'You could have instant ancestors,' he adds. Fausel, a number of Americans 'wishing to raise their status' started buying old portraits. You put yourself on the Mayflower.' In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, says Mr. 'By hanging a very old family portrait, you put yourself back in time. 'They convey the image of a lineage and wealth,' says Alan Fausel, director of fine art for the New York showroom of Bonhams, an international auction house. Most old portraits are owned by families with a long history in New England or the South and the means to commission a painting. (She notes, however, that most people don't realize it's a girl and often ask, 'Who's he?') Showing Your Roots It's one of the nicest things I have in my house,' says Ms. 'It's a beautiful piece of history, and it makes a statement. The painting shows a young girl with very short hair wearing a dark dress with a Colonial buckle and a tiny piece of jewelry. Hillary Coffin Post, a descendant of the Coffin whaling family in Nantucket, Mass., says her father gave her an early American portrait of her great-great-great-grandmother, Ellen Elizabeth Coe, as a teenager. Of course, many people love living with old family portraits. 'UGLIEST THING' The portrait that hangs over Sue Garton's piano in Bethesda, Md. 'They're thinking why else would we have that in our living room? It doesn't match our decor at all.' 'Guests always ask, 'Is that an ancestor?' ' She finds herself apologizing. Garton, but it hangs over her piano in Bethesda, Md. 'It's the ugliest thing I have ever seen,' says Ms. Sue Garton, a data administrator for the museum, says she has a large 19th-century painting of a stern relative wearing a brown dress and holding a handkerchief.

'Sometimes people feel they don't fit their decor, but they don't put them out with the trash.' Who Is That? 'Portraits have a magic to them,' says Carolyn Kinder Carr, deputy director and chief curator of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. What do you do with them? A portrait may be dark and eerie, or just a really bad painting, but it's still a family image, and most people feel obligated to keep them forever. But the rest - your average portraits - can present a dilemma. A masterpiece by a famous artist, such as Gilbert Stuart or John Singer Sargent, is proudly displayed over the mantel.

Many people treasure any portrait as a piece of family history.

Old paintings of ancestors are usually handed down from generation to generation with mixed reactions.

Old portraits