Old Photographs
Aside from making a really great genealogical find such as a birth, marriage, death, or other record, photo hunting and finding old photos is one of my FAVORITE genealogy related activities! There are a couple of reasons why these old photos bring me such joy and information!
First and foremost, old photos provide a face, maybe even a story, or a glimmer of a story, into an ancestor or family member's life. Those photos put a face with a name, and can help a researcher wonder about their ancestor's state of mind, life, personal situations, etc. at the time of the photo. Of course, some of that wondering may be speculation, but without the photo, there is less of that or nothing. A name and only a name, or some facts from a record. Old photos can be great sources of feeling connected to one's ancestors, especially when there is a strong resemblance or an immediate, "Oh my, she looks just like me!". Preserving those memories and connections through photos is invaluable for the researcher, family members, and future generations who otherwise, may never have known what their ancestors look like.
In addition to helping feel "connected" to family members and ancestors through old photos, those photos some times (not always) have other information with them. When you're fortunate enough, photos may have names and dates on the back of them, providing valuable clues into names, and dates where events may have taken place. I'm not going to lie though...my pet peeve is when people write on the front of photos. To me, it is like desecrating a family monument. Fortunately, with technology advancements, many of those photos with writing on the front can be restored and fixed, thank goodness!
Here's a great example of either getting additional information or confirming information when finding an old photo. The photo to the left was in a drawer of documents and items that belonged to my aunt. She was an avid genealogist that developed Alzheimer's disease early and later passed from cancer. She and I talked many, many times about our family and she never mentioned this photo. It just so happens that this photo, along with others, was in a clear bag with receipts from when the copies of the originals were made (1998). Apparently, my aunt went to my great aunt's funeral in Arizona, and while there, a relative shared these pictures and my aunt made copies. This photo has the name of the town where it was taken (Caldwell, Texas), along with the photographer's company (Stone) and it has writing (Jack's Grandmother Hopper). It just so happens, that Jack was John Courtney, my great grandmother's brother. His grandmother was Emeranda Russell HARPER. So, phonetic spelling on the photo, but, this was the only known photo of Emeranda Russell HARPER and I had discovered it! You can only imagine the joy and excitement over this find! From this photo, I could work to try and find information about Stone photography, when they were in business, and determine what years this photo may have been taken. Lots of possibilities with a few clues from a photo AND I got to see what my third great grandmother looked like!
I'm fortunate to have a TON of other situations like the one above. You're probably asking, "How did he find these old photos?" I'm 54 years old, and have been researching for 35+ years, so many of the photos I've got are much older than me (I've got thousands in total). Here are some of my strategies for finding old photos:
- Talk with family members at family events and talk about old photos. Gently probe to see if they have any and ask lots of questions.
- Share old photos you have and offer to make them copies if they are interested and do some swapping. Let them know you'd like to make copies of their photos if they have them and promise to return them and take great care.
- Reach out to older relatives and ask them if they know of any family or extended family that has old photos. It's amazing who they may know AND sometimes you get other information during the call.
- Take a risk and if you find a distant relative through your research or otherwise, reach out and make a plan on how you can connect with them and check to see if they have old photos.
- When you do get old photos, find a way to carefully label who is in the photo and if possible, get a date. Carefully scan and upload a copy of the photo to a cloud based storage solution to "preserve them".
- Make sure that you connect the photo to online genealogy resources (Family Search, Ancestry.com, etc. so that others can benefit from your good fortune!
I hopefully have inspired you, just a bit, to dig around and find some old family photographs. Your work in finding these photos not only helps preserve your family's past, but it also helps bring your ancestors' stories to life and puts a name with a face or connects a story with their lives. Feel free to share any great photos you've found and the story of how you found the photo! You, too, can provide inspiration for other family researchers and photo hunters!
