Photographs In Archives

Are you looking for that photograph of your ancestor?  Or that photograph of your ancestors home, the church they went to, the school they attended?  Why not check out the local archives, historical society or library in the area where your ancestors lived.

          Erin Baptist Church, Summer 1943, Photograph from Houston County, Tennessee Archives 

Most repositories that collect and preserve documents also have collections of photographs.  Whether these photographs are in a collection all to their own or mixed in with other collections, they are there for genealogists and researchers to find.

George Washington Stringfield Family, ca. 1903, Photograph from Houston County, TN. Archives

Many of these repositories place their photograph collections online such as the Tennessee State Library and Archives who has put the Puryear Family Photograph Albums online, among other photograph collections.

Unfortunately, many photographs housed in archives collections are not unidentified. Archivists struggle to identify the people and places in the photographs they have in their collections and are forced to wait until a patron can come along and make the identification.

    E.E. Collision, Jr. Photography Studio, Erin, TN., Unidentified, Houston County, TN. Archives

A recent announcement that a newly identified photograph of Billy The Kid that has surfaced gives us all hope that we too will find the photographs of our ancestors.

If you are searching for your ancestors photographs, check out the local archives, historical society or library where they lived.  These repositories just might have what your looking for!