RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: MacGrigor on Thursday 10 May 18 11:03 BST (UK)
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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
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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.
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Gosh! How exciting!
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Beware of photos attached to family trees. A relative had an odd photo, found on an Ancestry tree, of my relative David Adkins (1859-1950) - oddly dressed, strange face, very short and stocky - that didn't look like him in a photo in which he's named on Windows on Warwickshire when he was an old man - admittedly he was short, but proportionate.
Closer examination showed outsize shamrocks. I think it was a cropped postcard of someone dressed as a leprechaun!
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I have a relative who was in the RAF and was shot down and killed in April 1918. I have researched his regiment etc to see if I could find a photo but nothing. I then found out where he was educated and went to their site and found a school photo of him.
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Nanna52,, unless the listing was particularly old you should be able to find it on eBay, click on the image to enlarge it, then right click and save it.
Whenever I see those old traditional school photographs in charity shops or at Fairs, I always think that someone somewhere would love that. There ought to be a website to reunite old photographs with the family. There's an idea for someone.
Martin
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I've sometimes found some photos of interest just by Searching via Google Images - a name and/or a location, and I've picked up several that way.
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I have found lots of photos on line, probably dozens, especially searching in college and high school yearbooks. I've also found several pictures of houses occupied by ancestors. Here's an example from the University of Oregon, 1902. My grandmother is fourth from the left in the middle row. She was in several other university photos, as well.
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I search everywhere and am known as the family archivist ;D
My cousin and I spent today going through some pics she has and oh how lovely to see .. Our Gran bless her looking beautiful just before she sadly died early
some great pics.. Car boots are a good source.. as well.
xin
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Martin I did that as soon as I saw it. It was the first photo I saw of him. Missed the listing by less than a month.
Erato that is a lovely photo with your mother in.
Xin I have various photos that I have no idea who are in them and unfortunately no-one to ask.
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Nanna52,, unless the listing was particularly old you should be able to find it on eBay, click on the image to enlarge it, then right click and save it.
Whenever I see those old traditional school photographs in charity shops or at Fairs, I always think that someone somewhere would love that. There ought to be a website to reunite old photographs with the family. There's an idea for someone.
Martin
Done!! Here you go Martin - it's even searchable .... 👍 https://www.ancientfaces.com
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I have absolutely no photographs of my grandparents (on my fathers side) or any previous generations. I asked a question about 2 years ago on Rootschat as my grandfather and his brother weren't on the 1901 census. About 6 months later I got an email from a lady who had been married to a 2nd cousin of mine (sadly now deceased), who had found the question, and found out that he has a brother who is still alive and well. Not only was it a thrill finding a 2nd cousin but when we got in touch he supplied me with photos of our great grandparents and my great uncle (and family). I'm heading back to the UK shortly and we have promised to catch up and I can return a favour by showing him our great grandparents grave which I found on my last visit to the UK.
I can only thank the powers of Rootschat for making all of this possible, I suppose this can be classified as finding photographs of ancestors online!!
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I found a website of my fathers old school and it had a couple of school photos on it. One was for 1917 which was my fathers last year at school. Looking through the photo I saw him straight away, such a nice feeling to see the earliest photo of him (aged 17) as the earliest one of him previously is one of him in uniform during the 2nd WW. Ah the power of the internet.
Isn't it strange in this day of 'selfies' and mobile phone cameras photographs are all over the place. I have got hundreds of photos of my children growing up yet only about 12 of me between birth and into my teenage years, my parents didn't own a camera and the only ones of me were taken by friends/relatives.
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I have found group photos of soldiers with two ancestors, both who died in WW1.
The first one was on an auction website when his commanding officer's medals came up for sale recently with a photo of junior officers under his command.
The second is in the collection of a regimental museum.
However, I have had no luck in finding any photos taken by the youngest brother of my great grandmother. His occupation was photographer.
Tony
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I should clarify.
I was shocked to see the photo I mentioned above but I was also happy to see it. As to other ancestors, I have found some in books and some online. Its a nice feeling, especially when there is a strong family resemblance ie my ggggrandfather looks so like my grandfather.
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Jaybelnz, thanks. I'd forgotten about ancient faces.
Martin
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Ancient Faces has so little UK stuff
xin
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Not strictly a photograph but searching for possible paintings done by my 3x grandfather i found one on a website project done by the BBC to catalogue all paintings held in museums and art galleries. As I live the other side of the country from the museum/art gallery it was an unexpected find. Especially as it is one that isn't on display but in storage. ;)
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I found a picture of my great, great grandparents online. My grandmother recognised them as being her grandparents (I think she had seen that same photograph when she was little)
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Iv been quite lucky iv found a couple on face book community sites and found relatives in the process always worth a try. ;)
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Yes Jacky _d, lots of that type of group on Facebook. I have joined up with an Irish one, a Scottish one, and a NZ one - met lots of living rellies through it too, which is a real bonus!
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Not strictly a photograph but searching for possible paintings done by my 3x grandfather i found one on a website project done by the BBC to catalogue all paintings held in museums and art galleries. As I live the other side of the country from the museum/art gallery it was an unexpected find. Especially as it is one that isn't on display but in storage. ;)
That's how I found the painting done by my 2X great uncle Edwyn mumjo.
Must search Facebook for those communities. Sounds interesting.
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I bought a copy of a photo I found quite by chance on the Picture Sheffield website.It shows my husband's Great Grandfather standing outside his jewellery shop with his family.Including my husband's Grandfather as a small boy who went on to lose the business by "drinking away the profits" He then abandoned his wife and 4 children,including my MIL and joined the Merchant Navy. This was obviously why she put him down as deceased on her marriage certificate,though I didn't find out until I had spent hours searching for his death and why she was so anti drink.
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Just came across this
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-44108230
xin
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https://lynnswaffles.com/2018/05/15/dozens-of-old-photos-but-who-do-they-belong-to-any-ideas/
shorturl.at/flsuB
another one :)
all worth a browse
xin
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There is a tree on Ancestry which has my mother's cousin and her parents' photo on it. As far as I can see the family tree belongs to a totally different family of the same name! I cannot trace any relationship between them and my mother's cousin whatsoever, so wonder where they got the photo from.
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If you Google -Picture The Past- -- you will get many different areas and photos, it even bring up some YouTube old photos and areas. 👍
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You can also sometimes find useful photos by searching for historical photos + the name of the town where your ancestors lived. For example, I searched for "historical photos endeavor wisconsin" and came up with two interesting items. 1) A current photo of Logan Hall which was built in 1890 and named after my g-grandfather. It was the first building of the Endeavor Christian Academy, founded by my ancestors, and is now a private residence. 2) Two very crude sketch maps of the location of the Indian effigy mounds located around the village. In about 1888, when my grandfather was 14, he was hired to drive the wagon for a visiting anthropologist and to assist him in measuring and mapping the mounds. One of the maps shows the location of three burials that were discovered in the front yard of gg-uncle Cecil Chapman in 1901.
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I know I am becoming forgetful -
But who was it ON HERE that collected Photos and had a lovely photographs site??
One of the earlier Rootschatters
She had a smashing off line album.
sorry but have forgotten who now..
If you go onto Ebay and generally on FB Pages sites... like the area you were born - or they were born - then often pics come up and there is always a chance it may be a rellie.
Xin
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I found my late mother-in-law on ebay, she was the picture on the front cover of a booklet about the house in which she lived!
Linda
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I know I am becoming forgetful -
But who was it ON HERE that collected Photos and had a lovely photographs site??
One of the earlier Rootschatters
She had a smashing off line album.
sorry but have forgotten who now..
If you go onto Ebay and generally on FB Pages sites... like the area you were born - or they were born - then often pics come up and there is always a chance it may be a rellie.
Xin
Yes Xin, I've joined up with a number of those Facebook groups, they're pretty amazing for family, locations etc, and I've added quite a few myself, and some have even connected me with other familiy members!