Here is a typical carte-de-visite style, card mounted photograph. This was the normal family photo of the 1860s to 1890s, along with a larger type called a ‘cabinet card’. Almost every antique store has a pile of these sorts of images, many without a clue as to who the person was. This card has an inscription on back ‘Adam Bentz 1864′ — as well as the photographer’s imprint which indicates it was taken at Racine Ohio. Such clues — and they are only clues, and in need of further verification before being accepted — make a card photograph much more interesting. Sometimes we find the name written on a card is a person who was to receive the card, not the subject. And dates may be added much later, and are only as reliable as the memory of the person adding them.

In this case, we see an immediate problem — this is not the style of card found in the 1860s, it looks much more like a typical 1870s image. In searching for the photographer, Thomas W Mercer, we find him living in Racine Ohio (Meigs county) in 1870, but at that time his occupation is shown as saddler, while in 1880 he has moved to Sutton Ohio (in the same county as Racine) and is listed as a photographer. So it appears he took up photography sometime in the 1870s. In the 1900 census he has moved to Allegheny Pennsylvania, where he is living with the family of his son George, also a photographer.

Searching for Adam Bentz in the 1870 census we find ten listed, two in Meigs County Ohio, the younger of whom was born about 1851 — which would mean he was 13 in 1864, which looks about the right age for this fellow. But the photo was clearly not made that early, and does not look like a copy of an 1864 image either — the pinstripe suite, close-up head and shoulders portrait, both suggest 1870s as well. We see however another Adam Bentz, living in Allegheny Pennsylvania, who was born about 1862. Maybe he was born 1864, and the date is not intended as the date of the photo, but the birth-date of the subject. We know the photographer had connections with Allegheny — we find him living there in 1900 — so it is highly coincidental that we find an Adam Bentz there and two in Meigs county in 1870 — I think if a more complete genealogy were worked up, we would find they were all related to one another. Perhaps young Adam from Allegheny was visiting with relatives in Ohio when he had his picture taken. Either that or someone in the family identified this as the Adam born 1851, but was in error, and calculated it must be 1864 because he looks about 13 — in which case it is probably some other member of the family.