ATTLEBORO - Everyone has one, if not a boxes of them - family photographs that were passed along or inherited and you can't identify the people in them.

Enter Maureen Taylor, who calls herself the "Photo Detective."

Taylor says she can help people find clues that will lead them to solve those mysteries.

Taylor will be the featured guest at an event sponsored by the Swedish Ancestry Research Association from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Attleboro Public Library.

Granted, Taylor says there are photographs in which the people may never be known. But many more, with "just a bit more work," can be identified, she said. Interest on the rise

Taylor, a Westwood resident, is the author of numerous books and is a contributing editor at Family Tree Magazine.

She said interest in identifying and dating family photographs has increased over the past decade, especially with the easier accessibility to records and documents and the growing popularity of genealogy sites online.

"I teach people techniques to date photos," Taylor said. "I talk about things people can find out about the photo."

"They learn how to evaluate clues in the photograph," from haircuts and hairstyles to cultural ceremonies popular during certain periods in history.

Taylor said she will typically help each person who attends a session with identifying or dating one picture.

"I break it down by steps," she said of the session.

One of the keys to identifying photographs is talking to family members, Taylor said.

There are "naysayers," people who don't believe they will ever be able to identify the people in old family photos, but she claims to have solved a number of those mysteries, recently helping a client over the past six months to identify all 19 people in a photograph dated around 1910.

Sometimes, it can be based on who's living and who's dead. Other times, in family reunion photos, for example, it can be a matter of determining who the baby was, or who is the eldest.

"You might not know who everyone is because they may not all be family," Taylor said.

She said she teaches people "how to do it themselves because it means more to them."

After all, Taylor said, it's the ones that you can identify that are the ones you keep.

SUSAN LaHOUD can be reached at 508-236-0398 or at slahoud@thesunchronicle.com.