>>Thinking maybe these families even paid the photographer with food or other goods. Can't imagine they could spare a dime if they even had it for a family photo. >> I have a tintype (or something similar) of an ancestor in one of those suit coats that has a velvet-looking collar to it. We think we know who the relative is, but wanted to pin down the time period using the coat. It fits him fairly well, so it didn't necessarily belong to the photographer. I found a site online that dealt with historical clothing, more for the use of theatrical costuming than anything. The site editor was nice enough to take a look at my photo and told me that the coat was of the era we thought, but that the young man seemed to be wearing the coat without a proper shirt collar or tie! I'm not sure how he took it when I told him that the coat was probably handed down from a relative and most likely was the only piece of the outfit he owned. This would have been after the typhoid of the 1850's, followed by the Civil War in the 1860's. He probably felt very much the gentleman in his finery, and lucky to have it at that. JA