Find the Ancestor – Bonus Case: The Studio Photograph

One face. Twelve names. Only one is true.

Clearing her mother’s attic, Clare Whitley found a photograph in her great-grandmother Edith’s album. A young woman in black, taken at J. Holroyd’s studio in Calder sometime between 1882 and 1886. Edith kept it by her bed all her life, but no one ever wrote down who the lady was.

There is a name in pencil on the back: “Aunt Hannah.” The cousins are certain. Are you?

A case unlike any other

In the 15 cases of the Casebook you work from written records. Here the main clue is something you look at: a full-page 19th-century cabinet photograph that stays on the table for the whole game. A face tells you a lot, but never a name. Every detail only counts once you tie it to a document.

You’ll learn to read a photograph the way real genealogists do:

✦ Date it from the dress and the studio address
✦ Estimate the sitter’s age
✦ Recognise the signs of mourning
✦ Trace the negative number through the photographer’s registers

These are real research techniques, and you can use them on the unnamed photos in your own family’s drawer.

What’s included

✦ The client letter and the full-page studio photograph
✦ 12 candidate cards and a complete set of evidence cards
✦ A Research Sheet for each player
✦ A sealed solution with the true story behind the portrait
✦ A4 and US Letter, in Color and Low-ink versions

Good to know

✦ Level: Intermediate, with one special rule for reading the photograph
✦ Playing time: 40–60 minutes
✦ Players: works with rivals, and just as well solo or as a pair. It makes a perfect gift or date-night case.
✦ Standalone: play it whenever you like, after finishing the Casebook or halfway through. It spoils nothing in the other cases.
✦ Requires the Core Kit (included in Find the Ancestor: The Complete Casebook)
✦ Instant PDF download. Print at home and play tonight.

Every person and document in this case is invented. The method is real.