An Old Picture in the Hoosier Cabinet
When My sister, Camille and her husband, Andy bought his parent’s house in Southern Utah, they found an old Hoosier cabinet hidden in a storage room. They eventually fixed up the house as an Airbnb. Last year, my sister decided to strip the paint from the cabinet and refinish it. As she began to work on it, she pulled out the drawers. Under the bottom drawer, she found an old can opener, taco seasoning packet, and a Relief Society Visiting Teaching page of Gram Anderson’s, who had lived in the house. Also, she found an unidentified old photograph of a young man and woman. The old picture contained no writing to identify the couple or the photographer.
The home originally belonged to Mary Bay Empey. Andy’s Aunt married one of Mary’s grandsons. Andy sent a copy of the picture to his Bay cousins, but nobody could identify it. Last week, they posted the picture on a local county page on Facebook. When I saw the old picture, I wondered if I could find the identity of the couple. I recently earned my degree in Family History Research from Brigham Young University, Idaho, and with some family history research experience behind me, I thought I might help.
Find Old Pictures of Mary Bay Empey
First, I knew Mary Bay Empey originally owned the cabinet, so, I searched for her on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org. When I found her on FamilySearch.org, I learned her first husband’s name – James Willard Bay. Her maiden name was LeBaron. I looked at the old pictures posted online and found a family picture from 1906. She appeared with her first husband and children. She dressed in a dark, long skirt, and a light, long-sleeved blouse, and her husband wore a coat with a starched white collar. Mary was thirty-eight when the picture was taken.
Even though the young couple in the old picture may have aged to match Mary and her husband in this picture, I was not convinced. So, I kept looking. Some people from Facebook thought maybe the picture depicted Mary and her second husband. However, James Bay died 9 March 1913. Mary married James Empey on 9 September 1926. She was about 59 Years old at that time. Also, my sister pointed out the style of clothing in the old picture she found seem more recent.
Facial Recognition and Old Pictures
Second, I searched the internet for information on facial recognition. I found a blog, https://www.hawk-hill.com/old-photos-facial-recognition/ which talked about using Google face recognition for photos, but it required putting your photos in Google Photos and setting it up to match the faces. I only had one photo. Plus, it took 24 hours for it to work.
Next, I found a site that searched your uploaded photo on the internet for a match. (https://pimeyes.com/en). I uploaded the photo to the site. It found six pictures, but most of them seemed young and too recent to match. Maybe relatives?
Third, I started to look at the old pictures posted for Mary’s children on FamilySearch.org. None of the children looked like a match, but all the pictures on their pages showed older people, so a match proved difficult.
Forth, I found a family tree on Ancestry.com for Mary Bay Empey and searched her children’s pictures. One of the daughters appeared in an old picture with someone named Ermine Hall. They dressed in clothes from the 20’s. With a slight square jaw, this looked like the girl in the original picture.
An Old Picture Matches
Finally, I searched both Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org for Ermine Hall. After experimenting with several dates and places, I found her. Lois Ermine Hall, born in 1897 in Oasis, Millard, Utah, USA and she died in 1979. Her husband, Alonzo Clarence Fullmer, was born 1895 and died 1972. In an old pictures on her memories page, I found a picture of four people. Two of the people looked like those in the original old picture. On closer examination, I discovered they wore the same clothing.in both pictures. Notice his tie and collar, and the flowers on her dress.
Finding the match for the people in the old picture took a few hours, but many pictures may have to wait until more people post pictures online to help find a match. I have a picture of children from my family which I have not found identities for yet. (See below). When my paternal grandmother died, boxes of pictures filled a closet, but none of the pictures carried a label for identification. I believe the pictures ended up in the garbage can. Too bad, because as technology improves, facial recognition might eventually help identify those kinds of old pictures.
My Old Pictures
Many of my personal pictures gather dust without anything to help others know the people’s identity. My goal becomes urgent to label the pictures as I forget people’s names. With so many pictures online now, it may become easier to find a match. But, if you or our parents have unlabeled photographs, take the time to identify the people in them, or find someone who can help identify the people in the old pictures. Do your posterity a favor and label your pictures. Be careful to write close to the bottom. Ink often bleeds through and spoils the picture. Time passes quickly, labeling may take less time than you think. So, set aside time, make an appointment, or just do it.
In conclusion, you can upload pictures to FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com to share with your extended family. Other family tree sites allow you to upload pictures as well. Check with your favorite site’s help page for how to do it. Copyright laws cover any picture taken. If you can find the copyright holder, ask permission to share the picture. Also, the picture exhibited no copyright identifying markings. (Hopefully, the pictures on this blog were published before 1923.)
Therefore, remember, that picture your mother owns of Great Aunt Anne may be the only copy available. Treat it with respect.
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