I finally found pictures of my great-grandfather!
Last edited Thu May 24, 2012, 02:22 AM - Edit history (1)
The one of him in his Union Army cavalry uniform I found today at the Library of Congress website. The picture of him at age 66, right before he died, was sent to me in an email yesterday by a descendant of a close friend of his who was a professional photographer. I'd located the descendant at a genealogy forum a year ago, and she said she'd send me a picture of my great-grandfather if she ever saw one among her ancestor's photo collection. She snail-mailed me the original today, and I am thrilled. I can't wait to get it.
I can hardly believe my sudden splashes of good luck after having searched unsuccessfully for years for pictures of my great-grandfather. My persistence paid off. woot!
Note the scar/unibrow/crease between his eyebrows in both pictures. I don't know what the mark is, but it's the same in both photos, even though he himself certainly isn't.
= new reply since forum marked as read
especially one in his Union uniform. Do you see any family resemblances between him and your relatives on that side? I was surprised to see one in my civil war ancestor and my father (his great grandfather) when I looked at photos of both of them. Have you looked at your ancestor's civil war file at the National Archives? Sometimes you might find out some interesting things there. Oh, very handsome man too, at both ages! 
resembled him a lot. My dad didn't.
I don't look anything like my gr gf, either, and my kids all look like their dad and his family.
Yes, my cousins and I have found a lot of information about him at the National Archives. We were amazed!
I agree with you that he was handsome. I also think that his wife, my great-grandmother, was nice looking.
She died of consumption (tuberculosis) a few years after they were married. He never married again.
Sorry the picture is so huge. I don't know how to make it smaller.
I know how you feel, believe me.
I recently found a picture of my great great great grandfather born in Georgia in 1810 before the Trail of Tears.
He was Cherokee.
It is such a great feeling to find an actual picture of an old ancestor isn't it?
Congratulations!!! 
He was a confederate and held slaves (!). He was quite well-off it seems as I found his father, my great-great-great-great grandfather in the Georgia census in the 1800's.
I do not know what happened but his daughter, my great great grandmother was said to be born in Arkansas. Was she?
My cousin doesn't seem to know (she is about 80 years old).
It was a shock I tell you, a shock.
His name was William Johnston.
It is amazing I found a picture of him IMO!
Great info. you have there too!
Keep looking.
Seek and ye shall find!
I can imagine what a shock it was to see the photograph! A thrilling shock, of course! It is amazing you found a photo of him.
Do you know what kind of photo it was? I read that many tintypes and ambrose types are mirror images, just as modern photograph negatives are.
Seek and ye shall find is very good advice! I found a photo of a portrait of my great-great grandfather, the dad of my Civil War great-grandfather, by contacting distant relatives in S. Africa I'd found online at a gen. site. The family emigrated from England to South Africa, as many English families did back then, to escape the cold dampness of England.
My great-great grandfather Isaac Austen (1797-1856), an Englishman, owned a grocery store in Godalming and one in Tonbridge and was a circuit Wesleyan Methodist preacher. He and my gr grandfather are listed in Jane Austen's family tree, but I haven't yet figured out exactly how they were related to her.
The facial spots are from paint discoloration on the original portrait.
I found it on ancestry.com on the tree linked to his daughter.
William Johnston is a history lesson within itself -- a perfect example of an "assimilated" Indian (a red man wearing the clothes of a white man ... 
)
His daughter raised my grandmother -- a grandmother I never knew.
My mother was adopted an no one ever told her who she was.
It was a major identity crisis for her. My late mother actually drove all the way to the deep south where she was born to try to find out WHO she was. She never found out despite all of those years she searched.
The only link I had to find out who she was was a bogus birth cert. I have with the name of her "real" mother and "real" father on it. It was given to her by her late foster mother who was Indian and my foster grandmother told her, "Don't ever tell your father (meaning foster father) that I gave this to you. If he knew, he'd kill me!". It also had a mysterious business card stapled to it bearing the name of a man whose surname was actually the same as the one on the birth cert. which had a bastardization of his name on it (same surname, different spelling). I found him too and his has quite the family history and lineage and his grandmother was considered to be from one of the "great southern families" of the time. My grandfather was was part Indian too it seems -- same thing too -- Cherokee, but don't tell anyone ok?
I swore on Mother's death bed that I would find out who she is/was and needless to say I have VERY mixed feelings re: the subject of "adoption". 
My mother was NOT treated well, not treated like a human being hardly and was dumped once the Depression hit.
When the 1930 census was released, I went to the place where she was born and typed in her real mother's name and *bingo* -- her mother was there!
I was able to trace her real mother, my grandmother back and found the line and all the cousins I have that I never knew existed; all of them are mixed blood Indian, likely Cherokee/Choctaw and/or Seminole too I think. My first cousin called me on the phone on Xmas eve in 2008 and said to me, Hello and BINGO! My 80+ year old first cousin has written a book about the family and sent it to me. How is that for a huge WOW!? She had no idea that my mother existed so it was a shock for her too!
It took 70+ years to find this info. I'd always suspected I was part Indian being most of my mother's friend were either part Indian or married to an Indian. My only wish is that I had found this info. out before my mother passed away but I kept my promise to her despite it all.
It seems that no one wanted my mother to find out that she was part Indian. The woman that adopted her was Indian too and was also Cherokee (and Choctaw). Doesn't our country do a good job covering up the truth of what they have done to our Native peoples?
I'm now working more on my father's line again, a fascinating ancient/old Irish line. I just heard from someone the other day in fact that is directly related to the line of priests in my late father's family (that I never knew existed!). These priests founded many of the Catholic churches in northern California during the Gold Rush years, including two of them that are not far from where I now live. 
My father was from an old San Francisco family which is a whole fascinating story within itself.
I really should write a book!
That is an amazing portrait you have there. You were lucky to find it!
And yes, seek and ye shall find alright!
