If you spend any time working on your family history, then you will understand when I say that finding a photo of an early ancestor is like striking gold. Prior to mid-1800’s and the advent of photography, the most likely type of an image would be a painting, and that was typically only if your ancestor was wealthy or notably famous, and not likely for most of our ancestors.
By the mid to late 1800’s however we can sometimes find a photo of a family grouping or even a wedding photo. Each one of those becomes a gem to any family historian.
I am lucky to have multiple photos of one of my ancestors dated from the second half of the 1800’s through the early 1900’s. David Alba Scribner enjoyed a career as a ship’s captain and we ended up with several photos of him during his lifetime. I expect that it was a fun thing to visit a photographer when in a foreign port, and am sure that the family left behind was delighted to get a new photo.
Below are some photos of David A Scribner through time. It is unusual to see how an ancestor aged, and especially how fashion and his facial hair changed over the years.
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Key Individual:
David Alba Scribner (1840 – 1911)
Notes:
If you wish to know more about David A Scribner, there have been more than half a dozen earlier posts on this blog about David and his family and career beginning in August 2020.
And as I have noted in an earlier blog post [July 30, 2021, Why Can’t I Find a Photo of Virginia], I find it amazing that I have so many portrait or studio photos of Capt David Scribner throughout his life, but none of his wife Virginia other than one poor snapshot that I have been able to identify as her late in her life. Surely she would have had a portrait taken as a young wife for David to have with him on his many long voyages without her ...
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