Many people interested in their family history have old photographs that have been handed down to them by their parents, grandparents, or other relatives. However, sometimes these photos aren’t dated, don’t identify the people in them, or don’t provide any context to understand the purpose or meaning of the photo itself.
But don’t give up! There are methods to start unraveling these mysteries and to add more detail or context to your ancestors’ stories. Two examples of how this can be done are given below.
When I was in 8th grade, our teacher asked us to create a family tree and suggested that we speak to our parents and grandparents to help us with the assignment. All of my grandparents were descendants of German immigrants, were very proud of their heritage, and were very pleased that someone from my generation was interested.
Who ARE These People???
Among the items they gave me were photographs dating from the late 19th to the early 20th century. There was one portrait my maternal grandmother gave me that had no names on it – but she thought they might be her grandparents on her mother’s side.
Whoever they were, she had never met them and didn’t know their names. One oddity, however, was that the back of the picture said it was taken by a photographer located in Frankfort, Illinois. This made no sense; those grandparents had been born and raised in Wisconsin and didn’t move to Illinois until 1923 – decades after the photograph was taken.
After I finished my school assignment, the photo went into a scrapbook, with a note saying “Names Unknown.” It was all but forgotten for more than half a century.
Only after I started writing a family history book in 2021 did the hidden story of the photo begin to reveal itself. By then, I knew the names of, and key dates and locations for, my maternal ancestors, in some cases dating back to the early 1600s. I also knew that my grandmother’s parents, Heinrich Sander and Margarethe Voigts, had emigrated to America in 1881 and had been married in Chicago in 1882.
The fog was beginning to lift. Margarethe’s parents – Gerd and Adelheid Voigts – must have come to America to visit their children while they were still living in Illinois! Their son, Carsten, had lived near Frankfort at that time, which would explain why their photo was taken there. The final piece of the puzzle fell into place when I showed the photo to a friend from Germany, who told me that Adelheid was wearing a “Kirchenhaube,” a hat that German women in the 19th century wore only to church services and ceremonies, such as a wedding.
The story of Gerd and Adelheid Voigts demonstrates how genealogical research can unlock not only names and dates, but even the reason a photograph was taken. By combining clues from the person who gave me the photograph, my grandmother’s memories about who the subjects might be, and marriage and property records explaining why the photo was taken in an unusual place—along with details like the clothing worn in the image—I was able to solve this decades-long mystery and create a far richer story for my family history book.
What’s the Deal with the Military Uniform?
The second example of how the hidden secrets of a photo can be revealed is even more recent and uses different tools. In 1987, a second cousin of mine published a family history book entitled A Piece of Life’s Puzzle. The book discusses our shared 3x great-grandfather Christian Bobzin and his descendants. But some of the “pieces of the puzzle” were missing, broken, or incomplete.
The book included a picture of Christian, shown in the photo below. My second cousin somehow knew it was him, but she didn’t, or perhaps couldn’t, provide any information about when or why the photograph was taken, Christian’s rank, the branch of the military he was in, or exactly where or when he served.
Unlike the photo of Gerd and Adelheid Voigts, I knew who the person in the photo was, and that it must have been taken before the family emigrated to America at the end of 1855. But again, I didn’t have any of the details of what it all meant. This photo lay dormant for several decades.
It was Katherine’s blog post a few weeks ago, 9 Tips for Finding Records in Your German Hometown, that piqued my interest in trying to learn more about his military service. By now, I knew where he and his family had lived in Germany and the latest date the photo could have been taken. I also had been told by another Bobzin descendant that the family believed he had “looked after the horses of the Duke of Mecklenburg.”
I decided to send an email to the State Archives in Schwerin, the capital of modern-day Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Having visited the archives in the past and worked with them to find emigration permits issued to my paternal ancestors, I felt pretty confident that they would respond promptly.
They responded quickly, and the good news was that they do have military records from this time period. However, they are unable to provide them at this time because the archives are closed due to relocation and won’t re-open until 2027 at the earliest.
It seemed as if I had run into a brick wall, but then a webinar Katherine hosted a few weeks ago popped into my head. It was about the use of AI in genealogical research. I decided to upload the photo of Christian to ChatGPT and see if it could provide me with any hints about his military service.
Based on the fuzzy details in the photo, I was told that he almost certainly was a member of the Mecklenburg-Schwerin Dragoon (Cavalry) Regiment, which was formed by the Grand Duke in 1817. ChatGPT also noted that the chevrons and medals on his uniform, the sword he is carrying, and even the fact that he was photographed at all provide strong evidence that he was a senior non-commissioned officer—most likely holding a rank of Vizewachtmeister, roughly equivalent to sergeant—with many years of service.
Between 1829 and 1855, there were in fact dragoon horse stables close to the villages where Christian and his family lived, which would align with the oral history of the family. ChatGPT even provided the enhanced and colorized image (below right) of Christian in his military uniform, and a detailed description of what his daily duties would have been in this role.
It sounds like a credible story, but of course, when using AI, you still need to verify everything. While I’m checking other sources to see if this information is accurate and whether my working hypothesis of where he was stationed is correct, I seem to be off to a solid start on eventually unraveling the story behind his photo.
These are just two examples of how the hidden stories of old photographs can be uncovered. If you have old photos of your ancestors, perhaps you too can do the same.
Do you have any similar stories of deciphering photographs? Let us know in the comments!
About the Author
Bob Nieland lives in Naperville, Illinois. He is a descendant of four great-great-great-grandparents, nine great-great-grandparents, and seven great-grandparents who emigrated from Northern Germany to the United States between 1854 and 1881. He attended a Lutheran elementary school that was founded by German immigrants in 1863, studied German (and was taught the Sütterlin script) in high school and college, and worked at a Max Planck Institute in Munich after graduating from college. There, he translated documents from German into English for an English-language journal. He is the author of a privately-published family history book and is currently working on a British family history book for his wife’s family.
8 Responses
I have an early 1900’s photo with my great grandfather in which I can identify him and some of his siblings but not all. I thought the couple in the center were his parents but after finding death records and marriage records I realized that the date was 1904 when the youngest sibling was killed by a train. They came together for his funeral. The parents had already died and the couple in the center was the oldest daughter with her husband. This allowed me to identify the other siblings of my great grandfather.
My mother was born in 29 and grew up in WW2 Germany. I have little information about her ancestry. I have her mother (who died when she was around 5) and father’s names (who abandoned her when her mom fell ill). I was able to get her maternal grandmother’s name from a birth certificate. I also have photos of she and her mother along with some young men in German uniforms who may or may not have been cousins. I don’t even know where to start. My father’s maternal ancestry is better documented and easier to follow but I reach a dead end on my paternal grandfather’s side as his parents emigrated from Poland around the turn of the century.
That was very interesting. I have a photo with names but nothing else. I looked up the name but didn’t get anywhere. I am thinking that it may be ancestors from Poland instead of Germany. I will try AI and see what I can find.
Interesting commentary showing serendipitous moments falling into place, and the need to re- look at things we’ve stashed away for years!
Thanks, Bob!
Indeed… A photograph of 3 relatives only provided the name of the photographer ( Alexander Seik ) and the name of the youngest person ( my wife’s great grandmother ) in the photograph. I had uploaded the photo to ChatGPT to try and date the photograph. In addition to doing that, ChatGPT indicated the photograph was taken at Seik’s photographic studio in Tabor, Bohemia. “Bingo”. I did not know the town nor the general area from which these relatives came from. That one mystery being solved led to the discovery of occupations, additional relatives, etc. It was like letting the Genie out of the Bottle. By searching the Catholic Church records in Tabor… I found Baptism records for the young lady’s children from her first marriage… which were known. Those baptism records identified the grandparents of the children, and the occupation of the parents and the towns they were from… which was not known. The young lady’s first husband had passed away at a young age and she remarried before immigrating to the USA with her 2nd husband. I discovered that her second husband had also been previously married. This was completely unknown. That led to discovering the baptism records of 4 children who turned out to be their children… two who had immigrated to the USA at a later time, but lived close by. It also identified the 1st wife and another set of grandparents. I had originally assumed that they were nephews of the Immigrant couple who came to the USA. Nope, they were children from the 1st marriage. The entire family tree just blossomed in ways I and fellow genealogists on Ancestry who were researching this family… hadn’t even imagined. The baptism records indicated both husbands and one grandfather were grain millers. Upon more research, I discovered that the first husband’s relatives owned a water driven grain mill in Tabor. It had been in the family for 170 years, and passed down from relative to relative. There is a plaque on the wall of the historic grain mill commemorating the 4 family members who owned it during that period. A grain mill in this same exact location also shows up in medieval drawings from the 1600s. There is also an island on the river in Tabor that bears the name of that family. Once I knew where to start digging… the genealogical rewards were simply amazing!
Extremely interesting and is motivating me to relook at a 1880s photograph I have of my maternal great great grandparents and their blended children.
Just wondering if you’ve ever used facial recognition software to identify unknown people in photographs? If so, do you have a suggestion on which one I might try? I have a couple of photos where the same, unknown people appear, but none of my living relatives recognize them.
I have a full album of german ancestors without names. My great-grandmother had emigrated from Ebersdorf, Schleiz after being disowned from her family.
I took the photos out of the album and there is the name of the studio it was taken. Actually, there are several different names of studios.
We know that my great-great grandfather was the master gardener at the Schleiz castle. Any thoughts on what avenues I could take in identifying these pictures? I will try AI as
you suggested but do you know of what else I could do?