How Old Might They Be??



face-KleinYou have that collection of vintage photos of your ancestors — only question on many was when was that photo taken. Sometimes using the clothing style, other relatives in the photo with known age at a certain time period, or a house in the background, you might be able to figure an date (the person’s age).

Now available is an interesting and fun online site that just might assist you having an approximate date. It is titled ‘How Old‘ and is very simple to use.

face-GrantSelect a digital portrait or photo of an ancestor. It has to be in digital format, either scanned or a camera photo copy – close up. It is best to have just one person in the photo. If there are two or more people, crop out the head and shoulders of the one in question. Next make sure the the size of the image is no greater than 3 MB.

On the page is ‘Use Your Own Photo’. Click there to upload from your computer the photo you want to check. Once you click on it from your computer that image will appear and the site will figure (analyze) if it is a female or male and how old the person was when the photo was taken.  Note the box around the face and a F/M symbol then a number – which is their estimate of age. This includes young children’s portraits.

Now this new site is still be perfected, so it might not get every person’s age right each time. In doing a test of numerous ancestors on my family tree, especially those where I did already know the person’s age (in turn then knowing the photo date) it was fairly accurate. A couple time it had the person a few year old or younger then I knew they were in the photo.

The system gathered all types of faces at different ages, noting any facial lines, etc to calculate ages.

face-RootUsing this site, ‘How Old‘, can not only be useful or just fun to see how close to a person’s age each photo reveals. Put in several different portraits of yourself at various ages and see how close it is. Reminder some people always look older or younger than their actual age.

Photos: Marie Klein 1887 – real age then was 25, Grant Luckhardt 1949 – real age then was 6 and Nelson Root 1947 – real age then was 74.

Related FamilyTree.com genealogy blogs:

Just One Photo

Awesome Photos

Portraits

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