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photographs

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ProfilePosted byOptionsPost Date

Maid

Maid Report 2 Dec 2006 11:15

I have a pile of old family photos - like everyone has probably kept for years in a shoe box...anyway. I can only recognise about 70% of the people in the photos - the majority have no date and no names written on the back. I don't know if others have the same problem. I have started writing names/dates on the back of all my photos as I don't want future generations to be as frustrated as I am when staring at unknown people standing next to my parents/grandparents. I have a group photo of my parents wedding half of the people can no longer be identified. do others have the same problem?

ErikaH

ErikaH Report 2 Dec 2006 11:52

I only wish I had............my stepmother destroyed all the photos of my blood relations Reg

Helena

Helena Report 2 Dec 2006 11:56

My husbands father's girlfriend did the same and we only have a torn segment of his mother when she was young. Its better to have photos you can't identify than to have none Helena

Peter

Peter Report 2 Dec 2006 12:01

I have one from c.1864 that shows my gg gf Robert Jefferson and gg gm Catherine Stephenson and their two children, but also two unidentified adults who perhaps bear a resemblance to Catherine (who was Irish, so that's why I'm stuck!) We also have a journal written by Catherine's mother Lucy to her (own) sisters during a trip through France, but the sisters are not addressed by name, and although Lucy writes about buying presents for her children, left behind in Ireland, only Catherine is specifically named. Argh!

Maid

Maid Report 2 Dec 2006 12:12

annoying isn't it I might be looking at neighbours or work mates or whoever..

Paul Barton, Special Agent

Paul Barton, Special Agent Report 2 Dec 2006 13:15

You can narrow down the dates if the photographer's name appears on it. Often the back has useful printed information. Victorian photographers frequently moved studios, so of the address matches a known date range you will be able to narrow it down considerably. Check out the Roger Vaughan website. When I was in a similar situation I laid them out on the lounge floor grouped in batches. You often find several pictures were taken on the same day - if the pictures are the same size and shape and the people are wearing the same clothes for instance. Remember that somebody will have taken the picture, so by doing this you may see that people took it in turn to hold the camera... so you can match people up in ways that you hadn't previously noticed.