Dating old family photos can feel impossible. However, once you know what to look for the impossible becomes possible. All you need is patience, persistence, and some basic knowledge. Let’s take a look at a photo I identified in my family.

This picture above I have identified as my great great grandparents, Charles and Emmaliza Holmes. I will not go as far as saying I am 100% sure. With all old photos that are unmarked, I don’t think it is fair to say the certainty is that high. With the evidence I have gathered I would give myself 93%.

Now, let’s follow the steps in the process of finding out who is in this picture.

Step 1: Where did the picture come from?

This alone can be one of the biggest clues you can gather. I received this picture from my mother’s side of the family. More specifically, I was told the picture is from my mother’s cousin in Illinois. This information immediately led me to the Holmes side of the family from Crawford County, Illinois. You can narrow down your search dramatically if you can figure out who had possession of the photograph.

Ask any relatives you can if they have ideas on who may be in the photograph. Search other old family photos to see if you can find resemblances on a labeled picture.

Step 2: What kind of picture is it?

Knowing the history of photography, believe it or not, can help in identifying historical photos.

The Daguerreotype photograph peaked in the 1840’s and 1850’s. It has a mirror-like surface, a silver coated copper plate and is almost always cased.

The Ambrotype had a very short peak time between 1856 and 1860. The images were on glass and always cased. However, this type does not look like a mirror. Rotating the image will not make it appear to be a negative.

A tintype photograph peaked in the 1860’s up to 1871. These images were on a thin iron plate coated with a dark lacquer or enamel. They could be found cased or loose.

The Cabinet Card appeared in 1866 and had its peak in the United States between 1875 and 1895. Rarely are they found after 1906. Images were printed on thin paper and mounted on heavy card stock. Early photos in this period were sepia colored. Later photos were silver-like with rich blacks. Commonly the cabinet cards were 4 1/2 by 6 1/2.

This photo of my great great grandparents is mounted on heavy card stock and is 4 1/2 by 6 1/2. Noticing these features leads me to narrow down the time frame to 1875-1895. Now that I have a branch of the family and time frame let’s move onto what we actually see in the photo.

Step 3: Clues on the photograph

One of the best features of the cabinet card is that often the photographer’s name and the city and state are printed on the photograph-either on the front or on the back.

As you can see above, the photographer and city/state are printed on the photo. If you are lucky, you can do research on the photographer’s name to find out when he was business. Unfortunately, research on J.W Mitchell was a bust but much information is out there about other period photographers. This is always a clue to look into further.

I stated earlier that my family was from Crawford County, Illinois. Some of my ancestors were from the eastern part of the county and the others were from the western half. This might not seem like such a big deal in today’s world. However, this is a very large county and getting around wasn’t as easy in the 1800’s. Therefore, I narrowed down my search to the ancestors that lived in the western half of the county where Oblong is located. After looking at census records I could narrow it down further to relatives that lived in Oblong and the surrounding countryside (Crawford County is still to this day very rural).

Step 4: Identify Clothing and Hair Trends

One of the best ways to identify any photograph is to use clothing and hair styles to determine a time frame. In this photo I paid particular attention to Emmaliza’s simple hair and the simplicity of her dress with the buttons and bow at the neck.

Emmaliza’s dress is more fitted throughout. There is no hoop under the skirt suggesting this dress is post 1860’s. Skirts were still typically full until the late 1870’s when skirts became narrower from the waist down. Her hair is simple and put up in a bun which was more typical of the 1880’s and 1890’s.

Her collar is not too high or flared out and the upper sleeves are fitted with just a small stand up poof at the shoulders. The buttons also seem more typical of the late 1880’s and 1890’s.

Charles’ suit with a hip length jacket, wide lapels and lack of formality in buttons leads me to the 1880’s and early 1890’s. His short hair and facial hair is also typical of that era.

Conclusion

My research combined with the clues I found in the photograph pointed directly to Charles and Emmaliza Holmes.

I knew I was looking for a couple in the Holmes family from the western part of Crawford County, Illinois between 1875-1895. They had to be the appropriate age (25-50 by the looks of them in the photo). Based on the clothing and hairstyles I also narrowed this pictured further to most likely the late 1880’s. Emmaliza was pregnant most of the late 1870’s and 1880’s. Although this picture could have been taken between pregnancies it seems more likely that this pictures was after she had kids which leaves it after 1886.

I also compared this picture to a picture that is 100% known to be Emmaliza and did a side by side comparison. Although the other picture is probably 20 years after this one, the similarities are too great to ignore. This just added to the list of clues.

Below is the known picture of Emmaliza. They hair is the same and the mouth has the same crookedness to it. Had this been my only clue then, no, I would not draw this conclusion. However, taking the comparison with all the other clues makes me 93% certain it is her.

Although dating a photo can seem daunting, if you take it one step at a time you have a greater chance of success. Often it takes the combination of research, photographic clues, and comparisons but it is possible.