Photo Mystery Solved

I am a trained Screenwriter. One of the first things we are taught, and what separates "good" screenwriting opposed to "novice" or "bad" screenwriting is the adage, "pictures speak louder than words". We write in terms of visuals allowing the pictures to describe the context or subtext.

In Genealogy, pictures hold the same meaning. We can get a lot out of a picture oftentimes breaking through an unidentified picture through visuals contained within: people, place, and setting.

One such picture is the following (resized for web composition).

I scanned this photo in at a 600dpi resolution saving file as a TIFF. The TIFF format is a lossless file type meaning that no information is lost; and saving at 600dpi is a good quality resolution capturing the most pixels from the original photo.

I use both Windows and Mac computers. One program that I really like is PhotoScape. PhotoScape was initially written for Windows PCs but they recently released a Mac version, though the Mac version has fewer features.

PhotoScape allows me to zoom in, play with contrast and brightness, amongst other tweaks. There are many other programs for both Windows and Mac computers that do the same thing, I just use PhotoScape as a matter of preference.

The above photo was found in an inherited collection. It was not identified. We had absolutely no idea where the photo was taken or whose grave monument was pictured. Neither did we know who was pictured facing away from the camera.

I decided to put the photo to the test. First thing I did was to auto-level and auto-context the photo. I then zoomed in on the stone to see if I could read any words thereon. I could see some very light text that I had never seen before: this can't be seen on the photo in its regular square size.

Playing with the brightness and contrast I was able to make out a few words inscribed on the stone:

SARAH WELLS and WM BULL, the latter transcribed twice, both above Sarah's name and beneath it.

I took these names to FindaGrave.com to see if anyone had created a memorial for either name AND to see if perhaps a photo had been taken of the same stone as pictured.

To my luck and amazement... it had! http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=19421740&PIpi=17253609

The stone is taken from about the same point of view. You can see the same markers behind the monument. It is definitely a match.

This monument belongs to William BULL (1689-1755) and his wife, Sarah Wells BULL (1694-1796). They were buried in Hamptonburgh Cemetery, at Orange County, New York.

The monument was erected by William and Sarah BULL'S descendants.

The next thing to determine is the date of the photo. I will contact the Hamptonburgh Cemetery to determine the date of the monument's erection. That might be a clue as to the photo's date. Perhaps, and my best educated guess, the woman pictured in the photo was one of the descendants who donated funds to have the monument erected.

I will post more as I know more. At least I have taken a previously unknown photo, unmarked in any way, and determined who it belongs to. I have posted this photo the memorial page of William and Sarah BULL found at FindaGrave.com.