Historic Photo/Face Recognition Software

[Peak53]

I've done some searching but haven't come up with the right thing, yet, and thought ya'll could help.

I have two verified photos of my great uncle "Little Bill" Standifer and a third which looks amazingly like him. Incredibly, the photo c.1880's places him and another cowboy in front of Frenchie's Saloon in Tin Cup not two miles from here. Being Billy was a Texas cowpuncher, sheriff, and gunfighter what the heck was he doing here and how did I land in his tracks?

I would dearly like to make a facial recognition comparison to see if my hunch is correct. Anybody have any experience in this realm? If I get a match, I'll share the rest of the story. Thanks in advance.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Wish you the best in solving this mystery!
Then Maybe we can the same system to finally determine if that’s really Wilhelm the Juvenile playing croquet here in New Mexico.
PS You do realize that we want to see those pictures?

 

[Peak53]

Wish you the best in solving this mystery!
Then Maybe we can the same system to finally determine if that’s really Wilhelm the Juvenile playing croquet here in New Mexico.
PS You do realize that we want to see those pictures?

AKA Billy the Kid. Pretty sure that's him in the famous pic. I will share photos tomorrow.

 

[bullmack]

Best of luck. I love these types of quests. These are from a quick internet search.


Examples of face recognition software

Amazon Rekognition
A cloud-based service that can analyze images and videos

Kairos
A platform that can detect, identify, and verify faces, as well as detect age and gender

FaceFirst
A company that specializes in security and surveillance applications

Cognitec
A company that offers products for biometric entry screening, video scanning, and comparing facial images to large databases

True Key
A free image recognition app that uses biometric technology for facial detection and password management

Other face recognition software
DeepFace
Face++
Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services Face API
SenseTime
Trueface.ai
Oz Liveness

 

[Peak53]

Photos

Thanks for the software suggestions. Will look into these.

Here is Billy in 1892. This was the year his grandfather, a respected veteran of the 1836 war with Mexico, died, and I suspect he may have returned to Lampasas from NW Texas for the funeral and had his portrait made in the period he was a sheriff in three different towns.

This photo is from the period he was an "enforcer" on big cattle ranches, driving out or otherwise putting a stop to rustling. The Star Ranch covered 10 counties. Billy, top left is not too hard to distinguish from the ranchers who employed him.

This one has a so far unknown origin and is the one I'm trying to identify. The big man on the right is Frenchy, in front of his infamous saloon in Tin Cup. It looks to me that the miners have hired these two horsemen and loaded them up with gold ore to transport out, probably over Tin Cup Pass to the rails. I don't see any visible guns, but they were assuredly present. Once again, note how different the two mounted men look from the others.

Some Context
Billy was killed by the infamous Pink Higgins in 1903 near the town of Star. As a young teen, he had been held at gunpoint and horsewhipped by rustlers who were attempting to drive a herd through the one Billy was watching, picking up unbranded calves in the process. The Model 3 in the story below dates to 1875, the year Billy turned 18. He went on to gun down four of those men and several others over the years, earning him a reputation as The Great Standifer. The horsewhipping incident was part of the Higgins-Horrell Feud that took the lives of many in Central Texas in the 1870's. Billy was related by marriage to the Horrell crowd. Ironically, Pink and Billy both became enforcers on the Star Ranch amidst a history of bad blood. In addition to the decades old feud, Billy was in the midst of divorce and his wife was being represented by Pink's lawyer son. This wasn't going to, and didn't, end well. My grandmother, Billy's half-sister, always maintained that Pink shot Billy off his horse from ambush. There was only one survivor, who told the story to the sheriff and newspapers, so that is what is in the record, that it was a "fair" fight.

This post was my introduction to the Forum in2012.
Billy's Forty-Four

 

[THE PILGRIM]

So is Frenchy holding a lead on that horse to the far right?
Pack horse? Or?
Is Frenchy a party to what’s going on?
Or did he insert himself - it’s his bar, maybe he paid for the photo.
Remember back in the day, you generally paid to have pics made.

 

[Peak53]

Frenchy was the most popular guy in town what with the booze and the girls. His place was the gathering spot for the miners and housed the assay office.

 

[DWalt]

Frenchy was the most popular guy in town what with the booze and the girls. His place was the gathering spot for the miners.

Saloonkeepers back then were popular everywhere. One of my direct ancestors migrated from Germany to my old Southern Ohio home town in the late 1840s. Huge numbers of Germans migrated to the U.S. at that time to escape the revolution. He promptly built a combination hotel, saloon, and cathouse establishment that was very successful for a long time. Somewhere I have an undated picture of him and about a half-dozen of his girls standing in front of it. His patrons were mainly steelworkers, railroad men, local farmers, and Ohio River boatmen. He was married, had six kids, and was considered an upstanding pillar of the community. Among his other businesses he had a corn grinding mill and a distillery. He used the corn in his distillery, or at least some of it. That part of Ohio was very heavy into growing corn. I was always interested in his distillery, but was unable to find out much about it, beyond where it was located. That location was found on an old map. It was not much more than a stone’s throw from where I was born and raised.

 

[Peak53]

It's not him

I made contact with a guy in Tin Cup who is somewhat of an amateur historian of the town. He was able to point me to a book containing the picture, including names. So, my wild dream has not come to pass. Thanks for the input and comments.

 

[soFlaNative]

It was a good ride while it lasted, fine story of your great uncle with pictures and some local history.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Great Thread!
I love stories like this!