The building of a photograph:

This is the way the photograph arrived from one of my cousins.

I uploaded the photo to MyHeritage and used the repair damaged photo option. This is the improved Great Great Grandfather Koontz

I then took the next step and had the photograph colorized.

My great-great grandfather, Ezra Peter Koontz was born on 15 May 1832 in Navarre, Stark County, Ohio. He then migrated West to Ligonier, Noble County, Indiana where he was a cabinet maker.

Grandfather Koontz, did a bit more than make furniture:

Patent Application 430,963, Refrigerator, Ezra P. Koontz, Ligonier, Ind. Filed Sept. 1, 1898. Serial No. 284,364.
Claim:
1 In a refrigerator, an inner compartment containing an ice-tank, and waste-water tank, in combination with a pipe leading from the bottom of the ice-tank to the waste-water tank, a pipe leading from the bottom of the ice-tank to the drinking-water tank, an overflow pipe extending from the drinking to the waste water tank, and an overflow-pipe leading out of the waste-water tank, all substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.
2 In a refrigerator, a plurality of tanks, one of which is designed to contain ice, and is located immediately above another which is designed to contain drinking-water, milk, or other fluids, in combination with the pipe connecting said tanks, means, substantially as described, for closing said pipe when the under tank contains a fluid other than water, and means, substantially as described, at the opposite site of said ice-tank extending there from to a point outside the refrigerator, serving to carry off the waste water.

Digest of Decisions of the Commissioner of Patents and of United States Courts in the Matter of Patents, Trade-Marks, &c., Official Gazette – April – June, 1890., page 2061.In an earlier photograph used to advertise his Furniture Business:

Animation by #MyHeritage

Ezra Peter Koontz died on 21 January 1907.