January Issue - Shades The Magazine by Shades Of The Departed

contents

Features

Columns

A Date With An Old Photograph

pg. 22

pg. 12

Twice Told

pg. 44

The Healing Brush

pg. 16

Saving Face

pg. 24

In Every Issue

The Future of Memories

pg.. 35

The Humor Of It

pg. 6

The Year Was . . .

Top Ten Resolutions The Year Was 1910

Reconstructing a Community Part II Old Scrapbooks

Release Your Inner Ken Burns - Part II

Penelope Dreadful A Dreadful Proposal

pg. 44 pg. 50

In2Genealogy

pg. 56

Upon This Birth Of Another Year

Appealing Subjects

On Hiatus - Returns March Issue

The Kodak In War

From My Keyboard

pg. 3

The Exchange

pg. 4

Letter from the editor Your comments

Smile For The Camera

pg. 68

The Last Picture Show

Back Cover

Geniausâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Blog

Captured Moments Sketching Your Ancestors

A Series On Dating Old Photographs

The graphic image on the back of a carte-de-visite or cabinet card

Download The Magazine

from my keyboard FOOTNOTEMAVEN

Happy 2010 from everyone at Shades! 2009 was a very successful year for Shades Of The Departed - The Magazine. It was a year of ambitious goals and an intense time schedule, which brought the first digital issue of our magazine online in November. We have learned a great deal about and continue to learn how to produce an interesting online magazine. This would not have been possible without the tremendous support of our authors, contributors, and editorial staff. We express sincere gratitude to them all for the ideas and hard work theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve put into articles published here on Shades The Magazine. Shades would also like to thank you, the readers, for your attention, criticism, ideas, suggestions, emails, tweets, and comments over the end of 2009. Shades Magazine is driven by your support which is why we are always listening to you and we truly appreciate every message we receive. In 2010 we will strive to improve the quality and relevance of our articles in an effort to increase their value for collectors, genealogists and family historians. We encourage your suggestions for articles you would like to read in the coming year. We also encourage you to submit photographic related articles. Starting with this issue we bring you a series of articles on dating old photographs and a regularly occurring Twice Told. Twice Told is a reprint from the world of photography before 1925. Shades will be published the first weekend of each month unless falling on a holiday (we want to celebrate too). We are also working to keep the magazine free to its readers. We have a few surprises in store for you this year. We hope you will enjoy them and Shades.

f M

THE EXCHANGE

I have looked at your online magazine, Shades of the Departed. Wow! I would like more information on Smile for the Camera. I have a terrific orphan photo in my collection of my Great Uncle John Linden's wedding picture. I don't know much about him or her. However, I just love this picture. Thank you, Nancy Via Facebook

LEAVE A MESSAGE WITH THE EXCHANGE Thank you for the great blog and the online magazines. They are absolutely beautiful and should be subscription based. It is nice that they are currently free. Just outstanding. Happy New Year!

Nancy,

Nancy P.

Thank you so much! We are thrilled you enjoy Shades.

Nancy P.,

Information for Smile for the Camera can be found on page 68 of this issue. Hope to see you at the carnival as well. fM

Thank you so much for the high praise. We hope to continue to offer Shades at no charge. fM

INFORMATION FOR USING SHADES PUBLISHED Shades is published the first weekend of each month. Unless the first weekend includes a holiday. Then it will be published the second weekend of the month. (We at Shades would like to spend the holidays with our families.)

DOWNLOAD PDF The current issue can be downloaded from this [Link]. At this time the magazine platform requires that you create an account. We apologize for the inconvenience and assure you we are working on a download method that does not require establishing an account.

WRITE FOR SHADES - SUGGEST AN ARTICLE - SEND A COMMENT We are accepting feature articles for the magazine. If you are interested in writing for Shades please send an email to footnotemave@comcast.net with Shades Article Submission in the subject line. Tell us the length of the article and submit an overview. We are actively seeking photographic case studies and unusual photographs. If you have a suggestion for an article youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to read on Shades please send an email to footnotemave@comcast.net with Shades Article Submission in the subject line. If you would like to comment on or have a question about an article youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve read on Shades please send an email to footnotemave@comcast.net with The Exchange in the subject line.

THE HUMOR OF IT

top ten resolutions! WELCOME 2010 DONNA POINTKOUSKI

Beginning a new year is a time for reflection when most people think back on the previous year and try to challenge themselves to improve various faults and foibles. Of course, before beginning a new year we have to end the previous one, and that’s usually a time for partying. Therefore, most of our resolutions to change ourselves may have been half-heartedly assembled in the throes of a party-induced hangover, which is why these great ideas tend to fizzle out quicker than a cheap sparkler. So take your time before making resolutions – think about it! To help you out, I’ve decided to come up with my top 10 resolutions specifically for Shades of the Departed readers, so they are all related to photographs. But they are also written by me, the resident humor columnist, so…let’s just say you might want to think about these as well before making any final resolutions!

Photo Resolution - No. 10 If you are photographing a group of children, add a “silly face” photo in the session. It will keep them

Collection Of The Author

interested, less cranky, and may even make them smile for more photos. Plus, they’ll be laughing at the silly photo for years to come. That is, until they reach the age when they begin dating and you share it with their prospective paramour…then it’s not so funny.

Photo Resolution - No. 9

Library of Congress LC-USZ62-128224

Don’t wait – get all of those damaged photos restored. I recently had a professional restore an old photograph of my mother as a child with her older sister and parents. My mother commented, “I haven’t seen the photo look like this for sixty years!”

Photo Resolution - No. 8

Pay attention to the background in your photos – or even the foreground – so your shot doesn’t have any

Collection Of The Author

distractions from the main subject.

Photo Resolution - No. 7 Remember to “strike a pose” for a memorable shot!

Photographs will be Telegraphed - from any distance. If there be a battle in China a hundred years hence snapshots of its most striking events will be published in the newspapers an hour later. Even today photographs are being telegraphed over short distances. Photographs will reproduce all of Nature’s colors.

Collection Of The Author

1900 Ladies Home Journal What May Happen In The Next Hundred Years

Photo Resolution - No. 6 Be creative and have fun with your photography! Consider creating optical illusions with some Wikipedia.org File:Europe_2007_Disk_1_340.jpg

forced perspective shots to liven up your vacation album.

Photo Resolution - No. 5

Remember that pets are people, too. They really don’t enjoy dressing up in costumes any more than people do – except they are less vocal about it. Collection Of The Author

Come to think of it – your babies are people, too. They

will

show

their

displeasure

their

expressions, but remember that they will get vocal

Collection Of The Author

about it once they’re old enough to talk!

Photo Resolution - No. 4 When it takes forty or fifty tries to get the kids to a) sit still, b) look at the camera, c) smile, and d) do a, b, and c all at the same time, it is okay to delete some of those motion-blurred, crying, and cranky Collection Of The Author

shots. Save a few though – they could prove useful to embarrass those children fifteen years later. (Also see #10!)

Photo Resolution - No. 3 Since you are always the one taking photos, make sure you get some of yourself. Only ask someone else to take it – unless you have very long arms Collection Of The Author

or a timer on your camera, most self‐portraits are not very Elattering.

Photo Resolution - No. 2 Keep shoes in shoeboxes, not your photographs. Get them out of the boxes – and off of your hard drives – and into frames or albums to display around your home or ofEice. Don’t be too busy taking photos to remember the joy in looking at them and remembering the fun.

And The No. 1 Photo Resolution For 2010 Is – Forget mug shots – mug your relatives for copies of family photos! Are you, like me, tired of waiting for family members to dig out those precious photographs you’ve heard so much about but have never seen? It’s time to take matters into your own hands. I resolve to sit on doorsteps until they Eind the photos and reveal them to me. I have a feeling some of my cousins may be entering the Relative Protection Program, a distant cousin of the Witness Protection Program, that seeks to protect the innocent from a hungry photograph‐hound

Library of Congress LC-USZ62-105001

Library o

f Congress

like myself. But hey, I’m a genealogist, so I ought to be able to track them down!

Police mug shot of Emma Goldman, an agitator for anarchism. A demonstration of the Cross Counter useful for mugging your relatives.

THE YEAR WAS . . .

the year was 1910 WHAT DO CHARLIE CHAPLIN, CHUCK BERRY, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT & HEAVYWEIGHT BOXER JACK JOHNSON ALL HAVE IN COMMON? BY SHERI FENLEY

FACTOIDS FOR THE YEAR 1910: The U.S. population reaches 92 million with 13.5 million of it foreign‐born. Midwives still attend at half of all births in the United States, delivering infants mostly of black and immigrant women. The United States has 1,000 miles of concrete road, up from 144 in 1900. The average U.S. workingman earns less than $15 per week, working from 54 to 60 hours, and there is wide irregularity of employment.

Courtesy of gutfud.com/?tag=baking

Seventy percent of U.S. bread is baked at home, down from 80 percent in 1890.

The tradition of the ceremonial Eirst pitch or presidential pitch on Major League Baseball's opening day began Courtesy of newspaperarchive.com

on May 24, 1910. At GrifEith Stadium in Washington, D.C., on the Washington Senators' Opening Day President William Howard Taft was given the honor to throw out the Eirst pitch to Washington Senators' pitcher Walter Johnson.

People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring. ~ Rogers Hornsby

Father's Day was celebrated for the Eirst time on June 19, 1910 in Spokane, Washington. The day was organized by Sonora Smart Dodd. Because Dodd was raised by her father after her mother died, she thought he deserved a day of Courtesy of proprofs.com

honor to complement the already‐ existing Mother’s Day.

On August 9, 1910, Alva Fisher received a patent for the electric washing machine. The National Sewing Machine Co. of Belvidere, Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Illinois advertised the "Happy Day" washing machine by mailing postcards to households all over the country. One side of the postcard is the picture and the other side had a boilerplate message: "Dear Madam: If you will try the 'Happy Day' Washing Machine, you will surely buy it, because it operates so easily and cleanses so very

Scou ts of

Ame rica

thoroughly."

of Bo y

Celebrating their 100th Anniversary in

tesy

2010, the Boy Scouts of America was

Cour

incorporated on February 8, 1910, under the laws of the District of Columbia, by W. D. Boyce. On June 21, 1910, thirty four national representatives of boys’ work agencies met to establish the Boy Scouts of America. The members of the founding board included President William Howard Taft as Honorary President and Former President Theodore Roosevelt Honorary vice president and Chief Scout Citizen.

Originally entitled the "White Slave TrafEic" Act of 1910, The Mann Act was enacted during a time of great change and "moral panic.” It had been designed to combat forced prostitution. The text of the Mann Act as it was written back in 1910 was very broad, making it a crime for:

"any person who shall knowingly transport or cause to be transported...any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose..." The law, however, has been applied broadly over the years and used as a tool of political persecution and even blackmail. Thousands of people have been prosecuted under the Mann Act, including celebrities such as Charlie Chaplin, Frank Lloyd Wright, Chuck Berry

Frank Lloyd Wright

Chuck Berry

Courtesy of Library Of Congress

Charlie Chaplin

Jack Johnson

After I make a hi-res TIFF scan, I typically make a cleaned up, cropped JPG copy to include in my genealogy software program and to distribute to my family. Backups are handled separately.

THE HEALING BRUSH

reconstructing a community PART II - FAMILY MATTERS BY GEORGE GEDER

In the previous Healing Brush (Shades’ November and December Issues), I talked about reconstructing a community. Well, Eirst I still have some family matters to deal with. So, let's get started. I have come to identify the man in the picture on the opposite page as my Great Grandfather, James Jeter (1848‐1882). The photographer is Johann F. Bender, Dealer in Albums, Towanda, PA. He was active in this area from 1864 ‐1866. This helps me to give James an age of approximately 16 to 18 years old in this picture. The 1870 census for Towanda, Bradford county, PA has his age as 23, so it's within the ballpark. This is the other picture I showed in the last episode. I'm not 100% certain who this person is, but I'm 'guessing' that it is Annie Ghant‐Jeter.

I found another image in my collection from the same photographer. Could this be another picture of James or his brother, Jeremiah Jeter (abt 1851‐1888)? If this is Jeremiah, then that's his wife, Annie. If not, James certainly made sure he got in front of a camera!

When I kept looking at the Eirst cropped picture of James Jeter, the clock was getting my attention. I had seen that clock before, but where? As far as I know, these are the only Bender photographs I have. Wait, let me check my tintypes.

Ah, it's Harriet Melvin-Jeter, James' wife, and there's the clock, table and tapestry! These two photos were taken in the same studio. However, one of the pictures is reversed. Oh, what to do? For starters, let's check out the buttons on their garments. James' buttons are on the right side so his picture is correct. We'll flip Harriet's.

What can we make of this? Which came Eirst, the Carte‐de‐Visites or the tintypes? Can we assume they are from the same photographer? What are the chances of the photos being taken years apart and with the same props? I'm not certain. If they were taken close together between 1864‐1866, what are the chances of them being taken with different cameras? Was there a cost issue? If the date is accurate, then Harriet must have left her home in Tioga county, NY and came to Towanda, Bradford county, PA. Did James go to Tioga county courting? Did she run away? She hasn't been found in the 1870 census records. James is single in 1870. They have their Eirst child, Isabelle, in 1872. In the family bible, the Jeters/Geders are not mentioned; other than Harriet and her children. A picture is worth a thousand questions, for sure! To see more of Bender's images - and the clock! - go to Tri-Counties Genealogy & History website by Joyce M. Tice.

THE HEALING BRUSH JANUARY - 2010 VIDEO SELECT TO VIEW

A Date With

This article marks the start of a series on dating old photographs. Each month Shades will help you uncover the clues to your collection and family history photographic mysteries. You will look at you photographs with an educated eye, identifying and researching the clues they present. You can then match this information to your genealogical and collection research. At the end of the series these articles will become a handbook for dating old photographs. Each of the areas identiEied will be discussed in depth in an upcoming article. We also encourage reader questions. TYPE OF PHOTOGRAPH

Recto - The front side or face of the photograph where the image appears

Types of photographs were prevalent during certain historical periods and can be very useful in dating a photograph. From Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tin Types, Carte De Visites, and Cabinet Cards, to Card Mounted photographs and snapshots, all hold clues to their dates. This photograph is a cabinet card. BACKGROUNDS

Painted backdrops can suggest social standing and prosperity, or occupation and hobbies. Certain backdrops were popular at specific times in history helping to date photographs. STUDIO PROPS OR CHERISHED POSSESSIONS

Studio props such as the table and chair seen here can be dated through advertisements. Possessions may reveal the purpose of the photograph; graduation, confirmation,engagement, mourning, etc.

Author n Of The Collectio

COSTUME

Dress, jewelry, hairstyles, hats and glasses can all assist in the dating of a photograph. Dress can establish the purpose of the photograph and in some cases when worn historically. Caution! Young women were most likely to adopt trends.

An Old Photograph Every picture is a miniature mystery and I love a mystery!

Verso - The back side or reverse of the photograph usually contains photographer’s imprint or is blank

TAX & POSTAGE STAMPS

Not pictured here, but important to dating when found.

STUDIO NAME

CARD CHARACTERISTICS

Some studio names became more famous than the name of the photographers that operated them. If the name of the studio is included dates of operation can be traced through databases, directories and specialty books.

The characteristics of the card mount itself can help you in dating the photograph. The color of the card, the thickness, and its edge treatment all offer clues to the date of the photograph. Type and ornamentation in the imprint can be used to track a point in photographic history.

AWARDS & ADVERTISING

Awards, services and product advertisements can assist you in dating photographs. The Shades November Last Picture Show advertised “The Instantaneous Process” used from the late 1870’s. A photographer with awards for artistic quality were probably charging higher prices. PHOTOGRAPHER’S NAME & ADDRESS

One of the most important dating clues is the photographer. The name and address of the photographer are usually contained on cartes, cabinets, and postcards. Photographers dates of operation can be traced through databases, directories and specialty books. MANUSCRIPT INFORMATION

thor

f The Au

Collectio nO

Handwritten information on the back of the card is usually done by the studio or the photograph owner. Studios wrote the sequential order for photographs from that studio. Owners may have identified the sitter. Caution! Determine if the writing is contemporary with the photograph. Later writing is more prone to error.

SAVING FACE

old scrapbooks A DESCRIPTION, PRESERVATION, STORAGE NIGHTMARE REBECCA FENNING

Old scrapbooks are wonderful things, but they are also complete headaches in the making. Filled with pasted down pictures, newspaper clippings, pressed Elowers, dance cards, birthday cards, telegrams, bridge score cards, postcards and letters, they can give you a glimpse into a life like few other things can. But Eilled with all those things they are also a description, preservation and storage disaster. I know this because as a librarian and archivist, I’ve had to work with scrapbooks in the past, but I also know it because I have a particularly messy one at home from my grandmother’s girlhood. It was in a box for at least 60 years, then on a shelf in my old bedroom at my mother’s house for at least another 6. Now it is sitting on my kitchen table and I am going to use it to illustrate how best to deal with such a fantastic disaster of loose pages, loose Elowers and paste. Now, just so you don’t get your hopes up, I will not be offering any actual conservation tips because I am not a professional conservator nor do I have any real training in the area. Old scrapbooks are a particularly difEicult preservation problem and only a qualiEied conservator or other preservation professional should try to execute any real work on them. Doing otherwise could result in irreparable damage to the integrity of the scrapbook as a whole and damage to the images and objects within it.

With that said, let’s take a look at my grandmother’s scrapbook, which I’ll use as a tool for explaining what it is that is so complex about scrapbooks and what is a practical and hopefully painless way to work with them. My grandmother received this scrapbook as a present for her ConEirmation at Temple Beth Israel in York, Pennsylvania, June 10, 1932. It isn’t a scrapbook the way scrapbookers and crafters make them now, but instead a compilation of memories in the form of ephemera, letters and corsages, attached to pages and annotated.

And, as you can see, and she took the practice of preserving things in her scrapbook very seriously and there is obviously quite a lot in here. The book is pretty overstuffed, which is one of its central preservation issues. The top cover is bowed in the middle and the pages are all a little curved too. It’s also a bit unwieldy because there are a lot of loose or loose‐ish things in there trying to get free every time you pick it up. Plus the binding, which was just a cord tying everything together through two holes on the right side, isn’t really holding everything together the way it should.

You can also see that the paper in the scrapbook itself is very yellowed and brittle. Though there are individual items loose inside, many pages themselves are also loose because the brittle paper has given way where the cord once bound all the pages together. The edges of pages are in danger too, and many are curled or chipped. This book was a commercially available one, probably mass produced and made with less than high‐quality materials. The label from the manufacturer is actually still on the inside back cover (see above). If I were cataloging this scrapbook at work, I would probably make a subject heading for this sticker and for the company. At home, in my Einal documentation of the scrapbook (which we’ll get to in a little bit) I will make sure that I make note of it somewhere, just because it is an interesting tidbit to keep track of.

Because of the fragility of the book, its binding and its pages, I am a bit nervous about just opening it Elat on the table. Those of you who are familiar with rare book libraries have no doubt worked with book stands and wedged‐shaped foams, which you prop books against to keep their bindings safe and healthy. Well, I don’t have any of those at home, but I improvised. I usually read while I eat breakfast and so the hardcover book I am reading right now was in the kitchen while I was looking for something with which to improvise, and voila! The Eirst real page in the book is a good representation of what I can look forward to dealing with in the rest of it: a newspaper clipping, a rose, and a program. This rose is taped down, but most of the other Elowers and corsages in the scrapbook are actually pinned in with straight pins.

As I said before, there are lots of relatively hefty things in here and it isn’t just paper pasted on pages. One of the neatest is this pin my grandmother wore during Roosevelt’s presidential campaign in 1932. These heftier things, like Elowers, bridge score books with attached pencils, or small booklets, are what make the stability of the scrapbook a little precarious. I could remove some of them and store them separately, but I don’t want to. The corsage, below, that my great‐uncle sent for my grandmother’s 16th birthday is a bit of a mess, but it wouldn’t be as special if it weren’t a part of this document, which c o n t a i n s a l o t o f o t h e r corsages and Elowers. Though these loose things might not seem like the smartest things to keep in here, since they make the book thicker and unwieldy, not to mention that they have a propensity to fall out, they are a part of the o v e r a l l s c r a p b o o k a s a document compiled by my grandmother.

If I take things out and disassemble the book, then I destroy the story about her life that she was trying to tell by her placing everything in here. The value in a scrapbook doesn’t just lie in the items within it, but the sum of all those items together. This problem of integrity is one of the central issues at stake when conservators work on scrapbooks. Brittle, acidic pages are common in old scrapbooks, as are acidic and corrosive adhesives and glues. Taking items off of pages is a way to protect them from further damage, but it also removes them from the overall context of the scrapbook ‐ not to mention the fact that it isn’t always easy work to do so. On a tour of the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Massachusetts while I was a library school student, we stopped to talk to a conservator who had been hired by a private client to restore a scrapbook. Though pricey and time‐consuming, the solution that had been agreed upon was for the conservator to remove all of the content from the pages and then rebuild the scrapbook again exactly as it had been originally, but this time on acid‐free paper with preservation photocopies of acidic newspaper clippings and telegrams instead of the real things (preservation photocopies are simply high quality photocopies on acid‐free paper). This was deEinitely a solution, but a mind‐bogglingly complex and expensive one. The number of loose things in here, plus the brittle and loose pages makes it pretty clear that there’s no way this could be kept upright like a normal book. Nor does it seem like a great idea to keep it out and unprotected lying Elat somewhere. The best solution, I thought, was to order an archival storage box that would Eit the dimensions of this scrapbook as

closely as possible. This was actually really hard! Since the book is so thick and overstuffed, it was really difEicult to Eind a box with the right dimensions. But I did Eind one through Gaylord Inc. Other companies that sell such types of boxes include Metal Edge, Hollinger, and Light Impressions, though be warned not all places will allow you to buy just one box, because they are, after all, in the business of selling archival supplies in bulk to archives and libraries.

The box isn’t an exact Eit, but if I Eind some archivally safe tissue paper (also available through the suppliers listed above) to Eill the empty spaces, it should be perfect! There are lots of documents in this scrapbook that provide interesting and helpful sources for my family history, but now that my grandmother’s scrapbook is in the box, I don’t want to have to take it out often and subject it to unnecessary wear and tear. It should be obvious that there’s no way I can scan any of the pages on my Elatbed scanner, and not just because my scanner is too small for these oversized pages. The solution I’ve settled on for providing myself access to the scrapbook while at the same time keeping it safe is to photograph each page of the album with my digital camera. Since much of the information I want access to is written, I will also be taking close‐up photographs of individual documents on the page, if I can’t read them in the overall picture.

Though the pictures you’ve seen illustrating this article are great, the pictures I want to take for this project will be a bit different. Taking pictures from as overhead as possible will mean less distortion and more readability. A tripod with a fully pivoting head or a copy stand will make this task much easier. I don’t have a tripod that will work this way, but my work has a copy stand I can use. Later, organizing the images in an image management program like Adobe Lightroom (my usual imaging application), iPhoto, Picasa, or even a web platform like Flickr will allow for putting pages in order and keeping close‐up images with their related page images. Using metadata entry Eields available in any of these programs would give me a good way to track and search the content I’ve photographed, but I am also thinking about compiling a separate text Einding aid (with some small thumbnail images) to the scrapbook as a way to get an overview more quickly.

One day, in my copious free time, I plan on g a t h e r i n g t o g e t h e r i m a g e s o f m y grandmother’s scrapbook into a book through Blurb, Lulu or another online book‐ making program, in order to share it with my family members who aren’t so lucky to have the real thing residing in an archival box in their ofEice.

Publishing

Image

Archival

Blurb

Adobe Lightroom

Gaylord Inc.

LuLu

Flickr

Hollinger Metal Edge

iPhoto

Light Impressions

Picasa

All images copyright Paul Marschall, 2009. Ethel Leah Kalisch, scrapbook, [1932‐1940, 1952]. In possession of Rebecca Fenning.

THE FUTURE OF MEMORIES

release your inner ken burns PART II - BUILDING THE DOCUMENTARY BY DENISE BARRETT OLSON

A simple documentary is basically a photo slideshow. To give it impact, we will add title slides to introduce our subject and to provide credits at the end. We will include transitions ‐ effects that appear as the viewer moves from one slide to the next ‐ and effects like pan and zoom which generate the “Ken Burns effect”. Then there’s the narration, sound effects and background music. This month we’ll build the slideshow and work on the narration. Next month we’ll look at the special effects ‐ visual and audible. Before you can begin building your documentary, you will need to collect a few tools and decide which software application to use. You have options ‐ lots of options. Let’s take a look. FIRST THE TOOLS Actually, the only tool you need is a good microphone to use while recording your narration. I use a headset because it’s useful for so many other tasks and, since it is a multi‐task tool, I chose a good quality Plantronics headset which I bought on sale for less than $50.00. You can record your narration with almost any microphone or headset. Don’t feel you have to spend large sums of money just to get started, but if you decide you really like building multimedia documentaries, then start saving some money and watching for deals.

THE SOFTWARE Next, you’ll need some software. Here’s a look at some of your options. Probably the easiest is Photoshop Elements for Windows. The Windows version uses its organizer component to create the slideshow from the images you’ve selected and allows you to include special effects (like the Ken Burns effect), transitions, background music and to record your narrative. This capability has been around for some time so even if you have an older version of Elements, you should be able to use it.

Mac users will Eind iMovie a great option. You can pull your images in from iPhoto, set your transitions and effects and there’s a very nice collection of royalty‐free background music you can easily include in your project. Adding narration is a breeze and, in addition to creating title and credit slides, you can easily superimpose text over your photos or video clips. You can also choose to use a pre‐designed theme to provide these elements if you’re not ready to try doing them yourself.

Windows users have Movie Maker ‐ and Movie Maker 2 if you’re using Windows XP or above. Movie Maker basics are easy to learn and, like iMovie, there’s a lot of whistles and bells if you want to take the time to learn them. Adding narration and background music is pretty straight‐forward. Transitions, titles and credits offer lots of options, but the only zoom effect available moves into or away from the center of the screen. The same presentation software you used to create your storyboard is also a great tool to build a documentary. It allows for slide transitions, special effects (called animations), recording narrations and background music. This option has advantages when your images are different sizes and shapes. With video‐based systems, the app will Eill in any empty background with a color when the photo doesn’t completely Eill the working area. Sometimes you get to choose that color, sometimes you don’t. With a presentation app, you have complete control of the background and can include frames, titles, captions and other graphical elements to provide a consistent theme throughout the slideshow. The trade‐off is a limited number of production options for sharing your Einished product.

There are several options for packaging your project to share with others. PowerPoint offers the PowerPoint Show that can be viewed using the free PowerPoint Viewer application (Windows only). The advantage of the PowerPoint Show is that it can provide an interactive experience. Viewers can stop and start the show and follow any hyperlinks included in the production. The disadvantage is the difEiculties you’ll experience in packaging and distributing all the components that make up your presentation. A better option might be to take advantage of online slideshow‐sharing platforms like slideboom or SlideShare. Slideboom supports slides with included audio, but SlideShare does not. George Geder created an elegant example in November’s issue. (See The One‐ Minute Biography in the November issue.) You can view his presentation at Shades of the Departed blog site. Keynote, a component of Apple’s iWork ’09 suite, can export the slideshow to a QuickTime movie as either a timed show where each slide is up for a speciEied duration or an interactive show where the viewer chooses when to change a slide.

In my Circle B Ranch project, I have several different photo sizes and a few need some serious cropping so I’m using Apple’s Keynote presentation software to build my documentary.

First, I chose an appropriate theme from Pages’ theme collection and began adding slides with images. Pages also offers several frame options for my images. I’m using the photo corners frame to add a bit of a vintage look to my slideshow. Even small details like font styles can impact your the style of your presentation.

Keynote offers two options for adding narration to a presentation. I can create a recorded presentation ‐ turning on the microphone and recording my script as I move from slide to slide. My preferred option is to record the narration for each slide individually then insert the narration Eile as a media object for that slide. I’m choosing this option for two reasons. First, it’s much easier to record short snips. If I mess it up (which I often do) I just clear the recording and start over. Once the recording for one slide is the way I like it, it gets added to that slide and I save the entire presentation. Now, if the next slide is messed up, I can always fall back to my last saved “position”. The other reason I like this option is that I don’t have to worry about keeping the timing for the visual and audio portions of the presentation synchronized.

Keynote, PowerPoint and Photoshop Elements (Windows) all offer the slide-by-slide narration capability. Photoshop Elements is the only app that provides the ability to record within the application.

Windows users have a simple way to record their narrative clips ‐ the Windows Sound Recorder. You’ll Eind it in the Accessories folder on the Windows Menu. Once opened, it looks something like this example. Make sure your microphone/headset is plugged in and conEigured for your system, then try some test recordings to get a feel for the way things work and you’re ready to go. After you’ve Einished a recording, the bottom window appears so you can save it. Choose a name that will make it easy to Eind the recording when you go to place it on your slide. I use the very imaginative recording1, recording2, recording3 format myself. Mac users have Garage Band ‐ the all‐in‐one audio platform. Open Garage Band and create a new project. The project will have one instrument ‐ a piano. Click the plus sign at the bottom left of the app window and add a “Real Instrument” to your mix. Now, click on the Record button and start your narration. When Einished, click the Play button (triangle icon)

to stop recording. If you like the result, save it to disk using the format and Eile name your prefer.

When you insert a sound media object on a slide, you’ll see an icon representing that object. Click once to select the object, then use the actions pane to set up a Build In action to play the audio. That will insure the narration begins as soon as the slide appears. Once the Eirst recording is inserted in the slideshow, you can return to Garage Band, delete it and record the next one. When it’s the way you want it, save it to disk and insert it on the next slide. Set the Build In action, save the presentation, then repeat again for the next slide until your presentation is complete. After all the narration is recorded and placed on your presentation, you’ve completed the hard part of production. Congratulations! You’re almost done. The rest of the production process is the fun part ‐ the special effects. We’ll work on that next month.

coming up next month. . . Now that we’ve built the basic structure for our presentation and recorded the narration, it’s time to add the slide transitions, special effects and credits, then look at distribution options. Don’t forget organizing the premier. After all that hard work, of course there’s going to be a premier! Stay tuned ‐ this is where it really gets interesting!

All photos are from the author’s personal collection. My storyboard and presentation was built using iWork’s Keynote software. Much of the same functionality is available using Microsoft’s PowerPoint, Corel’s Presentations, or OpenOfEice.org’s Impress applications. OpenOfEice.org is a free download. To learn more about your movie‐making software, you can check out Apple’s iLife or Microsoft’s Movie Maker and Photo Gallery (part of Windows Live Essentials). Visit Susan Kitchen’s very informative Family Oral History Using Digital Tools site to learn more about audio recording tools and techniques. Sources for stock sound effects you can include in your presentations include Find Sounds and Free Sound Effects. For affordable stock photography, take a look at iStockPhoto.

TWICE TOLD Developing Machines and Carrier Pigeons At The Front

THE KODAK IN WAR New England Photographer May 1904 As announced by wire the French carrier pigeon company have dispatched to the Russian headquarters in East Asia 150 carrier pigeons, which are to be used for the purpose of carrying the war news. Without doubt photography is a great help when transmitting news

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Collection of FootnoteMaven

She cried in a whisper at some image

PENELOPE DREADFUL

a dreadful proposal A LITTLE BIRDIE TOLD HER BY PENELOPE DREADFUL

“Hello, I’m here,” called out Clara as she walked through the photography studio door. “Why, Henry, you look positively dreadful. Whatever is wrong? Is the business in trouble? Are you ill? You are as white as a sheet.” With sisterly affection, Clara put her hand to the young man’s brow and felt his fevered skin. She looked up steadfastly into his bright blue eyes and shook her head. “You have it badly this time, brother dear. What is the girl’s name?” “Oh, Clara, you know me so well,” the young man sighed. “She is due for her weekly sitting within the hour. I’ve tidied the studio, polished the lens . . . what else should I do?” Clara smiled and touched her brother’s arm, “Oh, Henry. Have you eaten today?” “Eaten?” he repeated with confusion. “I suppose so. I must have, mustn’t I?” His sister Elashed a knowing smile and bustled through the door to the rear living quarters. Soon the singing kettle announced her return with tea and a substantial roast beef sandwich. After only the briefest objection, Henry set to his meal and the color quickly returned to his handsome cheeks.

“Thank you, Clara,” he smiled sheepishly. “I did need a meal, and feel much better already.” “Then now would be a perfect time to tell me all about her,” suggested Clara, wise enough to press her request after he was comfortable fed. She settled back in the studio settee and invited his conEidence. “It is so difEicult to put to words,” he began. “Her loveliness is beyond description. . . His sister laughed gaily, “Oh yes, dear boy, you have it bad. Just try. Begin with her name.” Henry sighed again and spoke with tenderness, “Lillian. Lil. Lilly. She is as fair as the Elower, as lovely, as graceful, as full of life and fresh youth. . .” “And how did you meet this fair young Elower? Did she arrive with the Eirst breath of the new year?” Henry continued gazing through the large glass window, “She walked past the studio and I knew she was . . . was. . . “ “. . . the one?” suggested Clara. “Yes, I just knew. She is governess to the Miller children and walks with them to school each day.” Clara imagined her brother’s shy greeting one morning as he uncharacteristically swept the front porch of the studio. Now she understood the gleaming glass windows and artfully arranged front display of studio portraits. “I have photographed the children twice, once alone and once with their parents. And Lillian has been sitting as a model.” “A female model?” exclaimed Clara. “Brother, dear. How scandalous.”

Said brother looked at her with scorn. “Clara. I would no more ask anything unseemly of that sweet girl than I would ask it of you, my sister. Really. “She has already modeled for a left proEile portrait and a right proEile. Today is to be the full Eigure portrait and today…” his voice trailed off. Then, clearing his throat and straightening his back he continued, “Today, I intend to ask for her hand in marriage.” Clara smiled. “At last,” she thought. Quiet, shy Henry was smitten with love. “There’s only one problem,” the lovesick beau Library of Congress LC-J713-1

confessed. “Every time I practice what I will say, I‐I‐I can’t Einish. . .” “Poor darling,” his sister sympathized. And, indeed, Henry was already blushing furiously and stammering in grief. Just then, a stiff‐backed matron entered the studio and the bell over the door tinkled merrily. “Hello, Mrs. Simpson,” boomed the usually timid Henry as he rose to greet the lady. “It’s wonderful to see you today, and you are looking particularly well, I must add.” The lady nodded in reply and smiled at the young man. “Oh, thank you, Mr. Leuellen. You are too kind, I am sure. I have just come by to make an appointment for you to photograph my two young granddaughters when they come to visit next week. I won’t have anyone but you

take their likeness; you are so gentle and kind that I know the children will be charmed into a beautiful portrait.” “Why, thank you for such kind praise. Will Tuesday at ten o’clock suit you, Mrs. Simpson? I Eind that children are often at their best in the morning hours, and I would like to give you the best possible likeness.” “Ideal. Tuesday morning it is.” With a brief wave and a comment as to Henry’s wisdom, the lady left the shop and Henry closed the door behind her. “Why Henry,” exclaimed Clara when they were alone. “Why can’t you be just as calm with your Lillian as you are with Mrs. Simpson? She must be a lovely girl to have won your heart; do you fear her answer?” “Oh no,” the young man replied quickly. “I do think she will be pleased with my attention,” he added, thinking of the kind way she had touched his arm when they shared tea following the last sitting. “I just go all cattywampus looking into her face.” “Hmmmm,” murmured Clara. At last the young lady arrived, and she was every bit as sweet and kind as Henry had promised. Clara resolved to aid her lovesick young brother and smiled to herself with private plans. After the introductions, after the second pot of tea, Henry stood and invited Lillian to take a place in front of the camera. As long as Henry did not look directly into Lillian’s face, he was composed and in control, his sister noted with delight. Lillian, however, could not remove her gaze from Henry’s blue‐blue eyes; she seemed to be drowning in their azure depths.

“Pl‐pl‐pl‐ please take your pl‐pl‐place,” Henry directed the young girl. Lillian obediently stood before the camera and Henry ducked his head under the black cloth attached to wooden box. His voice was only slightly mufEled as he directed her to focus on his hand held above the camera, to turn fully toward the camera, to hold her position steady. It was at that point that Clara stepped into the frame and leaned close to the girl’s ear to whisper something softly. The ultimate surprise was hers, however, for while she intended to offer a word of encouragement to the young woman, Henry had contrived his own solution to his difEiculty. “Look at Henry’s hand,” Clara murmured, and stepped out of the frame. Lillian’s eyes moved to Henry’s arm, up past his face where he held a paper church fan. But instead of the usual funny bird painted on its surface, the fan bore four little words. Reading them, her eyes dropped to the camera lens and she mouthed the single word, “Yes.” Copyright 2010 Denise Levenick

CAPTURED MOMENTS

upon this birth of another new year CELEBRATING A JOURNEY BACK IN TIME BY VICKIE EVERHART

There was a feast of reason and a flow of soul, together with a fine flow of champaigne etc. etc. Many times I toasted the loved ones at home. ~ J.M. Hall, 1860 ~

MEETING MAHALA FACE-TO-FACE

Unretouched Photo of J.J. & Mahala

It was exactly ten years ago this month when I walked into a warm and welcoming home in Brazoria County, Texas, and began a journey back in time to the years of the war between the states. There I was introduced to events in the lives of some of my 19th‐century kith 'n kin, and there I Eirst met our Mahala face‐to‐face. The 20th‐century home where I was a guest was that of my new cousin, Esther. Our exact relationship is deEined as half second cousins, twice removed with our common ancestor being the lady in the collage ‐‐ Mahala Lee Sharp Hall nee Roberts (1816‐1885). Mahala is cousin Esther's great‐grandma (via the Hall marriage), and my 3rd great‐grandma (via the Sharp marriage).

In February of 1851 our Mahala ‐‐ a 34‐year‐ old widow with two children (including my 2nd great‐grandpa, 11‐year‐old Samuel Houston Sharp) ‐‐ marries 60‐year‐old Col. Joshua James Hall (ca.1790‐1871). unretouched photo of James M. Hall] This Col. Hall has a son from a previous marriage ‐‐ James Madison Hall (1819‐1866). The only known photo of this J.M. Hall is a poor‐quality black and white image printed in A.A. Aldrich's book on The History of Houston County, Texas.

THE COLONEL AND THE LADY Novelties for January, Godey's Lady's Magazine

In July of 1859, at 40 years of age, this J.M. Hall marries Mahala's 18‐year‐old daughter (and his own step‐sister), Margaret Annot Sharp (1840 ‐ ca. 1878).

The mill pond in Houston Co., Texas is frozen over 1" thick in January of 1864 ... Hall also mentions hog hunting ... grinding wheat and corn ... Sam making shoes ... Nellie miscarries after Sam and J.M. Hall are imprisoned on charges of being liable for conscription ... Sam is conscripted ... the little woman plants English peas ... Confederate soldiers break into the mill in January of 1865 ... and a ball is given at Hall's Bluff to raise funds for the soldiers from Crockett who are Eighting in the war ... and in January of 1866, Hall mentions various purchases ... some cups and saucers from Mr. Fontaine ... some crockery, 1 doz. apples and oranges ... one empty whiskey barrel ... banannas & cocoa nuts ...

MILK PUNCH AND EGG NOG J.M. Hall was born in Maryland on the 22nd of February in 1819. While keeping this Journal, he commented each year on how he celebrated his birthday ... took a milk punch in 1861 ... with a large bowl of egg nog in 1862 ... and in 1863 in Houston Co., Texas ‐‐ "Today being the anniversary of my birth day, the little woman gave me a Eine dinner, to which she invited Mother [i.e., Mahala], Mr. & Mrs. Bird, all of whom came up and remained until into the evening. I spent most of the day in writing up this journal. Weather clear & pleasant, but a little too cool."

REAPED TO THE BOSOM OF HIS ANCESTORS On the eve of each new year, this 19th‐century gentleman would wax poetic about the 52 weeks just passed as well as the year looming on the horizon. On the 31st of December in 1864, while at home in Houston Co., Texas, he wrote: "Thus I close my jottings for the month of December and for the year 1864 which has just passed & gone and now numbered with the things that were. Whether the Almigthy will spare me to chronicle the daily events of the incoming year is more than poor mortal man can foresee or know but trusting in His goodness I shall enter upon the pleasing task which is meaningful as a book of reference and may hereafter be proEitable to those who have an interest in my affairs after I shall have shufEled off this mortal soil and been reaped to the bosom of my ancestors."

The collage at the beginning of this article was created using Picasa, a free program available from Google. I frequently use these creations as the desktop on my computers, usually adding a current calendar somewhere in the design. The elements in this January creation include :

• • • • • • • • •

retouched photos of J.M. Hall, J.J. Hall, and Mahala Roberts Sharp Hall 19th century map of the State of Texas a vintage 1860 calendar (free) Blackadder ITC font (free) Corners dingbat font (free) Deborah Extras / Ornaments dingbat font (free) GrifEin dingbat font (free) free background textures a clip of the 16th January 1860 entry in Hall's Journal

Not only does Picasa have a tool for correcting red‐eyes in your photos, there is also an option that allows some limited touch‐up work on damaged areas of images ‐‐ by way of the "retouch" tool. I did use that feature to do some clean‐up work on the photos of Mahala and her 2nd husband, J.J. Hall. The image of J.M. Hall from the Aldrich book appears to be a photocopy of a photo or a copy of a newspaper clipping. After creating a sepia version of this image using the sepia option in Picasa, I did minimal retouching to clean up the image a bit ‐‐ there just wasn't much I could do with what I had to work with. The background for this collage was created from free textures found using Google search. The method for creating this grid collage is described in detail in the November 2009 issue of Shades the Magazine. The text on the collage was done with a free font known as Blackadder ITC. Free dingbat fonts were used for adding the corner Elourishes to the collage, the banner Elourishes to the 1860 calendar, and the hand and feather pin Elourish. The technique for adding Elourishes with dingbat fonts is described in detail in the November 2009 issue of Shades the Magazine. The vintage 1860 calendar was created using the calendar generator mentioned in the references, and then doing a multiple exposure collage in Picasa using a vintage looking background texture. The clip from the 1860 Journal was given the same treatment.

19th Century Historical Tidbits [LINK] Background Textures [LINK] Calendar Generator [LINK] Center for American History UT Austin [LINK] Civil War Era ‐ Pens and Writing [LINK] Civil War Era ‐ Women's clothing [LINK] Godey's Lady's Book [LINK] Godey's Lady's Book Vol. 42, January, 1851 [LINK] Hall Family Biographies & Photos [LINK] Hall Family Portraits Digital copies in collection of author. Original color enlargements in collection of Esther Marjorie (Hall) Biggers. Hall's Journal ‐ Reviews [LINK] Historical Maps of Texas [LINK] Shades, November 2009 [LINK] • • • •

Desktop Collage by Denise Olson, p. 18 Picasa ‐ Grid Collage, p. 49 Picasa ‐ Dingbats, p. 51 Picasa ‐ Add a Border, Resize Image, Links, p. 53

Shades, December 2009 [LINK] • • • •

Working with newspaper clippings, p. 25 Picasa ‐ Grid Collage, p. 26 Clues in Ancestral Hair by Maureen Taylor, p. 29 The year was 1866 by Sheri Fenley, p. 46

IN2GENEALOGY

sketching your ancestors YOU CAN FIND DESCRIPTIONS BY CAROLINE POINTER

BASED ON EXPERIENCE

Do you like to read Eiction books? I believe the appeal for most readers of reading a book of Eiction is the imagery that is created in the reader's head. The author provides some of the details and then conducts the action. Everything is then Eiltered through the reader's brain. The reader is able to conjure up the setting, the physical descriptions of the characters, and then, of course, the action. Because it's Eiltered through the reader's brain, the Einal product, the imagery, is based on the reader's own experiences. It becomes very personal. For example, someone who lives in a major city will have a different experience with a sunset compared to someone who lives in a desert. Certainly, they know what a sunset is, but their recollections of one will be different. Therefore, when they are cerebrally called upon by an author to imagine a sunset, it will be based on a sunset that they have experienced. Thus, making their imagery of the book personal. This is probably one reason why those who read, prefer the book version over the movie version, if indeed, it has been made into a movie. On the big screen, the moviegoer sees only the details that the screenplay writer wants you to see and how the director wants you to see them. It's all based on their own experiences.

AS DEEP AS THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA Likewise, readers of Eiction are often irritated by the cover art on a book because, invariably, the scene that's being depicted on the cover doesn't accurately portray the scene as it was written by the author. There are always some details that are inaccurate. Undoubtedly, this is a business decision. They're probably doing what they know will sell more books for the least amount of money, but it's frustrating when the main character of the book is supposed to have blue eyes but the model's eyes on the cover are clearly green. If only the artist had read it, he/she would know that the main character had blue eyes as deep as the Mediterranean Sea; chiseled features with a strong chin; a patrician nose with its perfection only marred by a slight crook; a little‐too‐long wavy hair with a wayward lock that hung rebelliously over a broad forehead; a day's worth of stubble on his face; and a small, thin scar on his right temple that he received when he fell from a tree when he was eight years old.

ARE YOU A SKETCH ARTIST?

This is exactly what police sketch artists count on.

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be helpful in imagining what someone looks like.

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demonstrate how the written description of someone can

DeEinitely this description is fanciful, but it does

They take an eyewitness' description of an alleged suspect and sketch the face based on those descriptions with the results being strikingly similar to the suspect. All without the police sketch artist ever seeing the suspect. In essence, isn't this what we, as genealogists and family historians, do? Take details of an ancestor and put them all together in hopes that the resulting “sketch” bears some resemblance to your ancestor? However, is it possible to make an actual sketch

of our ancestor? Maybe if we're sketch artists, but what if we're not? Is it possible to Eind descriptions of our ancestors to maybe give us some idea of what they looked like, similar to what our brains already do when we read a book of Eiction?

HOW’S THAT FOR A SKETCH Yes, it is possible to Eind descriptions of some of our ancestors.

Were any of your ancestors in the military? Perhaps the Civil War? Or maybe they were male adults during World War I or World War II? If they were, you might be able to Eind a description of your male ancestor. Additionally, if you have an ancestor that applied for a United States Passport ‐‐ male or female – you might be able to Eind a description of them as well. Also, if you are lucky, you may Eind a photocopied black and white photo of your ancestor attached to the application. How's that for a sketch? No, it's not an artist's rendering of your ancestor, but it is a description with a possible lead on a photograph of them. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that the people taking down the descriptions of our ancestors were human and subject to imperfection. They may have been their watch wishing they were anywhere else than where they were. They may have cared less about the minute distinctions of facial characteristics. However, don't let this prevent you from taking a look. You never know what you might Eind.

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that employee who was constantly looking at

SEEING A GRANDFATHER FOR THE FIRST TIME Let's take for example my maternal

I was extremely lucky to Eind my

grandfather, James Wesley Blacketer. He

grandfather's description once again when

was born 22 Mar 1894 in Council Bluffs,

I was perusing the U.S. Passport collection

Pottawattamie, Iowa. He Eilled out a World

a t A n c e s t r y. c o m . A p p a r e n t l y, m y

War I Registration Card while he was living

grandfather had accepted a position in

in St. Joseph, Missouri on 5 Jun 1917. His

Mexico and needed a passport to travel to

description is as follows:

Tampico, Mexico from San Antonio, Texas. I

• • • • •

read through it carefully, and was

Medium height; Medium build; Gray eyes; Light‐colored hair; and Not bald.

especially captivated by the expanded description of my grandfather. Here was his description in 1920 as listed on his passport application:

This description of my grandfather leaves something to be desired, and probably

• • • • • • • • • • • •

could be used to describe plenty of men. It would have been nice if they had put down that his eyes were Morning Dove gray, or that his hair was the color of straw but looked as soft as a rabbit's fur. However, it's describing my grandfather, and I'd rather have it than not have it.

26 years old; 5 feet, 8 inches; Oval forehead; Gray eyes; Regular nose; Natural mouth; Natural chin; Medium brown hair; Light complexion; Oval face; Mole on back of neck; and Scar on back of [left?] leg.

Now this description is a little better, right? Since the gray eyes were listed in 1917 and 1920 by two different people, I can probably conclude that he had gray eyes, but I still don't know the shade of gray. Some of my siblings and I as well as my mother all had lighter hair when younger, and as we've aged, our hair has become darker. We all could’ve been described as having light hair as well as having medium brown hair. Sometimes the difference correlating with the season – lighter hair in the summer and medium brown hair in the winter. Could this be the same as with my grandfather's hair? Possibly. Maybe the person who wrote the description down had a different idea as to what was light hair and what was medium brown based on their experiences or exposure to that color of hair. To say that I was pleased with this expanded description of my grandfather is an understatement. Furthermore, at the time, this was only the second passport application I had ever looked at, and I was completely shocked at what I found further down on the application. There was a photo of my grandfather. Part of the shock was from the fact that the Eirst ever passport application that I had looked at didn't have a photograph. So, I hadn't been looking for one. The other part of my shock at Einding this photograph was that I'd never seen my grandfather before. He passed away twenty years before I was born, he and my grandmother had divorced, and my mother was not close to him. So, I was completely shocked to see him staring back at me. Albeit from a photocopied black and white photo where half of his face is shadowed, but it's a photo of him nonetheless. In comparing his description with his photo, I can't tell the shade of his gray eyes, but I can see his oval face, his regular nose, and his natural mouth and chin. They are right there. One added bonus of having the description and the photo is that they compliment one another. From his photo, I can't discern his height, his eye color or hair color, his mole on the back of his neck, nor the scar on his leg. Likewise, from the description, I can't discern how he wore his hair, nor the fact that he, at least once, wore a bow tie.

HE LOOKED A LITTLE RUDDY Another example of an ancestor's description is of Claiborne Leander Bouquet. He married my great‐grandmother's sister. I was able to Eind both his World War I Draft Registration Card as well as his application for a U.S. Passport to travel to Mexico for employment like my grandfather, James Wesley Blacketer. Claiborne was my grandmother's uncle, and by marriage, James Wesley's uncle though they were closer in age. Here is the description of Claiborne as per his World War I Draft Registration Card: • • • •

Tall height; Slender build; Brown eyes; Black hair.

The description from his U.S. Passport Application is as follows: • • • • • • • • • • •

36 years old; 5 feet, 10 inches; High forehead; Brown eyes; Large nose; Medium mouth; Regular chin; Black hair; Ruddy complexion; Long face; and Small scar on left thumb.

Several things caught my attention. One was that I already knew from my research that Claiborne's family was of French descent having come to America through Louisiana, making his brown eyes and black hair appropriate. Additionally, his complexion caught my eye. People who have a ruddy complexion are those whose face is red or gets red easily. When you take a look at his photo from the application, can't you just “see” him having a ruddy complexion?

CREATING A COMPOSITE OF A FAMILY

Finding descriptions of ancestors within the same immediate family can also reveal a “sketch” of the family. That Eirst application I mentioned above was for my paternal great‐grandfather, John Marschall. He applied for an United States Passport in 1910, and there is only a description of him. As he survived the Storm of 1900 on Galveston Island, Texas, I would imagine any early photos of him that had been taken were ruined in the storm. Additionally, my paternal grandfather, Joseph Marshall, was “split” from the rest of the family, and none of my family knew about my grandfather's father, John Marschall, much less had a photo of him. This is why his description, while meager, is special. • • • • • • • • • •

53 years old; 5 feet, 6 inches; medium-broad forehead; blue eyes; broad nose; Large mouth; Medium chin; brown hair; light complexion; and oblong face

Speaking of my paternal grandfather, Joseph Marshall [he changed the spelling of his name], here is a physical description from his World War I Registration Card: • • • •

Tall height; Medium build; Gray eyes; and Light hair.

Now compare that to his World War I photo (opposite page) Indeed, his eyes are a deep gray and his hair actually looks more medium brown. Also, his description does not seem to be similar to his father's physical description. Additionally, I was able to Eind my grandfather's older brother's World War I Registration Card. Here is John Marschall Jr.'s physical description: • • • • •

Tall in height; Medium build; Gray eyes; Brown hair; and 3 Eingers off of right hand at second joint.

Now, the Eirst thing that is interesting is that he is missing the top half of three of his Eingers on his right hand. There is a deEinite story to be learned there. How did he lose them? According to my research, he grew up working on a farm, and then later was a Eisherman, then a dairyman, then was into real estate development. The odds are in favor of the farm, the Eishing boat, or the dairy farm as being the most likely locations where he would've had an accident that caused him to have this “distinguishing characteristic.” In addition, John had gray eyes like his younger brother (my grandfather) Joseph. Together, all three descriptions of these men, along with my grandfather's photo, provide a composite “sketch” of this family. A family that I have never seen in person, including my grandfather.

Even If It's Only In Your Mind Indeed, it is wonderful when you have a photo of your ancestors, but not everyone has one. However, this is no reason for you to despair, because you're able to “sketch” a picture of them. There are places to look for and Yind descriptions of your ancestors, and in some of those places, you just might Yind a photo. But even if you don't Yind a photo, a physical description can go a long way in sketching what they looked like, even if it's only in your mind.

Here are some more likely places to Eind descriptions and/or photos of your ancestors with the last one, Cyndi's List, being a resource for further possible places to Eind descriptions and photos: Civil War Pension Files as well as Military Records in general National Archives U.S. Army Register [Ancestry $] Ship Passenger Lists [Ancestry $] CertiEicates of Naturalization (personal descriptions and after 1929, photos) [Ancestry $] Obituaries [Ancestry $] Yearbooks ‐ Distant Cousin ‐ I Dream of Genealogy ‐ E‐Yearbook.com Township / County Histories (at libraries and on [Google Books]) Ancestry's Family Trees [Ancestry ] Genealogical Social Networking Sites Dead Fred Ancient Faces Flikr Facebook Ebay Cyndi's List

Ancestry.com. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 19171918 [database on‐line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data: United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 19171918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microEilm. [http:// search.ancestry.com/cgi‐bin/sse.dll? db=ww1draft&h=31219191&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt&ssrc=pt_t1884615_p‐1191842742_g32768 : accessed 2009]. Ancestry.com. U.S. Passport Applications, 17951925 [database on‐line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007. Original data: Passport Applications, January 2, 1906‐March 31, 1925; (National Archives MicroEilm Publication M1490, 2740 rolls); General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59; National Archives, Washington, D.C. [http://search.ancestry.com/cgi‐bin/sse.dll? db=uspassports&h=954002&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt&ssrc=pt_t1884615_p‐1191842742_g32768: accessed 2009]. Ancestry.com. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 19171918 [database on‐line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data: United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 19171918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microEilm. [ http:// search.ancestry.com/cgi‐bin/sse.dll? db=ww1draft&h=19486528&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt&ssrc=pt_t1884615_p‐764099558_g32768: accessed 2009]. Ancestry.com. U.S. Passport Applications, 17951925 [database on‐line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007. Original data: Passport Applications, January 2, 1906‐March 31, 1925; (National Archives MicroEilm Publication M1490, 2740 rolls); General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59; National Archives, Washington, D.C. [http://search.ancestry.com/cgi‐bin/sse.dll? db=uspassports&h=385657&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt&ssrc=pt_t1884615_p‐764099558_g32768 : accessed 2009]. Joseph Marshall photograph, ca. 1918; digital image 2009, privately held by Caroline Martin Marshall Pointer, [address for private use,] Texas, 2008. Joseph gave it to his wife, Rettie Maye Martin Marshall who then gave it to their son Joseph Kent Marshall, Jr. When he passed away in 2004, it was left to his children, and as of 2008 it is in the possession of Caroline Martin Marshall Pointer. The original is in excellent condition.

SMILE FOR THE CAMERA GENIAUS Sydney, New South Wales Australia Geniaus, a former Teacher, Librarian and Head of IT in a Private School in Sydney, Australia, is a mother of four and grandmother of seven. Geniaus, who has 10 convict ancestors, has been indulging in her complementary spare time pursuits of genealogy and information technology for over twenty years. Geniaus uses a range of software including Blogger, Twitter, Skype, Bing and Google Wave to communicate with other genealogists. Her ancestors can be found at [Link] and her blog at [Link]. With Mr. Geniaus in tow she has enjoyed traveling to the lands of her forefathers: England, Ireland and Scotland in search of their roots.

19TH EDITION - GIFT

Doesn’t Geniaus look like Darla in the Little Rascals? - fM

Geniaus' Blog ‐‐ Christmas At The Cross The musings of an amateur Australian genealogist excited by Web2.0 applications. In the early 1950s Geniaus attended kindergarten (preschool) in Sydney's King's Cross. Marie Beckman Grucz

My gift for this carnival is a photo of Geniaus, her kindy pals and teacher in front of the tree at the Kindergarten Hanceville, Alabama Christmas Party. The children were required to wear fancy dress for the party; luckily Geniaus had an outfit from United States her ballet concert that she could wear. Some of the children are clutching the Christmas stockings we received as gifts on the day. Geniaus is the little sailor girl on the bottom left of the photo. The tall girl in the middle back row with short, dark, curly hair is, fifty-five years later, Geniaus' friend. She is my son's best friend's mother. It's a small world! (This is Genius’ submission to the 19th Edition of Smile for the Camera.)

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Writing For Blog Carnivals Submission Form

If a picture is worth a thousand words, why can't words be worth a thousand pictures? That's the premise behind Smile For The Camera ~ A Carnival of Images. Smile is a monthly showcase of articles that feature the very best of family photographs or those orphan photographs contained in your collection. The goal of this carnival is to provide a regular showcase of the best of those cherished photographs and articles based on word prompts. Smile is a feature of ShadesOfTheDeparted.com. The word prompt for February is VALENTINE! Visit Shades to submit your post. Deadline is the 10th of each month, midnight Pacific Time.

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The Imprint Or Logo - Another great imprint, this one from M.F. Kelly of the Crescent Studio, 1111 E. Street, Tacoma, Washington. You never know where social history or fodder for family history will be found. Notice that the mountain in this photographer’s advertisement is identified as Mt. Tacoma, 14,444 ft. Hasn’t the mountain always been called Rainier? - When George Vancouver saw Mount Tacoma in the year 1792 he named it Mount Rainier, after a friend of his in England —a British admiral and an enemy of America. In doing this he ignored the old Indian name, Tahoma or Tachoma (meaning snowy peaks) used by Washington citizens. It was a rivalry between Seattle and Tacoma that sealed the mountain’s fate. Seattle would rather have it named for an enemy of America than for its rival, the city of Tacoma. Tacoma fought long and hard, but in the end lost to the name Rainier. It was said that for many years Tacoma ignored the name Rainier which became official in 1925. So it would seem did one of the city’s photographers whose imprint contained the mountain called Tacoma.

Millard F. Kelly was born in Ohio in 1857 and died in Yakima, January 13, 1911. He was a photographer in Tacoma at 1111 E. Street from 1885 to 1891. In the 1892 Polk City D i r e c t o r y f o r Ta c o m a , W a s h i n g t o n , K e l l y ’s photography business has moved to 1516 Jefferson Avenue, dating this cabinet card prior to 1892.