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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: carom on Sunday 15 April 18 12:50 BST (UK)

Title: Helpful photo caption!
Post by: carom on Sunday 15 April 18 12:50 BST (UK)
Have just started going through a bag of old family photos belonging to my grandmother.
One shows a woman and collie standing in front of a car, probably late 1920's. Turning it over I found someone had written "wife, dog and car".
A lesson for us all!
Title: Re: Helpful photo caption!
Post by: River Tyne Lass on Sunday 15 April 18 12:56 BST (UK)
Unfortunately, there are no photos of my Grandfather (my Dad's Father) who died in 1932.

I remember as a child trying to get my Dad to describe to me what he had looked like so I could imagine him.  My Dad seemed to be thinking long and hard - then he looked up and said "Well, he looked like a man." ;D ;D

Title: Re: Helpful photo caption!
Post by: nanny jan on Sunday 15 April 18 12:58 BST (UK)
I have one like that; family group on the beach with Blackpool tower very visible in the background.......turn the photo over....."Blackpool".   ;D
Title: Re: Helpful photo caption!
Post by: Treetotal on Sunday 15 April 18 13:29 BST (UK)
I have one that says on the back "Me, Mother and next door neighbours"...an address would have helped.
Carol
Title: Re: Helpful photo caption!
Post by: Viktoria on Sunday 15 April 18 14:20 BST (UK)
My Mother in Law in her late   eighties went on holiday with her sister.
M in L had bought a little camera and as soon as they arrived at the seaside B&B she started to take pictures.
 They were hilarious:-The empty chair.
                                The wardrobe door.
                                Nellie was here.
                                 My left foot.
                                 My thumb.
                                 Well there was a seagull there when I picked up the camera .
                                  Nellie`s teeth. ::) ::) ::)
                                   What do you think of the carpet?
We had a good hour of laughter but eventually M inLaw became a bit embarrassed,which was not our intention.
We bought a nice album to put them in because at her age to go on holiday with someone even older was no mean feat in itself,and we admired her and eventually she again saw the funny side.
She had obviously not been aware the camera was taking snaps,well we think that is what happened.
                      Viktoria.
Title: Re: Helpful photo caption!
Post by: Pheno on Sunday 15 April 18 14:51 BST (UK)
Lots of years ago when I had just been given a camera we went on a family holiday to Dartmoor and I took lots of photos whilst we were there.

Came back, had them developed and wrote on the back of them, put them away never to see the light of day until recently.

On the back of the photo of the family group was nothing and on the back of a group of Dartmoor ponies was: Mum, Dad, Granny, Cousin, Sister etc   ;D ;D

Not much use for amateur genealogists in years to come.

Pheno
Title: Re: Helpful photo caption!
Post by: Viktoria on Sunday 15 April 18 15:10 BST (UK)
Pheno--- ;D ;D ;D ;D
                                   Viktoria.
Title: Re: Helpful photo caption!
Post by: Mike in Cumbria on Sunday 15 April 18 15:34 BST (UK)
I have one, taken by my Dad of his aunt, captioned "Taken 2 years ago".

Title: Re: Helpful photo caption!
Post by: Viktoria on Sunday 15 April 18 18:10 BST (UK)
Oh Mike,how helpful(?)  ;D ;D ;D ;D.  Viktoria.
Title: Re: Helpful photo caption!
Post by: Mike Morrell (NL) on Sunday 15 April 18 18:58 BST (UK)
Just a thought: do what you can!

 I too have many undated/unidentified family photos. My father (luckily) was pretty good in adding the dates of our family photos on the back. For some of the undated photos, at least I vaguely remember some of the people in them and I can make an educated guess at the approximate date. My children (now thirty-ish) have no memories of the people in these photos, would be be unable to identify the people in them or their family relationships to them. They have - at that age - little interest in genealogy.

So anything we can do to identify the people in photos, describe what we remember of them and what relationships they had with our family will be valuable by the time our children and grandchildren become interested in genealogy. For me this was aged 60. I wish I was interested at an earlier age so that I could ask my parents and grandparents about the people in my old family photos. But I wasn't and a lot of information has been lost.

I really do think that it's important that we record our personal memories and 'research' for future generations.
Title: Re: Helpful photo caption!
Post by: Treetotal on Sunday 15 April 18 19:09 BST (UK)
I have one, taken by my Dad of his aunt, captioned "Taken 2 years ago".


Easy...2016  :P ;D ;D ;D
Carol
Title: Re: Helpful photo caption!
Post by: Mike in Cumbria on Monday 16 April 18 10:04 BST (UK)
I have one, taken by my Dad of his aunt, captioned "Taken 2 years ago".


Easy...2016  :P ;D ;D ;D
Carol

Of course. Why didn't I think of that?
Title: Re: Helpful photo caption!
Post by: kiwihalfpint on Monday 16 April 18 10:39 BST (UK)
I have a small photo, guessing 1918 onwards, written on the back is Daisy and Buttercup, my father's family cows!    ;D ;D :D

About a year before my mother died (2002), she started naming the photos, so imagine my surprise when I came across one of my ggrandparents, after she died :D

Cheers
KHP
Title: Re: Helpful photo caption!
Post by: Gillg on Monday 16 April 18 15:04 BST (UK)
Several of mine have names like Auntie Vera, Cousin Sarah on the back - not very helpful unless you are very familiar with the family tree. Words like "my grandfather" also need a bit of clarification for others. I intend to go through them again and rename them with something like "Vera Smith, aunt of Mary Brown", but even that is not easy... You could end up writing an essay about the image
Title: Re: Helpful photo caption!
Post by: aghadowey on Monday 16 April 18 17:49 BST (UK)
Several old albums in the house have very 'helpful' captions- if only we knew who the albums had belonged to (even which family would be a start).

Probably the best one-
A postcard of an old man with "you'll know who this is" written on the back and addressed to great-great-uncle who died in 1936. Uncle Johnny probably did know who the man was but we have no clue  ::)