Flipping through old family photo albums, several questions come to mind. How did those people live, and what’s with all those stern faces?

Photographic family portraiture has been around for a little over 170 years. The Sonoma Heritage Collection has captured the faces of our local ancestors since the first waves of film photography. The images provide us with a insight into the fashion, values and technology of the time.

In the 1850s and '60s, photos began to be printed on paper cards. This new process made the image capturing method more affordable, opening it up to more social classes. Even recent immigrants had portraits taken to share with family members and let them know they were doing well.

We discovered several family photos that were taken in Sonoma County between the 1860s to 1970s. Scroll through the gallery above to see the way images of families have changed over time.

Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.