You never know how you look. . .

We had a saying in my family...you never know how you look 'til you get your picture took. That saying brings me to today's topic for my blog.

I like including photographs in my family tree, as I am sure you do, too. I like putting a face to a name. It brings that person to life to me, making them more real and their relationship to me more personal. Also, I want my daughter and grandchildren to be able to look at the tree and see their ancestors.

When I look at old photographs of my ancestors, I like to look at them to see if I, in anyway, resemble anyone of them. Since I don't feel I definitively look like one side of my family more than the other, I don't think I will find a photo of an ancestor I will look exactly like or closely resemble. But still the same, I look. Although, I guess I do resemble more of my father's side than my mother's.

I don't know about you, but I have a ton of old photographs of family members I have no earthly idea who they are. Since the only people who might have known these people have passed, I can't imagine how I will ever find out their identity.  Nevertheless, I keep the photos in hopes of one day finding out who they are. They were developed in a variety of ways. Some are the old tin-types photos.  Others are on heavy cardboard with a matte surrounding the photo.  And still others were made up as postcards. I must say, the photos have help up well, not aging like photos taken in this day and age. I will have to do some minor clean up on them, but not a whole lot.

Let me retract my previous statement, while it is true I have no idea who some of the people are, some of the photos do have names written on the back. However, right now, it doesn't help much because I don't know how they fit into my family tree.

My task now, if I choose to accept it, which I do (ala Mission Impossible), is to figure out which side of the family they belong and how they fit into the family puzzle.  This will be a monumental task because, as previously stated, the family members who could tell me who they were and where they belong have long since passed. I guess that is the life of a genealogist...solving family mysteries and fitting the puzzle pieces together.