BellaOnline Forums Family Genealogy Old Pictures

Do you have old pictures? Not sure when they were taken? If you know the type of photographic technology used you can approximately date your pictures. This can help you narrow down who may be in the picture based on the time period. Check out my article:

Using Photography to Date our Ancestors

Loved your article. I have a few old photos and am fortunate that we "know" who they are of.

Found a site that has a lot of pictures online for different families. Some are identified, some are unknowns. You can even post your own pictures on the site. It might help others. The site is: http://www.deadfred.com/

thanks for reminding me of it. I had forgotten about that site...

Great sites to check out... I have a few phots, I want to check out..

I am amazed and very happy that so much progress has been made in making it a little easier to help each other and to "play detective". When we did our geneology several years ago, well it took us about 15 years, a lot of this new technology was not available. My Mother and I worked for a long time....(tearing our hair out at the roots part of the time). But we got it done as far back as we could on both sides of family. (1011) on one side...accuracy of that ??

We were fortunate to have lots of really old pictures passed down by different branches of the families...so we have made copies of those to put in each book for family members.

I wish dating was my issue. My biggest problem is trying to figure out who the people are in the boxes (two of them) FULL of photos I have. One grandparent died, then we inherited the box--few of the photos have names or initials or places. The other grandparent had alzheimers and removed them from the family album where notes did exist.. but now we can't match them back to the pages they were removed from.

Fun stuff!

It is great the progress we've come. I can remember the days of going with my mom as a youngster and sitting for hours in the library while she viewed microfilm for the 1880 census, etc. Now with the click of a button it comes up free at home.

Lynn, I too, inherited alot of pictures with NO name on them. I think I know which side of the family, but that is it. I have close to 100 pics. with no idea who they are.

I got an email from someone who is over Fototagger that helps label pictures. I am goint to do a review on it soon, but I'll go ahead and post a link to it here. Seems like a great tool for pictures. and it is FREE.... Foto Tagger

Thanks for those links!
We recently met up with some long lost cousins and swapped a BUNCH of pictures. I know the "Who" but I don't know the "When". <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

This should help...
Thanks a million!

For help in labeling photos or digital images, I recommend a free download at FotoTagger....I downloaded it, and am learning about it by playing around with it.. FotoTagger

I have a 'couson' 'twice' removed, so she says..well they live in Calif close to her daughter durnig the summer ( more about HER later) & durning the winter they live close to their son in Michigan. Well she inseted on showing us 'these pictures, she has 'millions' of them.
So shes showing us these pictures of 'Aunt Helen' taken in 19877 or something like that, but nothing is written on the pictures, except for a date on the side, from the developer...that says 1927?...Now she has had a stroke, how can I get this 'Couson' 'in a nice way' to write name & dates on these pictures. I know her Daughter will just 'toss' them when she dies, the son I don't know a thing about, if fact we didn't even know she had a son for over 2yrs.
If I get this woman to write any names & dates, how can I check if they are correct? I just hate to see all these pictures going in the trash. Any ideas on how I can ask her 'nicley' she gets upset essily, like when I pointed out the difference in dates. Thanks, Pegi [email]Spencer...yellmouth@adelphia.net[/email]

Wow! I checked out the deadfred site and it looks promising. I have some old photos we cannot identify. thanks.

I recently went to a photoshop class as I know nothing about restoring photos. Was really good but still had questions. They are redoing the class in March and I will go back. It is amazing how they can take a horrific old picture and restore it to look almost new.

Anyone have any experience in restoring photos themselves? What program do you use? I usually call my daughter to do this, but have a goal to learn myself.

Lynn, It's TOO annoying to have a load of unidentified photos!

I also have two boxes worth of pictures, from the 19th and early 20th century. Some are annotated, some we know, but for the majority, we are clueless. The REALLY annoying thing is that when I was a small child, I was fascinated by these pictures, which were kept at my Grandma's house, and we used to go through them every Saturday afternoon, she could name almost everyone there. Sadly she's not here now and try as I might, I don't remember.

Thank you for the advice.

I too, do Geneology. I love looking at old pictures. When I go to an antique store, there are lots of pictures that are for sale. How sad that is that families get rid of them because they consider them junk. When my husband I used to go into antique stores, we often thought about buying some of those pictures and trying to find out who they were but we never did. It would've been interesting to find out who would want to see their ancestors and not knowing that someone in the family were getting rid of them.


Julie

I too, have found a few distant cousins who were will to swap pictures, So much fun huh?

Julie

Sometimes, not always, the pictures get picked up during the estate sell. An elderly couple or someone with no children dies and someone other than family just sell or give them away. I see them at the antique malls and I also wonder who they are.

Tina

It is sad...

Yes, old pictures are just the best. I especially love the old sepia ones that are so colorful even though black-and-white. They seem to give a flavor of a simpler time.

Yes, old photos have quite a bit of character. There was more to taking a photograph back then. Today, just click and go.

Hi there, I am new to this site, but not geneology. I also inherited many old family photoes (350 pounds worth)! Many of them are unmarked, dated, or named. Some of them, quite interesting looking. To help me figure out who is who, for I had asked everyone I knew, to no avail...I went to many different message boards and started seeing who else was researching my family lines. I looked for distant cousins that were researching my indirect lines. I found several and so I sent them an e-mail, told them about my plight, and we ended up exchanging photoes. We found that many of the pictures matched one another, but the neat thing was, on some of my pictures, I had the info, and on others, they did. I now have cousins to help me not only with the pictures, but new found cousins/friends as well as new family stories!

Pegi, It's frusterating for older people when their memories are questioned...ie, the date differeces. I too work with a senior. Here are my guidelines when I work with her.

1. Limit the visit, either in person or on the phone to 30 min or what she can do without getting to tired. Note the lenght of each visit, and when she starts to get upset, or drifting. This maybe a sign to either change topics to a lighter note, or to end the visit, as she maybe having a bad day, or not be well, or is tired.


2. Never question her memories, and always be polite. You are there to gather information from her. Now is not the time to judge what she is saying. Even if not correct, she still needs to be needed and to tell her "stories".


3. Take a recorder, or a note book with you. Let her chose a photo she wants to talk about.

4. If she will allow it, photograph the photoes you looked at together, or see if you can set up a cam-corder and tape the visit. You might even see if you could invite her on an outing to Walmart, as you want to give her a special gift. Tell her that she must bring the photoes that you talked about that day. Once @ Walmart, go to the photo department, and ask her to place her photoes, one at a time, on the photo scanner, walk her through coping them. Help her scan each of the photoes. when all are scanned, ask her which one is her favorite one. Help her print out a 5x7 of it, a copy of the scanned photoes, and a CD of all the photoes, if you want. Take and buy a 5x7 frame and help her put her favorite picture in it. Ask her nicely if you can keep the copies, or the CD for yourself, so you can treasure the day with her. If she wants the copies, and/or the Cd, make a second set so you can each have one. . Give all the originals back to her. Do not except any money from her. This is your contribution in preserving the photoes.

5. At the beginning and end of each visit, thank her for visiting with you. Ya might even send her a note of thanks after the visit.

6. At the end of each visit, ask to meet with her again, and set a time and keep it, or call if you can't.

7. Leave her with a question that you are interested in finding out more about next visit...such as What was a family tradition her family had around the holidays? What would she like her children to know about....? etc.. "Will she write down the address of her children, aunts, uncles, whomever you want. Respect her wishes and always thank her for what she does give you. Keep it friendly.

8. On the next visit ask her again the question you had told her you wanted to talk about next time. Keep doing this on each visit. Seniors sometimes need time to remember things, and by presenting the question you want to talk about the next week, it will give the time they need. It will also help them feel productive and needed.

9. See if she and you can have a phone conversation or meeting/lunch with any of her family or friends. Be sure to note their names, addresses & most importantly respect her wishes on these visits, Respect her feelings of what she will or won't share with you, or will or won't do with you. Ya might even ask her if you can copy her phone book into a larger print so she can see it better. From this, have her talk to you about each person, thus making it enjoyable for her. Ask her if you can write to some of the people in the book, or offer to help her write her letters to family and friends. Make your meetings a win-win. If this isn't possible, make it a win for her anyway.


10. Remember to have fun with this and her. Treat her with respect her age deserves, and give her the gift of feeling some one cares about her, her life, and that her photoes and stories are important. If the topic comes up, offer to digitize all of her photoes for her. You may even ask her to note in her will, that if her children do not want the photoes, that you would be honored to safe guard them for her.

I could not have said it better. Thanks
Tina

Wow...thanks for all the great information. I recently asked my mom about a box of old photos that used to belong to my great grandma...I remembered going through them with her when I was young. Well it turned out that the box now belonged to my grandma and during the christmas holidays my mom and I went to see my grandma and we went through the box together. It was priceless, while my grandma couldn't remember who everyone was, she was able to determine who most of them were. We even found a picture of one of our grandfathers that was in the civil war! I'm going to try the deadfred website to see if someone out there can tell me who they might be. Thanks again.

I found a box of Christmas cards at my grandma's house a few years back. Of course, the envelopes with names and addresses from way back was great, but something more special was there. First, some history. I was born in 1961 the oldest of 8 children. I don't remember anytime being an only child as my brother was born almost immediately after me within the year, then the next, etc.

Back to the Christmas Card box. There was a beautiful Christmas Card in the box to my grandparents, signed

Marlow, Betty & Tina

Does not sound like much, but for some reason, it has meant the world to me, that card. I cried when I saw it. I am thinking about getting it framed...

Tina

Tina, I know how you feel.

I remember going through photos that my Aunt had. There was one of a man in a car and he was identified on the back with the year but my Aunt couldn't figure out why that photo would have been saved. He was no relation to the family. When the WWI registrations went online I found my grandfather's card and it turned out he worked for this man. Then I found out that my Uncle (Aunt's and my mother's brother), who was deaf, was sent to a special school (we're talking about early 1900). The man in the photo made the arrangements for my Uncle to attend that school.

thank for sharing.