Tip probably everyone knows but me.

WholeLottaRosie

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I was reading the book, Mary, Me: In Search of a Lost Lifetime by Rick Baker - which is about a woman named Mary DoeFour who was found near Chicago in 1929 and suffering from amnesia. She was kept in State Asylums and nursing homes until she died and her name was not known till after she died. Fascinating book. Interesting to read how she was id. Out of print, from 1989, and expensive used, but worth getting from the library. Warning, this book will probably make you angry and sad. It did me. But, it was still a good and worthwhile book.

Anyway in the book, Rick Baker had a picture of a woman missing from Iowa about the time Mary was found. He also had a picture of the Mary Doefour taken nearly fifty years later and was trying to tell if same woman. He consulted the late Charles P Warren, Professor of Anthropology at University of IL Chicago (and one of the people who worked on identifying John Wayne Gacy's victims). When he showed them to Dr. Warren, Warren turned both pictures upside down. Baker asked why.

"Because," Warren said, "when the photographs are held in their proper position, one sees little more than a personality. When held upside down, the personality disappears, and one can impartially examine specific facial regions."

This blew me away, and, seems so useful. Truly, I see things so differently.

Now, you all probably knew this, but, I felt a need to share it. ;o)
 
THANK YOU for this tip, Rosie!!! I inherited hundreds of unidentified pictures of my ancestors. I'm constantly trying to decide if a picture matches an older picture of a known ancestor. I knew to look at the ears, which are fairly unique and don't change over a person's lifetime. But I never knew to try them upside-down! That's brilliant! I'm so grateful you posted that. :) Thanks!
 

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