Get your family to write on back of photos

[Fleetz]

Just some advice from experience. I know I am probably preaching to the converted....

My father and mother passed a good number of years ago. Apart from my regret of still not having them with us I regret not asking them who were all the family members that I didn't know in a box of photos that have just come to light.

I spent all of today scanning and recording all the photos of family members both past and present and creating .jpg images. There were a good number of photo I had no idea who they were, some I suspected could have been this or that relative but I can't prove it so not scanned or recorded. Unfortunately any Auntie's, Uncles, grandparents etc have since passed.

So if you have that box of photos or you have friends who have boxes of photos or albums of old photos and still have senior family members alive get a pencil sit down with them and write on the back of those photos as much details as is known. Someone will benefit, especially those who are looking to follow my Ancestry.

It was a very rewarding day in many respects today, very frustrating and disappointing on not being able to put names in many photos who are family members. Lost forever.

Just sharing my experience......ask and record whilst you can

Ian

[Milliepede]

That's really good advice Ian.  I wish I had some photos to write on so you are fortunate to have them even if you can't name them all 

[Scribble1952]

Well said ,can I just add don't put sellotape on old documents use acid free😊

[AntonyMMM]

Very good advice, which we all forget to do until it is too late, as the box of unidentified family photos I have  (and almost every family has) will testify to.

Be sure to use a soft pencil - never any type of pen (the ink can bleed through the paper over time).

[ThrelfallYorky]

I've also got quite a lot of unknown people in photographs - I asked my Mum when she was stuck for something to do, to put all the huge drawer of photos she had into albums I provided, and caption them ... bless her, she proudly showed me the first full album - all labelled with my name and various ages! And I'd thought she knew who I was!
We actually chuckled about it, she'd not realised I didn't know who all these people were. Sadly she couldn't recall who most were with any clarity, especialy not those from my father's side.
It'll be a lot harder for future generations - loads of "Kodachrome" slides my parents took are mere ghosts of their former selves. I spent days scanning and downloading them, but can imagine that in future generations all our on computer images will be not only impossible to identify, but probably impossible to access/ retrieve.

[a-l]

I have just a couple of photos that can't be identified. I wrote on the backs of family photos from the older generations as soon as they told me who they were.
As for my own photos , as soon as I collected them from the chemist and reached home I wrote on them.

[josey]

but can imagine that in future generations all our on computer images will be not only impossible to identify, but probably impossible to access/ retrieve.

I find this probability very worrying....I am in the process of writing a 'digital will' with laptop password, folder & file locations of photos, family history files etc. to be printed  & filed with my will. However, accessing all the files will rely on my laptop [plus backup hard disk] being in technology contemporary with my death, in case I am not in a position to update as technology & digital storage evolves. I don't, but many people have so many pictures on their phones too.

I scanned the small suitcase of photos inherited from my mother, and have labelled the .jpg files with names as far as I knew them if not already written on back [and not many were]. 

[Bee]

Please label them with proper names and a date, even just an approximate year helps, unlike a younger relative that thought she was being helpful and labelled some as "me and grandma" and "me and granddad"

[ThrelfallYorky]

...are you sure that thoughtful younger relative wasn't related to my Mum?