A Brief Sketch of the History of Photography as it Might Aid Family History Research - and more Revolutionary War Records

 The History of Photography - as a timeline help for genealogy.

Because I research ALL my family lines and have a large database with over 3,500 individuals in it, I find it helpful to have photographs, when I can find them, of family members, in order to keep straight who I'm thinking or talking about at any particular point.  My database allows thumbnail images in each individual's record.

So, I look for and ask for photographs of family members all the time.  A lot of family members have been very generous in sharing their family photographs with me.

Delilah Wormuth Babcock loaned me her notebooks and photo albums so I could make copies.

Georgiana Swartwout Bodiot sent me a box full of negatives, tintypes and photo prints that included photos my mother and I had never seen.

Greg Horth and I have exchanged family photos.

Leland Oliver sent me family photos.

Martha Squaires, I believe, a cousin of my father, sent me a photograph of my paternal great grandfather that's the only photograph, we know of, of him and my father had never seen it.

A lot of other cousins and other relatives have sent me photographs from time to time.

I share my photographs with anyone in the family who's related.  They aren't just my relatives.  I generally don't post photos anymore online but will send them email on request.

So, in order to find photographs of people, I had to learn a little about the history of photography.  What is the earliest date I can expect to find a photograph of somebody?  Can I expect to find a photograph of this person or that person?

Here, in a nutshell, is a brief, sketchy history of photography as it might apply to family history:

There were several early attempts to create images of all kinds but none of those images were permanent.  For my purposes, I'm only interested in forms of photography that are relatively permanent; a picture I can put in an album and look at whenever I need to.

• In the mid-1820s, Nicéphore Niépce managed to capture an image with a camera but it took a very long time and the image was poor.
• His associate Louis Daguerre, developed the metal-based daguerreotype process which took less time to develop and was a much finer image.  The process was made public in 1839 and is considered the birth of "practical photography".
• Soon after, also in 1839 a paper-based process was introduced.
• Glass plate photographs were available in the mid-1850s.
• Roll film became available and popular in the mid-20th century.

from Wikipedia

Tintypes were direct, positive images made on a thin sheet of metal coated with lacquer or enamel.  They were most popular during the 1860s and 1870s. I have a few.  They darken with age.  It's best to either scan them or take them to a photographic studio and have both a negative and a few positive prints made.  The tintype's immediate predecessor was the ambrotype made using glass rather than metal.  from Wikipedia.  

"The cabinet card was a style of photograph which was widely used for photographic portraiture after 1870."  These have a photographic image on heavy card stock with, usually, a photographic studio imprint on the verso.  I have quite a few of these.  Wikipedia  This Wikipedia article has a very nice chart of how to date cabinet cards.

So, practically speaking, it's possible to find a photograph of someone from the mid-1820s until now.  However, local availability and money would be a factor in whether or not someone or a family might have photographs during these early periods.  Some of you may be old enough to remember traveling photographers, some who even went door-to-door, who would take a family portrait.

I haven't taken the time to try to figure out what my earliest family photo might be.  I might do that some day but, right now, I would just like to find as many family pictures as I can.

Still looking for a picture of Uncle Marcus Wormuth. My mother had one that was destroyed by a roof leak.  It would also be very nice to have a photograph of my paternal grandmother, Fannie Flowers, who died when she was 19.

I've been trying to put together a list of digitized family photos so I can share them with other family members.

More Revolutionary War Records from New York in the Revolution as Colony and State:

Outside of the Regiments, The New York Line included a number of smaller units.  This segment will include them:

    The Line, Additional Regiment:

Background:  I could not find any clear information on this unit that was under Colonel James Livingston.

Family surnames (my spelling) included:  Lord, Ward.

    The Line, Artillery Regiment:

  Background:  I could not find any clear background for this unit.

Family surnames (my spelling) included:    Swartwout, Bailey, DeWitt, Houck, Oliver

    The Line, Hamilton's Train of Provincial Artillery:

Background:  Again, I found no clear background for this unit.

Family surnames (my spelling) included:   Wood

    The Line, Green Mountain Boys

Background:  from Wikipedia

Family surnames (my spelling) included:  Beach

    The Line, Privateers:  The schooner, "General Putnam"; the sloop, "Montgomery"; the sloop, "Schuyler"; the frigate, "Congress".

Background:  I do not have background on these ships or units.

Family surnames (my spelling) included:  Butler, Wood

Records from the Levies and the Militia will follow.