Have these thoughts ever comeupon you? This week, I began a project for my mother(who just turned 80). She has a whole box full of old photos, some going back to the 1920’s…I am looking at them now. The faces of all these long-dead people stare out at me…here is a great aunt, who died 50 years ago. I am trying to arrnage them in a sequence, so that my children will at least know their ancestors…but what will my daughter make of someone who died long before she was born?
The ancient egyptains had a saying…“to speak the name of the dead is to give him life”…obviuosly they felt that names had power. I just wonder what I should do with these photos…I’m sure my children will probably have no interest in them. So, do we condemn our ancestors to a “second death” by not ritualizing their memory?
Here’s another one…my father as a child, astride a (rented) pony…how young he looks-he is now an old man of 85!
Should I keep these photos? Sometimes I like to imagine journeys into the past, but sometimes , I think, enough, get on with life!
Don’t assume that your children will have no interest in them. Geneaology is a fast-rising field.
You should ask your mother (or others who are able) to identify the people in the photos and possibly try to date them, if possible. Should your children (or other grandchildren of your mother, if there are any) later become interested, they at least will be able to know who is on the pictures and under what circumstances (at what special events, etc.) the pictures were taken.
Just because there is no interest now, doesn’t mean that there won’t be an interest later. And valuable information that goes with those photos could be irretrievable by the time the interest comes around.
Zev Steinhardt
“Keep the photos” You mean you were thinking of throwing them out!?
I have old family photos in an album, and some in antique frames around my apartment: • A solemn-looking family group, c1922 • My grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ wedding photos • A lovely snapshot of my Mom at the beach, c1950, in a circle skirt, kerchief and sunglasses •
As my mom was cleaning out some closets after my dad died, she came across some old photos of people she didn’t recognize. So she burned them all. I never knew these photos existed, but I was saddened that she destroyed them.
Seems to me if there’s a way to identify who’s who in your old photos, you should do it. Some day, someone will really appreciate it.
You have a treasure in your hands.
My suggestion would be to scan the photos and lay them out in a book type format. You can e-mail or print and send out to your family, extended and immediate. You never know who might be interested in seeing them. Then keep the originals in a very safe, dry, climate-controlled place.
In addition, you might consider getting your mother and other older relatives to share with you stories about the people and places in those photos. Take a tape recorder, ask them lots of questions, get dates and do the research to find the back up documentation (birth certificates, marraige licenses, photos of cemetary headstones, etc.). Add all this text to the “book” of photos and you have a fabulous family history document, which is publishable in certain circles. At the very least, donate a copy to your local geneology library, in addition to sharing with your family.
Why might this be important? Here’s my story:
A mormon, my Dad has been working on our family geneology for probably 25 years now. He ran into a brick wall, so to speak. At a certain point, written records become spotty, inaccurate and difficult to find. He could only document for so many generations back before he couldn’t find any more information. It was incredibly frustrating – but most American courthouses didn’t keep very good records from more than 150 years ago.
A few years ago, he came across a book which was published more than 100 years ago. It contained photographs and text outlining everything I just said above. It detailed about 100 years’ worth of my family history (from 1741 to 1898), covering several branches of the family who all came from the one ancestor who immigrated to the US from Scotland sometime in the mid 18th Century.
I now have complete records of my family back to 1741, including fascinating stories. Like the one about my great-great-grandfather, who was a farmer in Ohio. He bought a horse and wagon, went out west prospecting for gold. Made some money and came back to Ohio, where he bought the farm where my grandfather was born, and which my dad’s cousin currently lives in. The original deed to the house was signed by James Monroe, the property was purchased from the local native American tribes and is written on deerskin. Dad’s cousin keeps this little treasure framed in her living room.
To me, that is priceless. My goal now is to write the “sequel” and produce the family records for the most recent 100 years.
The kids may not care now, but when they start to realize their own mortality, they’ll take an interest. I think you have to develop some memories of your own before you can transfer those thoughts to a photo of someone you’re linked to genetically.
Who knows??? One of the kids may use that to start a geneology investigation of his or her own!
I would save anything I had. My parents have a few photos, my father’s and grandfather’s medical school diplomas, and officer’s commissions. But a lot is missing: I’d love to see the high school yearbook of either of my two grandparents, out of the four, who I know went to high school. One would have gone from 1904 through 1908, and the other, from 1910 through 1914. But I’ve never seen them.
We have three books of family genealogy, documented back to 1610 and going putatively far beyond that. The books are loaded with lists of children and spouses, and some text about those for whom the information was available. But I wish we had more artifacts.
By all means save them, and have your mother identify as many of the people and places as she can.
Recently I"ve been spending alot of time in antique stores (I’m furnishing my new house). Everywhere I go I see old photographs for sale, with absolutley no mention or marking as to who the photograph is of. That is sad to me because that photograph represents someone’s ancestor - someone who probably has no idea what Great Great Grandman Maude looked like but sure would like to know. I, for instance, have only seen two pictures of my grandfather. I’d dearly love to see more of him and his family. Don’t let the photographs in your possession end up in the trash or in some antique shop were they’ll never be sold.
I have a bunch of old photos (and postcards) of people I don’t know. What happened was, my SO’s father died in 2000. We cleaned out his apartment and found boxes of old photos and postcards. We are sure they came from his old landlord who died ages ago - in the 70’s or even earlier, I’m not sure. When the landlord died, his only relative, a daughter, came in from California, but she was not interested in the photos so she left them. She sold the house my SO’s dad was renting. He saved the photos and postcards.
I wish I could find someone who would appreciate these, but I have so little to go on. I am curious about the people pictured, even though I don’t know them, and I’m not even related to any of them.
I love old family stories, but I didn’t hear a lot of them–presumably my parents thought I didn’t care much about this when I was a kid. In college, though, I interviewed my father for a class assignment and realized there was much about his life I didn’t know–my own father! Now I’m very interested in more stories about my ancestors.
My father has gotten into geneaology the last few years, tracing back the side of his family that was “lost” when his mom was first disowned and then died when he was a toddler.
Save everything, and as others have said, get more information on what’s there.