Posted on 02/22/2009 6:09:44 PM PST by Dallas59
I found the negatives for these pictures in a box of darkroom items at a garage sale 15 years ago. I have been haunted by them ever since. I have scoured these pictures looking for clues as to the identity of this family. Now I will ask my Flickr friends to help
Seems nobody really knows.
Why didn’t he take them back to where the Garage Sale was?
cool airplane
Lovely family. I hope some descendent of these folks see these pics and recognize them.
Have you put them on Ancestry.com?
Did you find them in TX or VA? Maybe military family. There’s one picture of the Tidal Basin in DC, and another showing Skyline Drive in VA, c 1940.
What about them haunts you?
This may seem silly, but was the garage sale in Texas?
You probably won't find who these people are, but you can preserve them with people who will appreciate them for their reflection of another time and place.
Whoever these people are, they are turning over in their graves.
It even has its own exit off 287.
If the state of the license plate on the car i the one picture that has this written in the snow on car could be determined, it might at least narrow it down.
Nice looking family. Seems like in the last pic, the guy was the early inventor of the satellite dish.
I have many photo albums in boxes in the basement that belonged to my grandparents. Most of the photos are over one hundred years old. Nobody alive today knows who most of the people are, but I find the photos comforting in a way.
I’m sure they would all be horrified to see what the Commie in Chief has done to our country today.
I haven’t done genealogy in years but there used to be a site called Cyndi’s List (don’t remember the spelling) that had links to share old photos and discarded family Bibles. They had links you couldn’t find at Ancestry.
My question also. This gentleman that found the photos put them on his Flickr account. My family has many photos of persons from decades ago that no one alive now can recognize. Shows how important it is to talk to and listen to the Elderly of your family.
You might be able to find out who had that license plate if the records still exist. If you can tell somehow which state that license plate comes from check with their DMV.
I’m always too slow. LOL
2nd picture....I’m assuming this is an area that RARELY gets snow (duh) and is on......sit down. Skyline Drive.
THAT should narrow it down! :)
SERIOUSLY......I buy old photos, the goofier, the better..these are really REALLY nice...someone needs to take that into a good photoshop and enlarge the license plate to see what state it’s in..
Looks like they lived in the DC area or visited relatives who lived there. The two ladies are standing under the cherry blossoms, with the Potomac behind them. The Skyline Drive reference is the roadway that goes into the rural area of Virginia, noted for its lovely fall foliage.
Connecticut?
I am usually the one saying that.
LOL !
The guy in the first photo looks creepy.
the second picture is in DC during cherry blossom time
DC area is what I thought too.
Someone [with the original photo] could easily get the tag number and I’m sure the DMV could find the owner of the vehicle which you have the make/model.... the boys in the picture could still be alive ... plus there are the clues of “Ellie & Herb” ...not as difficult as one would think.
Thanks...that’s a good thing to know.
Looks like a 50ith wedding anniversery pic with the whole extended family.
I love that top photo. I like natural poses, where the subject ignores the camera.
It’s also important to write on the back of the pics who is in them, and the date.
Oct. 19 would indeed be early for even a light snow on the Skyline Drive, although I’ve seen snow as early as Oct. 10 in lower elevations. That license plate should be the key.
They're nice pictures, looks like an affluent family. That one may be cherry blossoms in Wash, DC, just a wild guess.
USGENWEB and some other still free genealogy sites might host them for you if you know an approximate location.
The license # is 51*223 but I cannot read the state, looks like two words. Two letters on? then a blank space then about 4 more letters.
Blue Ridge Drive and Skyline Drive are in Virginia (found that on kos by googling). Also found your flickr post.
The street picture looks more like northern Va. or Bethesda, rather than DC.
I don’t know why, but I want to say that family anniv. photo was taken in Chicago. (ESP)
You could read that plate?! My eyes are older than I thought!
Uh-oh. Intruder Alert. Above the cake and a little to the right.
You’re welcome to borrow my shredder. That should solve your haunting problems.
This is just a cool photo by Jim Mayfield. "Men from Earth"
Those are some great photos. I can see why they caught your imagination.
The best clue is the Skyline picture of the car from 10/19/40.
The license plate is a 1940 version, yellow with blue numbers 51-223.
The Delaware DMV could look that up.
In Delaware, a small state, the license plates stay in families for the most part. The smaller the number, the more cache and worth the plate has. People sell their plates. The numbers 1 to 999 date from the first year of issue, 1909.
The homes in the other pictures are brick, which is consistent with a lot of homes in northern Delaware, closer to the PA. or MD. borders. Houses in central and southern Delaware were very rural back in the 1940s and would be wood houses.
Starting with the DMV would be the best bet. The other pictures, i.e. DC tidal basin during Cherry Blossom time, etc. would be consistent with a family in Delaware taking a trip.
There is another photo that shows the names Ellie and Herb from a Christmas photo. If those names match the DMV registration, you have a major clue.Chances are that the family still exists here in Delaware or Maryland area.
I’m sure someone from this family would be thrilled to get these back. Many of the shots are very well done, by someone who had training or was a very good amatuer. Lighting, composition are very well done.
Safe to say most if not all of those folks are dead
Especially as there are millions and millions of unidentified photos ...
Isn’t that my Aunt Minna’ standing behind the cake with hat on?
Looks like DC Suburbs to me (kid w/airplane)
down off Georgia Ave near RockingHorse Lane.
I would bet those DMV records are long gone. Depends on the policy of the agency concerning retention of records, but here is one example - the Department of Labor requires Injury Compensation files to be retained for thirty years after the last recorded activity on the claim. After that point, the records may be destroyed.
There is a Skyline Drive in Canon City, Colorado. And it snows there.
Indeed. But it is rather large to be letting loose without some sort of digital proportional radio control setup to guide it. I wonder what it used for guidance...if anything.
RC models weren't affordable or commercially available until the '50s.
Yabut. Is it an “big deal” if it snows there?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.