As you guys know from my last post, I've been recently sucked into a fascination with old family photographs. After mentioning in that post that it would be cool if there was a site where you could track your family tree AND attach photos to different parts of the tree, one kind commenter shared that my dream site in fact, does exist. This weekend I spent some time poking around ancestry.com and I made an amazing discovery that I just had to share with you!
It turns out that I have some avid genealogists on my dad's side of the family who have done a ton of hard work to track our family back into ancient history. After finding out who my 5th great grandfather and grandmother are (my father's father's father's father's father's father's father and his wife) -- John Hester and Margaret Gilbert -- I found this photo attached to their record:
It turns out that I have some avid genealogists on my dad's side of the family who have done a ton of hard work to track our family back into ancient history. After finding out who my 5th great grandfather and grandmother are (my father's father's father's father's father's father's father and his wife) -- John Hester and Margaret Gilbert -- I found this photo attached to their record:
John and Margaret are posing with one of their sons - my great grand uncle Solomon. Cuties, aren't they? :)
I looked up the history of photography -- as I noted, photography was invented in the mid-1800s. It turns out the very first portrait taken of a person was taken in 1839. It was a daguerreotype taken on a glass negative with a long exposure. 1839. Here's the kicker -- my 5th great grandfather, John, died in 1843.
Crazy, huh?? We don't know for sure when the photo was taken, but it was sometime before 1843 and was one of the earliest portraits of human beings ever taken!
I read that, because of the long exposures necessary -- sometimes up to one minute in length -- subjects heads' were often clamped from behind so they wouldn't move. That's probably also why they didn't have much expression -- can you imagine holding a smile for a full minute?
I'm beyond thrilled to have found this piece of photographic history in my family line! So cool!!
I looked up the history of photography -- as I noted, photography was invented in the mid-1800s. It turns out the very first portrait taken of a person was taken in 1839. It was a daguerreotype taken on a glass negative with a long exposure. 1839. Here's the kicker -- my 5th great grandfather, John, died in 1843.
Crazy, huh?? We don't know for sure when the photo was taken, but it was sometime before 1843 and was one of the earliest portraits of human beings ever taken!
I read that, because of the long exposures necessary -- sometimes up to one minute in length -- subjects heads' were often clamped from behind so they wouldn't move. That's probably also why they didn't have much expression -- can you imagine holding a smile for a full minute?
I'm beyond thrilled to have found this piece of photographic history in my family line! So cool!!
Comments
