Sherlock Cohn: The Stories are in the Details

Clued-In: The Stories are in the Details

How often have you looked at a family photograph and wondered how much more you could learn about your family from this photo? Beyond who is in the photo and when it was taken are the subtler clues that give us a deeper appreciation of the people who came before us. What are the relationships of the people in the photos? What were their personal and religious choices? Why was this photo taken? What messages were they trying to convey when they sat before the photographer? There is a wealth of information to be gleaned from the visual records of our mishpocha. Coupled with our handed-down family oral traditions and our found documentation, these photo discoveries can become the basis for our family stories. But is the detail we’ve found in our photo what Sherlock calls a bisl (something to ignore) or the gantze megilla (something that tells us the whole story)? In this informative talk, part of the “Clued-In” series on photo analysis from Sherlock Cohn, The Photo Genealogist, we’ll learn how to differentiate between a clue that is useful and furthers our study of genealogy and one that gives us little or no usable information.

Join us on November 17 at 1 p.m. CDT when photo genealogist Ava “Sherlock” Cohn will be speaking about Clued In: The Stories are in the Details.

Ava Cohn, aka Sherlock Cohn, brings a lifelong fascination with heirloom photographs and a multidisciplinary background to photo dating and interpretation. She is a professional genealogist and a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists. She is a specialist in period fashions and hairstyles. She has researched 19th and 20th century photography studios and locales in U.S. and Europe, and is knowledgeable about decorative objects, furniture, cars and other items found in old photos. Ava’s research services include the ability to match facial characteristics for photo identification.

The program will take place on-line via Zoom. For more information and to register go to

https://www.mnjgs.org/event

Questions can be emailed to MNJGS at https://www.mnjgs.org/contact

Members are free, non-members $5. Payment can be made at
https://www.mnjgs.org/support-us