Where Psychology, Genealogy, and History Converge
At the intersection of memory, family, and meaning
Welcome to The Psychogenealogist
I'm Steven Hanley, a clinical psychologist, historical photograph collector, and genealogy enthusiast. Here I explore the stories behind old photographs, forgotten people, and the connections between history, family, and memory.
recent Stories
An extraordinary 1891 photograph album, nearly lost to history, documents weeks of summer camp life along Pennsylvania’s Conewago. Newspaper research helped uncover the story of Camp-Out-Awhile—and the people behind these remarkable photographs.
A 1954 Lionel “Golden West Special” train set, rediscovered in my parents’ basement, led to an old family story, a genealogy connection, and a new home more than seventy years later.
A small poster hanging in the window of C. Geedy’s early twentieth-century “Picture Framing and Notions” shop led to an exact match with a 1908 temperance-era publication from the Young Boys and Girls Christian Temperance Union.
A nearly hidden sign reading “For Prothonotary” led from a saloon interior in Blandon, Pennsylvania to a 1917 political campaign—and a precise date for the photograph.
In under 30 hours I crossed two states, stopped at more than a dozen antique stores, and came home with a handful of forgotten photographs—including one with a living connection.
“If you don’t recount your family history, it will be lost. Honor your own stories and tell them too. The tales may not seem very important, but they are what binds families and makes each of us who we are.”

A 1952 photograph of the Crippled Children's Hospital in Farmington Hills, Michigan, reveals the history of a hospital, its young patients, and the buildings that remain today.