Sharing Genealogy with my dad

[jsanders]

I didn't get the genealogy bug until later in life.  I was in my late 30s.  My dad had been doing genealogy research for many years.  I wanted to learn more about my grandparents who either died before I was born or died when I was really young.

I started out with my dad's research and painstakenly looked over it.  I found out more about his parents and my mom's parents.  I posted a few queries on-line regarding our family.  One day I received an email which I couldn't believe.  It was a woman who had a 19th century photo album.  She was looking for a descendant to return the album to.  I couldn't believe what I was reading.

Well after exchanging emails for a little while, we determined I was indeed a descendant.  I now have the album.  I received the album shortly before my dad was diagnosed with a terminal cancer.  Although my dad is no longer here, I'm sure he was happy to see the album before he died and to know his research he spent a lot of his time on will continue.

I've been trying to determine who's picture in the album with varying degrees ofsuccess.  I'm chronicling this in a blog at http://www.hiddengenealogynuggets.com. 

Regards, Jim

[jsanders]

This is a link to the blog post instead of the home page of the site. http://www.hiddengenealogynuggets.com/genealogyblog/2012/02/photo-genealogy/

Regards, Jim

[Shropshire Lass]

I posted a few queries on-line regarding our family.  One day I received an email which I couldn't believe.  It was a woman who had a 19th century photo album.  She was looking for a descendant to return the album to.  I couldn't believe what I was reading.

That is wonderful!  You are so lucky.

It gives the rest of us some hope that old family photos might arrive for us, too.

[hulme-griff]

not quite on the same scale as yours but i had a photo sent to me last year. the story is a long one but the short version is, my welsh great grandparents are buried in a grave that already had someone in it, john hookes,  all the family knew was that he was an orphan and had lived with them for a while, they were buried in the 1930's. i love a mystery so set about solving who this john hookes chap was. well it took me a very long time but he turned out to be the illigitimate nephew of my great grandparents. my auntie who lived in ipswich was in wales for a holiday and decided to go to the farm where john had worked in the late 1800's and into the 1900's to ask if anyone had heard of him, bit of a long shot i thought. the head of the family (who was very old) actually remembered john, next thing you know out comes a photo album with a picture of john hookes in it. i now have that picture, pride of place in my album. what were the chances of that happening i wonder 
i should also add that my auntie was very ill at the time and has since died. if she'd decided not to visit the farm that picture would have probably ended up on c*** in the attic

[PrueM]

Hi Jim

What a wonderful story 

If you want any help with dating your photos, try posting them one at a time over on the Photograph Restoration and Dating Board.  We are pretty good at determining dates, sometimes within a year or two.

This topic will give you some pointers about what to post:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,517366.0.html

Cheers
Prue

[jsanders]

Hi Prue, Thank you very much for your feedback.  I took your advice and posted one and only one of the photos from the album in the Photograph Restoration and Dating Board.   I put as much of what I know abou tthe picture as well as my suspicion of the subject and timeframe.

Regards, Jim