PICTURE THIS by Matthew Aamot, [email protected]

As an avid family genealogist and being especially interested in family pictures, I am always on the lookout for old portraits when I go to antique shops. For the most part, they hang on the wall, unnamed and lost to descendants. I always said that if that were my ancestor for sale in some shop, I would give anything for someone to contact me and reunite the picture with its family.

I was on my way to La Connor, Washington for an afternoon of "antiqueing" when I stopped by a nice place right off the freeway. Upstairs hung a portrait of a man named Joseph Benson GOODNER. There was also a packet of papers which included his military service in the Civil War and pension application forms for both him and his wife in later years at Spokane, Washington. I knew that a family somewhere would be thrilled to have this, so I put the picture on layaway and went on with my excursion. Later that night I got on the Internet and started searching. Within minutes I had found not only a submission for this Joseph B. GOODNER, but also a descendant of his in California. I then checked an online telephone directory and got the phone number. In the space of 10 minutes I had contacted the descendant's granddaughter, who told me the family would be back from a missions trip to Africa the very next day. To finish the story, they were very happy to receive the picture the next week and reimbursed me for my expenses. I feel good that I helped a lost picture find a home and am still keeping my fingers crossed that some of mine will come back to my family.