An Album of Unknown Photographs

[PrueM]

Hi JJ 
Although it might seem the antithesis of good conservation principles, actually writing on the back is the only way to ensure that the information stays with the photograph.
Use a soft-ish pencil such as a B or 2B, and write gently, without pressing too hard. 
 
Prue

[Mamacrystal]

My way around it, is to make copies of the photos, & write on the back of those with a 5B pencil. Serves 2 purposes..... one, you have pictures identified.... two, there is more than one copy, and if they're stored in different places their chance of survival is greater.
For instance I have one copy of "important" photos, and my daughter who lives in another State has the other..... oh and I also share copies with relatives.
De

[possum_pie]

Fantastic idea!!  Had pondered it myself, but knew fine I'd never get round to it!!  I have several for you... will scan them and send them over.

[lily-pond]

I have done the same thing a couple of years ago with all the unidentified people in my collection.I think they all come from the Brighton area,or at least stem from there,some photo's were taken in Canada.
www.brightonpeople.piczo.com

[J.J.]

By the way, Mamacrystal ...I like that you pass photo copies around to family...It makes me crazy when a family member hangs on to them like they are theirs alone and don't share...It's like growing perrennials and sharing with others...If yours are lost, they can always be replaced. A friend of my mothers said that in the house fire, they lost every possession, but the only thing she regretted the loss of was all her photographs and negs...  J.J.

[possum_pie]

Just wanted to say that I sent one of mine to a paper, local to the area where I believed the people to be from, and got several replies.  One reply was very useful indeed, and another which might have been, but the woman was to afraid to tell me anything as there had been a rift in the family, but she had been married to one of them!  Frustrating or what!!!!!! 

[millymcb]

Before my grandmother died about 20 years ago (I think it was when her alzheimers started to set in) she went through all her old family photos and wrote what she knew on the back about who they were, where and when they were taken....lovely photos of her in the 1920s out "courting" with my grandfather and notes like "Oh Happy Days".  And older ones of her as a child and all her family.  She also kept letters and postcards.

I'm so grateful to her now that I have been going through them working out who everyone is.

 

Milly

[doverrog]

Don't forget there's also Rootschat's Victorian photos website:

www.victorian-photos.rootschat.net

I haven't updated it in a while, but I have contributions now from a couple of people which have to be put up.
 
Prue
Hi. Like us all, I have unidentified photos of ancestors. I've also recently discovered a couple of oil paintings of ancestors which I'm trying to identify (see other site postings). I wonder if this site should/could expand to include all pictures of ancestors, including paintings?
What do you think?
I've attached an 'unknown' relative photo which I believe could be of a member of the Hills family who lived in the East Kent area. The photographer is Alexander J. Grossmann of Dover. Interesting to see that he says he is Patronized by H.R.H. Prince Arthur!

[doverrog]

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