> Once you've taken the bother of either process though, don't be > surprised to find such useful inscriptions as "Chris' babies" or > "Dan's great-grandmother." If anyone in MY family ever wrote "John > Jacob Jingleheimer, with wife Dora on left, mother Sally on right, > and (left to right) George, James, and Mary-Alice; taken at Sally's > home --1312 Main Street, Tupelo, KS -- at 2pm Sunday March 25 1902" > on a photo, I've never found the photo. (g) > > Cheryl <singhals@erols.com> And you hope the inscriptions are in a readable handwriting! <Warning: long, rambling post with a little bit of useful information follows> There are inscriptions on many of the pictures my grandmother had, but her left-handed, previous-century script is difficult to read - and it's all in pencil, much of which has faded to nearly the same shade as the photo backings. There are several pictures with complete names. One has two people and names listed are Mary Raines (my grandmother), Casa Bowers Raines (most likely her mother's sister, Catherine Hannah - listed as Hanna Catherine on her death certificate). Another has three men and three women in it and the names listed are John Elmer Raines (my grandmother's brother) and Ollie Howard (his future wife) - but the other 4 people are not identified. Which one is who? I've scanned front and back of everything to have copies to work on. I have a lot of experience with image manipulation, having started with a black and white film darkroom and migrated to a "digital darkroom". Even so, there are letters and words that aren't decipherable after extensive image "tweaking" - Is that woman's name "Mittice" or "Wittice"? (If I could just find another reference to that person...) You may also find the same name spelled differently - sometimes in the same reference (birth/death/marriage pages of her family Bible). But those pages did provide her mother's name (Mahala Bowers), which I had never known. I also learned that she was one of 12 children. I've been able to follow her ancestry (in her mother's line) back to France in 1680, by correlating several on-line references which also show that her father and his brother married sisters. The photos have allowed me to determine the approximate time of their move from Illinois to Arkansas. There's a photo of one of my grandmother's sisters (Minnie Albertine, born in 1882) that was taken at a studio in Murphysboro, IL, when she was about 16, making the photo date around 1898. The sister died in 1902 and was buried in Poinsett County, AR. This places the move south in the period 1898 to 1902. Not exact, but it will limit the amount of material to be researched when I look for property records (among the many pieces of information I don't have - and there's no one left to ask). (Thanks to Marjorie Day Huber for surveying the cemetery and posting her findings at http://www.couchgenweb.com/poinsett/walkerc.htm) My compliments to Illinois for their on-line databases! I was able to find the marriage and death records of several of my grandmother's family members. Plus, they include information on where and how to order most documents. I also found "missing pieces" that gave a little insight into my grandmother. When she was angry with someone, she would cut them out of the picture - literally! There are several picture "halves" with just a child on them... More about me: http://thelabwiz.home.mindspring.com/ VB3 source code: http://thelabwiz.home.mindspring.com/vbsource.html VB6 source code: http://thelabwiz.home.mindspring.com/vb6source.html VB6 - MySQL how to: http://thelabwiz.home.mindspring.com/mysql.html johnecarter atat mindspring dotdot com Fix the obvious to reply by email. the Wiz <look@message.body>