I love that I’m organizing my research. I love even more that it’s giving me an opportunity to look at every piece of documentation that I have in my possession. Before I started my organization, I was just so overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I had. It was tiring just to look at it. Now I’m making heads and tails of it and finding little clues where I didn’t notice them before. Something as simple as remembering to scan the back of a photograph.

Duncan Walker's Family

At first glance, you might think this is just a normal Christmas car. At least that’s what I thought at first. However, last week I scanned this into my computer and I followed the advice from Elyse Doerflinger’s ebook and I scanned the back too. Why didn’t I do that before? It’s so simple and I should have done that. It doesn’t matter now. The fact is I started my scan project last week and when I scanned the back of the above photograph, a lightbulb went off. In fact, this light bulb was probably one of the brightest light bulbs I’ve had.

As you can see, it says “Duncan Walker’s family.” Then it lists the names of the women in the photograph. The name Walker jumped up and hit me on the head! It was Walkers that are listed on the Love “Diner Tree”! They’re also listed on my Love-Menzies Family Outline that Llewellyn worked on at one point. I have this list in about four different stages, including handwritten. So now I just have to figure out how Duncan Walker is connected to the Loves!

What I know about this photo

• Duncan Walker is connected to the Love side of my family.
• This is probably where I inherited my horrible vision from.

What I want to know about this photo

• How is Duncan Walker and his family connected to the Love side of my family?

Mystery Monday is a series I post here on Mondays. It is also a weekly blogging topic on GeneaBloggers. Feel free to post your own mystery photos and link me to them!

Things I know about this photo:

1. This photo is obviously someone from the Moore/Thorward side of my tree.
2. This photo was taken at the studio of F.L. Huff in Newark, NJ
3. This photo was taken in the late 1800s early 1900s

Things I think I know about this photo:

1. I have no reason for believing that I’m right, but I think this could be Llewellyn.

Things I want to know about this photo:

1. Is this in fact Llewellyn?
2. When was this picture taken?

Next steps:

1. I’m going to research more about F.L. Huff and how long exactly he was in business. I did a little searching around and found a pdf on early New Jersey photography¹ This gives me reason to believe Huff could have been just starting up around 1869. He is listed in the 1870 US Census² as being 27 and from New York. Hopefully if I learn more about his business I can narrow down who this baby could be.

Mystery Couple

What I know about this photograph:

1. The couple is connected to the Thorward side of my family.
2. They are the same couple from this Mystery Monday post.

What I want to know about this photograph:

1. Everything else :p
2. Who are they?
3. How are they connected to the family?

Mystery Monday is a weekly series I do on Mondays. It is also a blogging theme used by other GeneaBloggers. Feel free to post about your own mysteries and maybe someone will be able to solve it someday!

Where am I?

My Mystery Monday posts usually have to do with the people in my photographs. That isn’t the case today. I’ve been wondering for awhile about where this particular picture is taken. I’ve had numerous inputs, one being around the Jersey Shore and others being another Jersey town. The only thing everyone agrees on is that this is Jersey. My questions about places aren’t usually solved quickly. Remind me to tell you about the Victory Arch photograph… In fact, I’ll write that up sometime this week. It’s a great story!

What I know about this photo:

• It was most likely taken in New Jersey… somewhere.
• It is most likely a member of the Thorward family.

What I want to know about this photo:

• Where this particular house is?
• Who’s house is this?
• Who are the people in the photograph?
• How are they related or connected to my family?
• Where those awnings green and white? For some reason I feel like they were green and white?
• Can I have a time machine to walk through these old houses? Pretty please?

Mystery Monday is a weekly series on my blog. It is now a Daily Blogging Theme at GeneaBloggers also! Feel free to post about your own mysteries and link me to them!

It’s been a crazy week here in Maryland! The last few days have been spent dealing with flooding and repairs to our roof. Now that those crazy rain totals are behind us, I’m getting back into my genealogy. Here is this week’s Mystery Monday.

Things I know about this picture:

1. This picture is on the front of a postcard. I’m assuming it’s from the same time period of the George Thorward car picture. His isn’t on a postcard but in a decorative postcard-like envelope. It is also labeled with ” 1st Car 1905″ and has a picture of the Statue of Liberty on it.
2. Most likely the picture was from New York City. I’d have to look it up again to be sure. I’m thinking it was from the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. In fact, the car looks like the 1904 First Rolls Royce.  Which would fit in with the 1905 date written on the George Thorward picture.

Things I want to know about this picture:

1. Who is the family posing in this picture? I’m not sure but the girl looks familiar. So I might have more pictures of her in my files somewhere.
2. Was this in fact taken at the World’s Fair? That would give me a date on the photo to better place the family.

Mystery Monday is a weekly series that I do here on my blog. It is also a blogging theme at GeneaBloggers now. Feel free to post your own mystery photos or stories and comment with the link!