Finding photos of ancestors online

[MacGrigor]

Hello,

Just a general enquiry out of curiousity.

How have Rootschatters fared finding photos of ancestors online? My personal experience hasn't been very fruitful, barring finding one low-quality image of my 3x great-grandad, George Streater (1821 - 1893). This was on Ancestry.

Adam

[DavidG02]

I found a photo online that I knew was on my grandmothers mantlepiece before she died (1990s) in a page by a distant 2nd cousin

There may have been a duplicate but it shocked me at the time.

[MacGrigor]

Gosh! How exciting!

[lizdb]

I would never expect, or really even think of, finding a photo online. 
Yes, I have very occasionally found them attached to various trees on Ancestry, and therefore if I am happy the tree is correct then they are of interest.  More often than not though the tree doesnt hold together, so no way of knowing if the picture of the alleged person is correct or not!
But generally the case is that in more recent times, when there are more photos about, then I am in touch with the cousins etc who may have them. Or I already have them of my parents/grandparents and occasional one of great grandparents. Going back to older generations (where there may be mutual descendents around that I am not aware of or in touch with) then generally photos were a rarity and most people went through life without ever having one taken.

[chirp]

Some years ago I was in touch with a researcher on Ancestry who is a descendant of my great grandmother's sister.  He was able to provide a couple of photos of their mother, my 2xgt grandmother, which was lovely. Interestingly on one of the images I could see that she was wearing a brooch which my grandmother had given me many years ago and which I thought had come from her mother. Until I saw the photo I did not know that in fact it had been worn a generation before by my 2xgt grandma. I still have the brooch in a little glass cabinet of family treasures.

[Mart 'n' Al]

Not so much family photographs, but eBay is a good place for finding old photographs of towns and streets. You can either buy them or  you can right click on the image and save it, purely as a backup in case the seller loses it... Even if it's got a watermark over it it's better than nothing.

Martin

[MacGrigor]

Lizdb,

I felt the same, it was never something that really occurred to me either. I only stumbled across my one by accident. But yes, I'm interested to hear what others' experiences are: whether they stumbled upon pictures like me.

Chirp,

What a lovely photo! That's very fortunate to come across. A good find indeed.

Martin,

Yes, I am currently looking into buying old photos of streets. Obviously censuses give exact addresses so I'm looking for some.

[Chilternbirder]

There is a lovely photo online of the street where my g grandparents lived in 1901, sadly the photographer was standing with his back to their house.

I have never found photos of individuals but have found two paintings, one of a direct ancestor and one of my ggg uncle.

[Nanna52]

My cousin Edwin was an actor so there have been a couple of him around, one on eBay Martin, it had sold, and some in papers.
His father was artistic and I found a painting he had done online, it is in a museum in Cornwall.
Another cousin killed in WW1 had a picture in the local paper.
Another cousin was in the merchant navy and I have a photo of him, from FindMyPast, on his papers.
My father served in WW2 and his unit is still close knit.  They have their own website and I have found my father in some photos there.  He looked so different.  There was also a photo of him on the Australian War Memorial site, but we already had a copy of that. 
One distant relative found a photo of her great grandmother that I had put on here to be restored.  It had been sent as a postcard to my grandmother.  She said no-one in the family had seen that photo before.