First to save time and effort, take stock of which one of your ancestors might have a photo out there waiting to be discovered. Since the popular use of photography wasn't until after 1839, it would be safe to assume that if your ancestor died before 1839, there is little chance that he had a photograph taken. (Though they might have had a portrait or sketch drawn of their likeness.)

1. Family - Aunts, Uncles, Cousins
The most likely location for finding a photo of an ancestor is, of course, your own family. I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised when you start asking your aunts, uncles, and especially cousins for any old photos they might have of long dead relatives. Recently I got in touch with a cousin who lived in another state and asked if she had any old photos of my parents and grandparents. She promptly sent me some terrific old family photos.

You may be wondering why I don't have many family photos in my possession. Though I am the genealogist in the family, when my parents died, it was my sister who got all the family photos. I have begged for many years to get copies from her, but she says the time and expense is beyond what she can manage right now. So what can I do?

I can take my digital camera to her house and image the photos on the spot or carry my laptop and flatbed scanner along to image them. I plan to do this on my very next visit. The instructions provided in our previous articles on Digitizing and Archiving Old Photos will help to make the process fast and easy. See also Digitizing Old Slides

2. Schools - Elementary, High School, Colleges and Universities
You may remember when you were young and in elementary school. Every year you and your class would sit for a group picture. Well, most likely your ancestor's elementary school made them sit with their class for a photo every school year too. In fact, if your ancestor participated in sports, they probably had their picture taken with their sports team also. You can usually find these pictures at the school your ancestor attended. The schools you would want to contact are your ancestor's elementary school, high school, and university or college.

Call the school to find out how to get copies of the old photographs that may contain images of your ancestor. These photos may be hanging on the school walls as memorabilia of past graduating classes or sports triumphs. Often schools will also have copies of old year books in the school library. They may, however, have turned those historically significant books and records over to the local Library or Historical Society for preservation.

If you don't have any luck when calling the school, call the Library that is nearest to the school and ask where these old pictures and books have been taken. Also many high schools, colleges and universities have an online presence and have posted pictures from previous graduating classes on their website. To find the homepage of your ancestor's school, enter the school name in quotes into a Google search. You might also need to enter the state and city, if the school name is a common one.

3. Newspaper - Obituaries and Sensational Articles
Often we forget that years ago local newspapers printed many details about the day to day experiences of our ancestors. Obituaries especially contained significant amounts of details about the individual who died. Pictures were often a part of the obituary article. In some localities, a photo of the dead person lying in the coffin was published in the local newspaper along with many details about the life and death of the deceased.

The best way I have found to locate a particular newspaper obituary and possibly a picture is to contact the library that is closest to the place where my ancestor died. For instance, I was looking for the obituary of William Smith. I had his death date and knew that he lived in Washington, Indiana prior to his death. I called the Carnegie Public Library in Washington, Indiana to see if they knew of someone who could research an obituary for me. To my surprise, they had a Genealogy Department where they s earched for the obituary for me. Unfortunately the obituary did not contain a picture, but they only charged me $3 for the search. On other occasions, I have been successful in locating cemetery and obituary records including photos by calling and asking a local librarian for help; the cost has always been minimal.

Many large cities have their libraries online and often you can request a record through the Internet. I requested a newspaper obituary search from the Indiana State Library. It costs nothing for the search and only $2.50 for up to 10 copies if they find anything. I'm hoping for a photo of William since he died in an accident. He fell off the beer wagon that he was driving, and it ran over him, breaking both his legs and causing internal injuries -- that would have been a front page news story in 1887.

Newspaper articles about sensational events in which your ancestor participated would most likely have pictures with them. Often pictures of the oldest living people in the area would be featured in a local newspaper. Newspapers photographed people who were winners in local contests, heroes from a local rescue attempt, high scorers in a sporting event, or perhaps even the honored guests of a dinner or other social. This brings to mind that newspaper announcements of an ancestor's wedding might also have p hotos of the couple with it.

4. Libraries - Local Libraries, State Libraries, and Historical Societies
I have been fortunate because the libraries I have contacted have had genealogical research departments. If you have called the library that is closest to where your ancestor lived or died and find they are not able to do a search for photographs of your ancestor, ask if there is a genealogy researcher in the area that they would recommend. I did this and they recommended a wonderful lady who sent me a huge amount of information and only charged me $15. What a deal!

As a family history consultant at the BYU Genealogy Library, I was often asked by visitors where to find specific information about their ancestors. Once a lady shared with me that she had checked numerous sources and could find no information on her great-grandfather who had lived in Springville, Utah in the late 1800's. All she was able to find was his cemetery record. She particularly wanted a photo of him. Since she had the death date and knew that he had died in Springville, we looked at the microfil m for the Springville newspaper starting with the week after his death. Much to her delight there was a large article about him with a picture right on the front page of this newspaper.

Many Historical Societies have museums or libraries for public use. Once again don't be afraid to call and ask if they will provide a lookup and copy service and how much it will cost. The relatively small cost for the search and the copies of the photo will be well worth it when you consider how much it would have cost for you to travel to the library and do the research yourself.

5. County Histories - BYU Family History Archive
You are probably aware that most published County Histories have a section of Biographical Sketches. These biographical sketches provide a wealth of genealogical data and often have a picture or two to boot. BYU has scanned numerous County Histories and Family History books including pictures, and have them available for searching on the web. You can search them at http://www.lib.byu.edu/fhc/. Be patient; the BYU site is fairly slow and the pdf files are quite large.

There are many County Histories that have been posted online and can be found using a Google search. In the search field for Google, enter in quotes the name of the county and then the word 'history'. Then enter the word 'OR' in capital letters. In quotes, enter the words 'history of' and the name of the county. Outside of the quotes enter the name of the state. When you are finished, the query should look something like this: "Pike County History" OR "History of Pike County" Indiana.

6. Google Search
Many online obituaries will also have pictures of the deceased. To find an obituary using the Google search engine, enter the deceased person's name and then the word "survived-by". Be sure to include the hyphen. If you get too many results include the first name of the spouse of the deceased person and perhaps the first names of the children. A place name can also be entered. If you aren't getting any relevant results, change the word "survived-by" to "preceded" and redo the search. I nearly always find an obituary using this method.

If your ancestor's name is unique enough, you can search on the name alone in Google. Perhaps you will find a website dedicated to your family history with pictures and all the genealogical data of which you have dreamed.