Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Photo Number 396

All you Forgotten Old Photo readers are simply the best!  I always appreciate your comments and your input on the old photos!  I feel very fortunate that some of you have emailed me your old photos to share with the readers..photos that would otherwise just be “forgottens” shoved in a box or even worse.. destroyed. 

Patty shared this poem with me:

Strangers in the Box by Pam Harazim

Come, look with me inside this drawer,

In this box I've often seen,

At the pictures, black and white,

Faces proud, still, serene.

I wish I knew the people,

These strangers in the box,

Their names and all their memories

Are lost among my socks.

I wonder what their lives were like,

How did they spend their days?

What about their special times?

I'll never know their ways.

If only someone had taken time

To tell who, what, where, or when,

These faces of my heritage

Would come to life again.

Could this become the fate

Of the pictures we take today?

The faces and the memories

Someday to be passed away?

Make time to save your stories,

Seize the opportunity when it knocks,

Or someday you and yours could be

The strangers in the box.

Patty also shared an interesting photo.

image 2010-12-6 0003 A tintype.    A tintype is an image formed directly on a sheet of metal.  The image is reversed left to right.

image 2010-12-6 0002Tintypes were USUALLY considered “one of a kind” photos.  There was a process for making copies but it was rarely used.

image 2010-12-6 0001

Although in the small print it says that duplicate copies can be had from all negatives.

Mrs. SA Rich was in Zanesville Ohio from 1870 to 1876, then from 1883 to 1889 she was at 101 Main, then 1885 to 1886 she was someplace else in Zanesville.   From that information I would say that this photo was taken in 1870 to 1876 or 1885 or 1886.  There is some writing on the back of the CdV   (above the FROM ..same as small.. is kind of circled) and (under the S.A Rich is Conesville.)

This is the info that Patty sent along with the photos that she emailed to me.

I've attached one of the photos I was referring to.  As you can see, I have not only a print but also the tin "negative".  The writing on the back of the print is so faded that there isn't much that can be made out.  This photo and negative was in a box of old photos that I inherited from my grandmother in the early 1990s, before she passed away.  We identified all the photos that we could at that time, but she did not know who this person was.

Here is what I do know... I did have ancestors in my direct lineage with the surnames of Savage and Parks in the Zanesville/Coshocton/Conesville, OH area from 1850 until the early 1900s. 

I know that isn't much to go on.  Perhaps you can help me fill in some details based on what you know about old photographs.  Any help you can give me would be much appreciated.

I think he is a young lad, fifteen or sixteen years old..born in either 1855 to 1861 or 1870 or 1871.  I wonder what the census says for the surnames Savage and Parks in Muskingum County Ohio in 1860 ..1870..or 1880?

Thanks Patty for sharing your mystery relative!

Thanks for stopping by, do come again:)

image 2010-12-6 0001

11 comments:

  1. Love the poem and what an old and interesting photo!

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  2. Fascinating piece. Thanks for the information.

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  3. Its so interesting reviewing your blog everyday!

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  4. The poem is so true...I love looking at pictures and trying to uncover mysteries that surround them. I love going through old photo albums and getting buried in memories.

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  5. Thank you so much for featuring my photos and helping me narrow down the dates! Here's some additional information, based on your added details:
    The family of my 3rd great grandfather, Robert Moffett Savage, can be found in Morgan County, Ohio, in both the 1860 and 1870 Census. In 1880, they are listed in Zanesville, Muskingham County, Ohio. There were three boys born to that family between 1855 and 1871... George W. (b. 1856), John Bryan (b. 27 Apr 1868), and William Henry (John's twin and my 2nd great grandfather). I do not think the young man in the photo is William, based on other photos that I have of him.
    The family of my 3rd great grandfather, David U. Parks, is found in Virginia Township, Coshocton County, Ohio, in the 1860, 1870, and 1880 Censuses. There was only one boy born to that family between 1855 and 1871... Hamilton S. (b. abt 1866).
    Based on your information, I believe the best candidate is George W. Savage. Perhaps one day someone in the family will be able to verify that fact.

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  6. It is an interesting photo and it being a tin type is priceless.

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  7. I'm amazed at the detail in the old houses, like the flower painted onto the door frame. Just stunning.

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  8. My dad was born in Zanesville, OH, but that was in 1932, ha ha.

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  9. I do so love coming to your blog, you never know what you are going to see next! I have not come across this type of image on a tin photo before. Really enjoyed the whole post from the poem to the photos and the history details. x

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  10. That is a wonderful poem.

    I can only say I've driven past Zanesville, OH on I-70 a number of times on my way to college in Terre Haute, IN.

    The interstate is a far cry from Zane's Trace.

    Zanesville was named after Ebenezer Zane, who had constructed Zane's Trace, a pioneer road through present-day Ohio. He settled in the area in 1797 with his son-in-law, John McIntire, at the point where Zane's Trace met the Muskingum River.

    I feel a kindredness with their later offspring, novelist (Pearl) Zane Grey - not because of his books - but because I've fished in his fishing hole in the Florida Keys.

    I've tried everything I can to make the words on the back of the tintype readable and failed. That man's hat strikes me - it seems out of place (or from somewhere other than Ohio).

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  11. We need one of those forensic machines that does the alternate light sources to decipher obscured writing such as this. It's probably so anticlimactic too.

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Hi, Thanks for the comments, your input on these old photos is appreciated! English only please! All comments will be moderated! Connie