How old is the oldest family photo you have?

[snoopy]

No one in my family loves and appreciates antiques the way I do, so....along with these photos which I treasure, I also have old purses, china, silver, crystal, linens, love letters written by my grandparents, a victrola that still plays, a canopy bed I sleep in that belonged to my great grandmother, many other pieces of furniture, gun from BEFORE the Civil War and on and on and on.

Wow. I would love your house. ALthough not a real avod collector myself, I love antiques and anything that has a history.

 

[Kitty 34]

I love old photos, Blondie!! My Mom has given me several that date back to the early 1900s.

 

[6_Time_Momma]

My dad has quite a few older photos. We have one of his great, great (I think that is enough greats, maybe not) grandparents. He was a physician in the Civil War and she was the first womanj pharmacist in Missouri.

 

[DemonLlama]

1886! It is a grainy picture of my grandmother's great grandparents. And like that period, they don't look very happy. No one smiled for pictures back then because of the belief that it would ruin the true portraiture. Knowing how long they had to stand still, though, I can imagine their faces would have gotten pretty tired of holding a grin.

 

[Blondie]

Here is my great grandmother yet again as an adult with her husband/my great grandfather. She still doesn't look too happy!

 

[KristiKelly]

There are some old photos at my grandparents house, I don't know how old they are but they were taken on tin.

 

[caitycaity]

we have a bunch. the oldest is from the 1870's.
this picture must have been taken before 1876, because that is when the man died.

these are my great great great great grandparents, close to the end of their lives. they were both born in the late 1700's.

 

[JoNo]

My grandmother has a picture I'm gonna get her to scan & email me... It's a picture of her & conway twitty WAY before he became famously known as "Conway Twitty". They were on a date I can't remember his real name. We also have a bunch from circa 1870-1890. I'll see if I can't get them sent to me so I can post them here

 

[GrandmaT]

I have a number of tin types from my Mom's side of the family.. Very interesting to see how they dressed and how solemn everyone looked in the photos..

Weren't they allowed to smile back then?

 

[caitycaity]

here's another one i have. the woman on the left is my great great grandmother.

<img src="http://home.gwu.edu/~caity1/genealogy/images/caity%20pics/caity13.JPG" height=500>

 

[BlkBearSuz]

These are my great-grandparents, Jean & Demerise, with their first 4 children. They had a total of 16 children. The picture was taken in 1900 in Quebec, Canada.

 

[Virgo10]

Originally posted by BlkBearSuz
These are my great-grandparents, Jean & Demerise, with their first 4 children. They had a total of 16 children.

Holy Cow!

What a woman!

Roberta

 

[HoneyPooh]

My dad was born in 1910 and I have all his family photos. Some are from the mid to late 1800's. I also have a lot of photos from when my father was in the service during WWII, most of them are from Italy. My mothers side of the family had someone do a Geneology book. It has re-prints of family photos that go back to when the men and women looked alike! I couldn't tell the males from the females except that the females were wearing bonnets! It's given us a lot of good laughs looking at that book The caption would say that Martha was 30 but in her picture Martha would look exactly like 80 year old Jeremiah . My favorite old photo is of my father in his opera coat with the collar standing up and he's on a rain wet city street. He said he thought he was about 28 or 29 when it was taken. If I had my scanner connected I would post it, he was SOOOOOO handsome .

 

[PRINCESS VIJA]

These are some neat photos! The oldest I have is a copy of a pic from my great grandfathers funeral. He is decked out in the coffin and the family is standing behind him.


an FYI on why people don't smile. The old photography techniques required people to stand as still as possible as it took a while to expose the film. When people smiled, they tended to move the facial muscles and so the faces were blurry.

 

[Blondie]

I've really enjoyed seeing these photos! Thanks for posting them!

And for those who didn't what are you waiting for?

 

[BlkBearSuz]

This is one of my favorite photos. It was my great-uncle Vital's wedding. It was taken in 1934 in Lewiston, ME. I just think the dresses are gorgeous.

 

[Blondie]

I love vintage wedding photos! That one is great BlkBearSuz!

Here is one of my DH's grandmother and grandfather taken in the 1920's in Brooklyn, NY. The flowers they carried were huge!

 

[DISshopkeeper]

Wow! These are FUN!!

Caity, LOVE the one with the parasols. Do you know a location on that?

Snoopy, you MUST get someone to sit with your grandmother while she is still here to IDENTIFY the people in the pics.

I've recently become (by default, I might add) a bit of a family historian. Here's a couple of my faves:




A great Aunt. My mother tells me she never came over from Ireland. LOVE the dress.

 

[DISshopkeeper]

My maternal Grandmother 1911

 

[jvas]

Now thats cool!!!

Originally posted by Blondie
My mom gave me this photo, my great-great grandmother is sitting down with the child on her lap and my great-grandmother is the third female from the left (standing) and doesn't look all too happy, does she? It was taken in the late 1800's.

Out of all the photos I have, I think this is the oldest one! I love vintage family photos!

What about you?