I was going through a cabinet, looking for spare parts to something, when I stumbled across a very old and ornate leather-bound book. I saw soon after gold letters on the side saying "album". It was filled with photos of people, the vast majority unnamed. I thought I would scan into the computer and share the faces of centuries past with anyone interested. Most if not all of these, as far as I can tell, are from the 1860s. These are most likely relatives of mine from my father's mother's side (through her I go all the way back to the Mayflower. If you're foreign and not familiar with that, it was a ship that brought pilgrims to the United States during its early days of British colonization.)

This is one of the only photos with any useful information written on the back. This woman was named Mary, and was 79 when this picture was taken in May of 1863.

This next one really shocked me when I came across it. If you recognize him from his name in the caption, good for you. If not, you can read all about him here. I wasn't sure it was him, but compare the picture there with this one. No way it can be a coincidence them looking so alike and having the same name. That IS the guy. Does this mean I'm related to him?

The below are just some things I snagged from the backs of the photos. Anyone here familiar with 1800s photographers and know who any of these businesses and people are? Yeah, probably not.

That information on the back of the photo of one of the women I mentioned above.

To think, there was actually a day when two-cent stamps were used as a total instead of building blocks up to numbers in the forties. Guess some of these photos were mailed to whoever put the album together.

Three cents to send a photo now? Ugh, inflation SUCKS.

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I hope you enjoyed the really old photographs.