Every Friday The Psychogenealogist shares a "Pic of the Week." The intent is to encourage thought and imagination about the spaces where psychology, genealogy, and history converge.
This photograph is of an unidentified woman in my personal family collection. It was in the photo album of my great grandmother, Ida Rhoads Sears (1900-2002).
The stumper here for me is the location of the photographer: Peru, Indiana. Nearly all of the photos in my grandmother’s album were of her family from Cambria County, Pennsylvania.
Her husband, my great grandfather Arthur Bryan Myers Sears (1900-1964), had family from Indiana. It is possibly connected to him. Although these were fancy studio portraits and there are no other examples of that on his side.
I am hardly alone in having unidentified family photos in my collection. It presents a frustrating challenge, especially as I confront the possibility that I may never know who this woman is.
Do you feel the same about the “unknowns” in your collection? How do you deal with it?
Do you want some help finding or telling your family stories?
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Related posts: women
Flo Muir and Mary Miller standing behind the oval glass of the door to Miller & Miller - The Woman’s Store in Logan, Kansas around 1914. Here is Flo’s story.