Viking Magazine - March 2016 - 25

J
erry Paulson remembers the moment his
eyes fell on an old picture that he had
never seen. " I don't know who these
people are, " his cousin said. But Paulson
Be a
Detective
knew in an instant.
" I had a gut reaction, " he says. " I knew they were
my grandparents. "
In the photo (shown at left), taken just a few years
after the couple had met aboard a ship sailing from
Norway to the States, Paulson's grandfather was
holding his oldest son, then just about a year old.
His grandmother stood nearby. Another man stood
behind her. Paulson thinks it is her brother who came
over from Norway in 1907. The photo was taken in
front of the young couple's house in Tacoma, Wash.
They weren't in Tacoma for long before they moved to
Wisconsin and started farming.
For Paulson, a Sons of Norway member and Naeseth
Chair for Genealogical Research and Publication at the
Norwegian American Genealogical Center and Naeseth
Library in Madison, Wis., the photo captured not only
a moment in time, but his imagination.
" In genealogy, " he says, " we have the three vitals:
birth, marriage and death. But we don't often know
what they looked like. " These kinds of photos, he says,
tell more of the story. They show us who those people
were in that moment.
Historian Maureen Taylor, who is known as
the Photo Detective, understands the power of old
photographs and through multiple books, articles and
her website, maureentaylor.com, helps people identify,
understand and preserve them.
Search old photographs
for clues. Even the
smallest details, such
as clothing, can lead to
answers in identifying
relatives or the era in
which it was taken.
" I just love what I do, " she says. " And I know that
each person I work with is going to go home and have
a greater appreciation for that picture. " Identifying and
understanding a photo, Taylor says, gives that picture a
much greater chance of being passed down in
the family.
Understanding photos is all about asking questions,
Taylor says, then digging for answers. When faced with
an unidentified family photo, Taylor advises clients to
think about what they might already know about the
picture. Who gave it to them? Did it hang on someone's
wall? " Usually someone knows something, " she says.
The hardest part of building
a family photo collection can
be identifying family members.
Paulson advises people to look
at both settings and objects
in the image for clues about
where the image might have
been taken, and what it was
communicating. Also, look
at hairstyles and fashion
nuances, such as sleeve length,
to determine possible time
frames.
The type of photograph
can tell a lot, too. Taylor
educates people about the
different kinds of photographs,
from Daguerreotype and
Ambrotype to Tintype and
Cartes de Visite, and how they
can indicate when a photo
might have been taken.
Check the back of
the photo to see if the
photographer's name is listed.
City directories or your local
genealogical society could help
lead you to the time period the
photographer was in business
and the region.
Talk to family members
about if they recognize
any faces or features in the
photograph. Knowing what
branch of the family the photo
was passed down from can
narrow the search.
http://www.maureentaylor.com
Viking Magazine - March 2016

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