^{The News}
Dedicated to Austrian-Hungarian Burgenland Family History

John Issowits write:

Short Follow-ups on Previous Topics:

The biography of Father Josef Graisy has now been incorporated into the BB webpages for his book. Look for the "biography" link after his name.

Likewise, links to the tutorial articles on the various Hungaricana Urbars and Maps and my Urbarial village names cross-reference table have been added to the BB homepage at the point where these resources are listed. This done with the intent that the tutorials and cross-reference remain accessible and useful.



Do You Have Some "Really Old" Photographs of Your Ancestors? A few months back, I talked about the very last living people known to be born in the 1800s. This month, I'll talk about old pictures... but I want you to note that I put "Really Old" in quote marks in my title question because I want you to think about what really old means in this context.

In actuality, it is quite easy to make a definitive statement that a "really old" photograph had to be created after 1826, since the very first permanent photograph was created by Frenchman Nicéphore Niépce in 1826. And, it wasn’t until 1839 that the details of the first commercially-practical photographic process, the daguerreotype, were announced in public. But that still leaves open the question of how old a "typical" old photograph is.

Almost all daguerreotypes made before 1841 were of immobile subjects, such as landscapes, public or historic buildings, monuments, statuary, and still life arrangements. Portrait photography required the sitter to face into the sun for several minutes while trying to remain motionless and still look pleasant... which seldom worked out well! Nonetheless, improvements continued and, by 1853 an estimated three million daguerreotypes per year were being produced in the United States alone. But they remained expensive and fragile and had to be handled very carefully, usually protected in a stout frame.

An early competitor, the calotype process, was developed by William Henry Fox Talbot, who succeeded in creating stabilized photographic negatives on paper in 1840. Unlike a daguerreotype, which could only be copied by rephotographing it, a calotype negative could be used to make a large number of positive prints by simple contact printing. However, calotypes lacked fine clarity due to the translucent paper negative, though this was seen then as a positive attribute for portraits. Talbot patented his process, which greatly limited its use so comparatively few photographs were made in this way (I think I have two among maybe 50 "old" surviving family photographs; one shown to the right). Nonetheless, Talbot's underlying process eventually became the basis for modern film photography.

Things changed in the mid-1850s when tintypes became possible. Compared to the daguerreotype, tintypes were not only very inexpensive, they were also relatively easy and quick to make. A photographer could prepare, expose, develop and varnish a tintype plate and have it ready for the customer in a few minutes. Further, unprotected tintypes, mounted on just a paper mat, were possible from the beginning. And compared to a calotype, the images were sharp and clear (I have a few of these too).

In 1884, George Eastman developed a dry gel process usable on paper or film to replace the photographic plate. By 1888, he created roll film locked within a single-use camera (you sent the camera back with the film still in it), so photography became available to the masses... though family portraits still tended to be done in studios.

Thus, if you think that "really old" photograph you have is of an ancestor who died before 1825, think again... it simply is not possible; realistically, it likely was made after 1840, with the 1850s being the big initial decade for now "quite old" photographs.



How to Add Digital Identifying Information to Photos Without Special Software: Have you ever wanted to add identifying information to digital images... but didn't know how? It is actually pretty easy (though tedious). Such information is known as metadata, or “data about data.” Adding digital metadata to a photo is a lot like writing your name and a note on the back of a physical picture. The information then travels with the photo whereever it goes. Because modern cameras can automatically add such data (like the date), digital space for other metadata is already available... you just need to fill it in.

Such data is viewable by a lot of digital photo-processing tools but is also available without any special tools. You can view and/or edit it by looking at the File Properties on a PC or the Get Info option on a Mac.  For photos that will be shared on a public or online website, it’s a good idea to add a few lines of basic information so that others can learn where the photo came from and who is pictured in the image. Basic data is usually enough, such as:

• Your name and email address as the current owner of the image
• A short title identifying the photo subject
• A brief description or caption identifying any people, events, or dates

Adding Metadata on a PC

On a PC in Windows Explorer (the file manager), right-click on the image and select Properties... you should see a sub-panel appear that looks like the partial example shown to the right (I chopped off most of the lower part of it). If you want to rename the file, you can do that in the "General" tab, as shown here. The new name goes in the box (where "pic1870s.jpg" appears in my example). Be sure not to change the ".jpg" part of the file name (or whatever filename extension your file has).

To edit the metadata, you need to click the "Details" tab. Again, I've only shown the top part of the panel... what you should see is the named "Property" on the left with its corresponding "Value" on the right (most values will be blank). Clicking in the "Value" side of a "Property" will highlight the Property name and allow you to type whatever you want into the "Value" field. These new entries will remain with the picture, even if you send it to someone.

Adding Metadata on a Mac

While I do not own a Mac and therefore can't show examples, I'm told that you select an image and then open the information window with Command-I. Then you can rename the file in the "Name & Extension" box and/or add tags and keywords in the "Spotlight Comments" box.



What’s New on FamilySearch—September and October: Here is a part (~27 million) of the ~68 million records added to FamilySearch.org during these past two months:
 

 

Update for book "The Burgenländer Emigration to America": Here is this month's update on purchases of the English issue of the 3rd edition of Dr. Walter Dujmovits' book "Die Amerika-Wanderung Der Burgenländer."

Current total sales are 927 copies, as interested people purchased 4 more books this month. Four books is, by far, our worst monthly sales total ever... but the sales rate had to slow down eventually... and this seems to be the first indication of serious slowing. Given that, the book's rank dropped from 412 to 422 this month.

As always, the book remains available for online purchase at a list price of $7.41 (which is the production charge for the book), plus tax & shipping. See the BB homepage for a link to the information / ordering page and for any current discounts (and there is at least one discount on price or shipping available most of the time... if not, wait a few days and there will be one!).



(Last Month's) Cartoon of the Month:

A different take on DNA research...







Remember this cartoon from last month?

BB Members Editor, Hannes Graf, found it particularly humorous.

First, it prompted him to write a joke:

Two G-nomes sit under a microscope:
Says one: "Do you also feel someone is observing us?"
Says the other: "I think it is Snow White who searches for us!"

Then he sent a picture turning himself into a comparative "G-nome" ("because," he said, "whenever I find a new huge tree, I feel so small..."):



The picture is titled Drache-2015. Hannes tells me that the tree is located in front of the Tribuswinkel castle, in the parking area. His wife, Elfie, grew up in that area and says that visiting school children would sit around the tree, which had always been big, and they gave it the name "dragon" (i.e., Drache, in German) or "gentle dragon." It is a "London Plane" tree, a hybrid between an oriental plane and a sycamore, like 99% of plane trees in Europe. At about 10m around the waist, it is one of the biggest in Austria. There is also a  "single-stemmed" 7m circumference plane tree in the garden (called "dragon keeper") and the two are about 250 years old. Hannes says sycamores came to Austria around 1700, so it is impossible to have hybrids older than 300 years. He is aware of only 3 pure oriental planes and no sycamore in Austria... but thousands of hybrids. They were visiting the garden because Elfie was relearning how to walk after her knee surgery. He says that, with 2 crutches, one small round in the garden of about 1 mile, was enough of a start for walking again. We wish Elfie well in her recovery!