The Filson Historical Society Blog

Family history, and in particular family photos, were a very important part of my upbringing.  When I was a child, both of my grandmothers loved to tell me stories about my ancestors, and I treasured the hours we would spend pouring over old family photographs.  At the time, I did not realize how lucky I was to have access to these photos, especially photos that were often identified.   But I am sure they helped to develop my love of photography, and I have spent many a happy afternoon perusing old photographs in antique stores and at flea markets. Sometimes they need to be rescued (and end up coming home with me), as I hate thinking that someones loved ones are lingering in a dusty box, forgotten and uncared for.

More often than not, antique photos pass through time unidentified, their sitters and subjects a mystery to be solved.  The Filson certainly has its share of unidentified people and places in our photograph collection.  People often ask me if The Filson is interested in receiving donations of photographs of unidentified persons.  And the answer is a resounding yes, especially if the sitter is from the Ohio Valley region.  There is a still a great deal of information that such photographs can provide to us, and they can be quite useful to researchers of all types.  But there is no denying that identified photographs are the most desirable of all,and I encourage everyone to label their family photographs now, before the names and places become lost to the halls of memory.

Unidentified woman from The Filson collection

I recently had the pleasure of attending a lecture by Maureen Taylor on unearthing genealogical and historical information from photographs.  Taylor is a self-proclaimed “photo detective,” and has previously been employed as a librarian, a curator, and a researcher for public television.  She is now an independent researcher who writes books and articles on historic photographs, and gives lectures and workshops on photographs, history and genealogy.  Taylor offered many insights into the elements in antique photographs which could date a photo and could possibly reveal who and what are depicted in the photo, providing valuable clues for researchers.  Some of these elements include dress, hairstyle, furniture, and photographic studio props. Taylor gives an example of her research methods and analysis in her online article “Photography Changes Family History” at the Smithsonian’s Click! Photography Changes Everything web page.

Taylor also talked about the usefulness of placing photographic mysteries online to tap into the public’s knowledge to identify people, places, and things.  The websites deadfred.com and ancientfaces.com were two sites that Taylor recommended for submitting and searching family photographs.  And she herself is involved with a similar project in Britain, whatsthatpicture.com, which uses the power of web publication, the Flickr photo storage and sharing website, and Twitter to discuss and solve these mysteries.  These venues, as well as blogs, county history websites, and genealogical websites have all become places where individuals can tap into collective knowledge to identify photographs.

Several years ago, I stumbled across a rare find of my own while perusing a website on Russell County, Virginia genealogy.  I noticed a photograph with my great-grandfather’s name in the title.  Upon closer inspection I realized that it was a photo of his family in front of their home in Russell County.  The name and email address of the person who submitted the photo were listed, and I decided to contact the man to see if he was a relation.  As it happens, he was not; he was an antique dealer.  But he did have an entire box of photos of my family!  The box included photos as old as the tintype of my great-great grandmother Mary Fletcher Wallace, and photos as recent as my father and uncles’ high school class pictures.  Needless to say, I quickly purchased the box of photographs, and my relatives are now safely back in the family.

My great-great grandmother Mary Fletcher Wallace

Often when patrons visit the Filson Library there are a few resources outside of the catalog that I like to introduce to them. For those doing genealogical research, family files can be an excellent resource. Family files are a collection of vertical files that contain information relating to a particular surname. The information in each file typically relates to research pertinent to that name in the form of letters written to us and answered by our former genealogist. They also contain information any of our patrons/researchers have thought would be helpful to those researching that family name. They are not arranged in any order other than surname and are individually unique so researchers must look through them to see if any of the information relates to their certain family line. To view these files, patrons are welcome to visit the library and look at an alphabetical list that contains all the names that we have, and one of our staff members will be glad to pull any requested files.

Another important resource relating to more general research is our historical file collection. Historical files contain information on famous Louisville/Kentucky people, landmarks, and events ranging from Bloody Monday to Louisville Redbirds baseball. These files can also be obtained by looking through an alphabetical list in order to determine the files in which one may be interested.

Finally, newspaper clippings can also be helpful to researchers. These have an index similar to the historical files and contain information from local newspapers collected by library staff members over the years.

Once again, all of these resources are available to patrons who visit the Filson Library. Anyone from the library staff can easily direct you to their indexes and obtain any files or clippings requested.

The first Indianapolis 500 auto race was run on May 30th and won by Ray Harroun, whose car the Marmon “Wasp” averaged about 74 miles an hour. This car is also credited as the first automobile to use a rearview mirror. More history about the Indy 500 here: http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/history/35207-1906-1911-Milestones

Charles Flint merged the Tabulating Machine Company with the Computing Scale Company of America and the International Time Recording Company to form the Computing Tabulating Recording Company (C-T-R). The Computing Tabulating Recording Company – later to be named IBM – is incorporated in New York on June 15^th. Source: http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/history_intro.html

Calbraith Perry Rodgers made the first transcontinental flight across the United States in 1911. He flew the Wright Brothers “Vin Fiz” EX biplane from Sheepshead Bay NY to Long Beach, CA. The trip took 84 days and stopped and/or crashed 70 times. There were no airports or beacons to guide him, but fortunately he had a support crew on the ground to repair the plane as needed. This plane also carried the first transcontinental mail pouch. Read more about it here: http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/Vin_Fiz/EX6.htm

What about Kentucky? Well, if you are a genealogist one of the most important things that happened here in 1911 was the beginning of official birth and death records to be kept in Frankfort. 

“Kentucky’s Vital Statistics Law, enacted by the General Assembly in 1910, provides for and legalizes the registration of births and deaths. The Office of Vital Statistics does not have records of births or deaths prior to 1911, except delayed records of births for those born before 1911 which have been established by affidavits and documentary evidence.” http://chfs.ky.gov/dph/vital/

Genealogists can obtain wonderful bits of information from these records, if they were filled out correctly. In addition to the person’s name, the death records often list things such as occupation, marital status, names of spouse and parents, nativity, and of course, cause of death, and burial place. 

Kentucky has a fifty-year privacy act on death records, and a one-hundred year privacy act on birth records. What this means is that these documents become public record after the specified time limit. The Filson has copies of the death records on microfilm from 1911 through 1959. There is an index to these death records at The Filson, and many of the records can also be found on Ancestry.com. What about the birth records? We will probably get the first batch of them (1911) sometime next year. In the meantime, we do have an index to the birth records that can be searched by Mother’s name or Child’s name.

The Filson Historical Society Library has one of the most extensive Kentucky genealogy related collections in the region. Genealogists come from all around the country to sift through our collection in hopes of either finding that one missing piece of the puzzle, or to simply begin family research on ancestors who lived in Kentucky.

Genealogy research can be a frustrating and tedious endeavor even for the most experienced researchers. Generally, one must file through many pages of many books or microfilm rolls to find certain information. However, in recent years many valuable records have been made available to view on the internet in subscription form, and the Filson Library has adapted accordingly. One of the most popular and user-friendly genealogy websites is www.ancestry.com. While this is a subscription service one can get at home, the Filson subscribes to www.ancestrylibrary.com which is much like the home version but more extensive (and expensive!). It has proven to be beneficial to those who come to the Filson and find information in the library edition that they were unable to find at home. Some patrons find that membership to the Filson or the cost of the research fee is more favorable than subscribing at home for this reason.

Page from the 1930 census

Ancestry library is perhaps most useful when looking for U.S. census records because one can simply type in a name and find all the instances where that name appears on the census. Census records tend to be the best place to start when doing genealogy and many patrons find using Ancestry library much easier than going through dozens of books. Nonetheless, Ancestry library also contains many other types of records such as marriage, military, and immigration records, and most recently actual death certificates have been made available as well. All of these records are also available to print out from our patron computers and serve as one of the only items allowed to leave the Filson Library!