GENEALOGY and Vintage Photographs

One thing I've discovered since I began this blog is how many genealogists are naturally drawn to vintage photographs. Obvious path for them to take since it's all about research and ultimately many are interested in not just tracing a linear family tree, but they also want to put faces and personal histories attached to that tree.

I am not a genealogist though I took some interest many years ago and have a brief line on my maternal side going back to the late 1800s in Pennsylvania. I purchased some genealogy software over a decade ago, but found it cumbersome and confusing. Plus, I just wasn't interested in creating linear trees as my goal. I'm interested in the individuals and their stories and the software was just too complicated for what I wanted to do.

Now I've started organizing my old files using Sort Your Story, a new, inexpensive, easy and fun to use, small program that fits my needs created by a friend of mine. It does exactly what I need and if I ever choose to use one of the larger programs again I'll have all of my files organized in a way that makes sense to me.

I wanted to introduce you to the program with this Sepia Saturday post because you might find it useful. I know, this seems like a shameless plug, and in a way it is, but I get no monetary gain by recommending this program. I'm doing this because I believe in the program and think that it would be perfect for families and individuals wanting to get started doing their own genealogy, sorting the images and documents they've collected. It's also an excellent program for grandparents and their grandchildren. If you have a grandchild who shows no interest in genealogy this might just be the program to spark their interest.

Visit the Sort Your Story website and the Sort Your Story Facebook page to see a tutorial video.

As for this weeks sepia image, it's another fine vintage photo from the collection Bert gave me.

Click on image to see it larger.

This family portrait was taken in St. Paul, Minnesota by Youngberg at the Camera Art Studios. When I researched Youngberg in Minnesota several different studios were listed all bearing the Youngberg name. I don't know if these were all relatives competing against each other or just a coincidence.

The Youngberg that took this photo, or at least the name listed as the studio proprietor, was David C. Youngberg. The studio had two locations in St. Paul: Saint Peter Street and 412 Cedar Street. The listing shows that the "dates of operation" was 1918 and the "decades worked in Minnesota" was 1910s. You can click here to see this listing and the two other Youngberg listings. If you click here you'll see a bit more information including the fact that David C. Youngberg had two other partners, C. E. Richter and W. G. Greene. There is also a reference to the fact that the studio was the "Official Photographers for the Saint Paul Winter Carnival."

To see two more photos taken by David C. Youngberg click here and here.

I have no information about the subjects of the portrait. The husband does look older than the wife. Perhaps she was a mail order bride from the old country. Who knows. We can create any story we want.

I do find the backdrop a bit unusual. It seems to have a slight Spanish or New Orleans influence with the palm and the wrought iron balcony. Seems a very strange backdrop for St. Paul and their large Scandinavian community. A bit more exotic than I'd have expected.

Perhaps somewhere someone knows these people and their stories. It would be fun to have the pieces of the puzzle solved.