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| Freedmen's Bureau Confidential File for US Colored Troops |
We often ask this question. In this age of ever present cameras (either
actual cameras, cell phones, Ipads, etc), many born now find images of
themselves and others ubiquitous!
It’s hard for some to realize that photographs were a rarity until say the 1900s or so and even then most families didn’t have a camera and it required a trip to a photo studio. Even drivers licenses didn’t have pictures, nor school ID cards. Do read about the History of Photography.
I was fortunate
that my dad was into cameras (still and movie in the 1950s and 1960s) and so he
probably played around a bit more than an average person taking photos and
videos. By the 1970s, I had my own
cameras – I can’t remember the first one I got and it had a heft to it that I
do still remember and my first pictures (taken in England) are still a part of
my collection (though they weren’t very good). Though, for future generations, there won't be any questions about what we looked like!
That said, since we
often won’t find pictures of our ancestors, this article on The Ancestor Hunt (Kenneth R Marks) was a fun read, What Did Your
Ancestor Look Like? 5 Ways to Find Physical Characteristics.
Besides the 5 Ways
listed in the article, some of the comments mentioned other sources for
physical descriptions:
·
prison
records
·
passenger
lists
I would also add to
the list:
·
civil
war documentation (Pensions, Freedmen’s Bureau – USCT Confidential
files, etc)
·
newspaper
articles about missing soldiers, runaway slaves & wives, etc
And, even if photos
were taken and are now in our possession, they weren’t always labeled. I have a few of individuals that I would love
to identify. It’s kind of funny, and I have used some of the documents listed above to then identify some of my mystery people in photographs! A good
description is always valuable!
Where else have you found descriptions of the physical
characteristics of your ancestors?
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