the early automobiles that they were sitting in; their homes and the architecture; and even the locations of the beaches and lakes that they visited in their “off time.” All of this information “spoke” to me as a third dimension to understanding the stories of their lives.

And the additional information in these photos can certainly be useful in uncovering the typical date information that we like to document for our genealogy and family history research. These surroundings as depicted in photos can be great clues as to when and where they lived.

So let’s list some of the many ways that a photograph can provide us with important and useful information about our ancestors.

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