Old Photos

[Sandra Parker]

It's been a while since I was last adding bits to my family, but a very late New Year Resolution, from a few years back, has got me going again.I have been fortunate to receive quite a bit of photos and documents from deceased relatives, without children, on both sides of the family. Unfortunately I am the end of a few lines and now I have a stack of photos, of past family members, mostly English and not a clue who they are and nobody left to ask.
What do I do with them? I hate the thought of putting them in the bin, but.......
Sandra

 

[MollyMay]

A real dilemma. Not one I can answer, having a similar sort of problem, although I do have a name with mine.
I lost my dear cousin a year ago now. His late wife was an only child, they were childless, and she had an album of wonderful early photos of her Danish ancestors. I now have it, no idea who the pictures are of, only the family surname. I just couldn't throw it away, but hope one day to trip over someone from the extended family to hand it over to. If not then what to do with them becomes my children's problem

Did you ever sort out the 'Button Man'? - good to see you again

 

[Sandiep]

I also have a lovely album from 1865 and do know one or two that are marked some I can give a good guess but hubbie(its his family) put them on the laptop for me and I have sent some to people I have made contact with and have had some success still loot to go but worth a try.

 

[Bay Horse]

Most of my albums and boxes of photos are unidentifiable. It's such a shame, as they are so old and such beautiful photographs - Victorian weddings, momentous occasions... that would have meant so much at the time. Soldiers, airmen, seaman - all young and fresh-faced. Family, extended family, others perhaps no relation at all. I am still trying to identify pictures through settings and locations.

I'm in the process of scanning them all. I do wonder what will happen to them in due course. Who knows? I have a victory medal which was awarded to a great uncle, but when his daughter died (my cousin) it was sent to a junk shop. She didn't have any children, you see. A stranger 'rescued' it and made it his mission to find the medal's family - and after many years it found its way to me.

 

[trlvn]

MyHeritage added a feature to their Photos section this year that will attempt to estimate the date of a photo. I believe the estimate is mostly based off the fashion of the garments the subjects are wearing. I've uploaded a few photos where I was fairly certain of the date and the estimates (if it can make one) have been within a few years of the actual.

It then gave me estimates on a couple of pictures where I had no idea of the date. That helped me narrow down to one couple. IOW, a win!

BTW, there are more than a few web sites out there dedicated to trying to identify old photographs. A blogger I (sporadically) follow has one:

http://www.lostfaces.com

There are good links at the bottom of the page on types of old photos (CDVs v. tintypes, etc) and other subjects.

Craig

 

[Half Hour]

My late mil 'labelled' everything... unfortunately , mostly on the front of things. . On the other hand my mother hardly labelled anything and then in her last couple of years she had an undiagnosed brain tumour ( they thought it was dementia) that caused her to do strange things and she burnt most of the photos I would have loved to have.

 

[Daft Bat]

My late mil 'labelled' everything... unfortunately , mostly on the front of things. . On the other hand my mother hardly labelled anything and then in her last couple of years she had an undiagnosed brain tumour ( they thought it was dementia) that caused her to do strange things and she burnt most of the photos I would have loved to have.