This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Louis Takács, a former librarian, who comes from a line of immigrants and refugees, which inspired a project to examine 20th-century migrant and immigrant lives from 1914-1925, using passport photos.
One of the great hurdles that many fledgling genealogists face is Ellis Island. Known for being the spot where immigrants had to pass through for migration to the United States, Louis began to find emergency passport applications, which gave him insight into the process of immigration, and, more importantly, what individual experiences were like going to Ellis Island.
Louis’ goal is to construct the narrative of how individuals came to the United States, and what their lives were like. It’s beautiful, poignant, and shines a light that not many of us have seen on what it means to come to a new country.
Related Episodes:
Episode 55: Photos of Our Mill Working Ancestors with Joe Manning
Episode 108: Researching the Ships of Our Ancestors
Links:
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About My Guest:
Louis Takács studied Anthropology and Philosophy as an undergraduate and Information Science and Learning Technologies in graduate school. He became a librarian, worked at the Chicago Public Library and Northwestern University, then moved to the Netherlands. He currently works in the communications field for an NGO.
Takács’ great-grandfather was a return-migrant, his grandfather an immigrant, and his father a refugee—all from Hungary to the United States. Becoming an immigrant himself caused him to reflect deeply on migration in general and seek to better understand the role photography has played in shaping the age of mass migration. So, he decided to combine his interests, skills, and love of photography in a creative way. “Let Me Get There” is a born-digital project created to help document, visualize, and better understand early 20th century immigrant/migrant lives, utilizing thousands of passport photos from 1914-1925. Another part of the project involves deciphering the widely circulated Ellis Island portraits of Augustus Sherman and Lewis Hine, a process that has revealed some incredible personal stories that intersect with lesser-known but critical aspects of early 20th century U.S. immigration policy. But why were the photos taken and how were they used? How did they become the photographic voice of a historical moment? And who were the people in these images we know so well?
About Maureen Taylor:
Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living, Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel, American Spirit, and The New York Times. Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website, and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles, and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com