The Selsor-Skaggs Family Mystery Photos

Dear Reader,

In January 2008, I (Robert) found in my mother's closet a stash of previously unexamined old photos that were given her by my grandmother. Most of them appeared to date from the turn of the 20th century in the Ohio and Kentucky area showing well-dressed young adults and, given their age, the photos generally seemed in exceptionally fine condition. But few of them were labeled, and of the ones remaining, my mother and I were able to identify only one. I sent copies to my first cousin Capi, and together we've made some progress, but despite our additional research and many, many guesses, in general the photos remain a mystery to us all.

There are 31 photos that were found, plus three others previously found that we think might be related to this stash, for a grand total of 34. From Capi's research we believe that these photos are of descendants (or their in-laws) of the Reverend James P. Selsor (1826-1898) and his wife Margaret(e) Angeline "Peggy" Skaggs (ca. 1834 - ca. 1880-82). Of the photos found, 27 remain unidentified and are our Selsor-Skaggs Family Mystery Photos. We're particularly concerned with the two photos that were labeled with first names on their reverse sides, one as "Mattie" (#06) and one as "Harry" (#23), as we think that fully identifying these two might provide the key to identifying the rest.

Would it be possible for you to look at these photos and see if you might recognize any of the people? We hope that you have some of these mystery pictures already identified in your family album! The photographs are divided into seven pages and you can view them by clicking on the appropriate buttons on the navigation bar above. Larger versions of the images are available - to view them, left click on the numbered button directly beneath the appropriate photograph, or right click on the button to download the photo. In the event that you might have common ancestors with us, and thus might recognize somebody in these photos, we have included in our Afterword page both a descendant report and a list of the known names from this era in our family genealogy. Even if you don't recognize anyone, any help regarding dating the clothing by era - or any other clues you may observe - would be very welcome. And if none of the above apply to you, at a minimum you'll enjoy looking at some beautiful photographs of people from an age gone by.

We really appreciate your perusal. In the event that you are able to identify any of these photographs, or supply additional information, please contact us. If and when any of our lost ancestors are identified, we will gladly update these pages posthaste, noting your contribution with our heartfelt grateful acknowledgement. Thank you very much for any possible help. We'll be waiting to hear from you.

	Sincerely yours, Robert Boynton Wyer Capi Morrison November 2008