Friday, October 1, 2010

Sepia Saturday - Your Opinion Please?


A
John Jovin 1896 -1921

I've been sorting though hundreds of unmarked pictures while attempting to add faces to the many names in our family tree. It took quite a bit of detective work, including a call to a cemetery, to add the correct first and last names and birth/death dates to picture A above.

It appears his tie is painted on, and it's of an earlier era - like Abe Lincoln. Why would they have a tie painted on the photo??

I could use some help with these next three pictures. They look a bit like John at different ages, and I thought perhaps you would take a good look at them and let me know what your thoughts are:




B

Picture B seems to resemble picture A - at least I see it in the eyes, But I don't see the cleft in his chin and his hair appears to be parted on the left here. What do you think? Does he look to be about 15 years old ?




C


John's brother, Evrin Jovin (my husband's namesake), is the young man standing at the window in this picture. I was able to identify Evrin because the face is identical to that in his memorial photograph. It makes sense that the seated fellow would be John. He looks quite different than picture A, but there's that cleft in his chin. He appears to be about 16 or 17 - what do you think?



D

I think this photo resembles A enough to add it to the tree. That chin cleft is showing. He looks about 22 here. What do you think?

Please feel free to comment! I'd love to hear your thoughts on these pictures -B,C and D: John or not John, and did I get his age about right for each?

For more Sepia Saturdays just click on the Got Sepia? link on my sidebar.

9 comments:

Jeannette StG said...

A and B seem to be the same person.

Don't know what to do with pic C - the seated person looks different out of his eyes than A & B (more of a piercing look which makes me think that his eyes may lay deeper, and maybe his nose sharper).
Am neutral about the last pic...

It would be neat if you could have access to those machines that work with bone structure of the face.
Good luck:)

Debby said...

I'm going to answer you true. Muse. I don't know. In my family, there are people who strongly resemble each other, but they're different people all together.

The tie? I don't know. When the picture was taken, it was not taken with the idea in mind that it was going to be the last picture ever taken of John. When he died, they probably wanted to give it a more formal appearance, suitable for his 'last' picture. Why an outdated tie? I don't know. Perhaps it was the tie that Abe was wearing and the old photographer looked at it and said, "Say, that tie is a nice touch..."

Or I could simply say, "I don't know," and quit making up stories...

Marilyn & Jeff said...

Oh what a conundrum I thought that A and the chap on the right in C looked alike but it's too hard to say really. I do hope that you can sort it out. They are all lovely photos.

Alan Burnett said...

My guess would be that A, B and D are the same and I think that there is a good chance that seated C is as well. What I sometimes do when I can't decide if such photos in my collection are of the same people is to load them into Picasso and do a facial recognition match : it can sometimes tip the balance.

Bruno Laliberté said...

i don't think "C" belongs in this set...
ALAN's proposition seems sensible. technology shall give you the answer you seek.
:)~
HUGZ

Nancy said...

I wish I could see them all side by side to do a really good comparison. I'm not so sure C is the same man. It is interesting to see the painted on tie in A. It seems like a strange thing to do.... If you decide to use Picassa, be sure to let us know what you find out!

Unknown said...

I am not sure about picture C and for the last one, I think he is perhaps near 30. I have so many photos of ours to ponder and it does take detective work and pondering and after all if no one else knows, your conclusions win! I am still grateful to this site for identifying that my unknown bride post was likely a pageant entry/winner; after comments I could see that clearly. About painting on the tie, I understand that there were dresses painted on women, certain colors, styles, etc; Folks wanted to look certain ways and without the photoshop tools available today, they employed "artists" to fix the photos. I believe that was quite common from late 1800's to early 1900's, possibly later too.

Irene said...

I hopeless at these things. But what Allan said sounds like a good idea, I had no idea that was possible. Must try it with some of my mystery photos. As for the ages I don't thin you are too far off on that. I always think kids of 15 looked older than they really were.

Dorincard said...

I like the passion and dedication you put in your complex blogposts...:)