Old family photographs

[AngelFish]

I have just been given a box of wonderful old photographs, some of them I think early 1800's.  I know they are all (or mostly) my relations/ancestors, but it's so sad but they do not have names on them   

I can recognise some people in more than one photograph, and I have an idea of which family name some of them are from, but that is all.  I find it so sad, I'd love to be able to put the faces to the names.  I'm certain I can't be the only person who has had this problem.

I think most of the families will be from the Gosberton area, and probably include the family names of Wood, Haresign, Inkley, and possibly Draper, Smith (of Rippingale), Kennerall.

I know no one will be able to help, I just thought I'd share my sadness 

Angelfish

[Glen in Tinsel Kni]

Might be worth contacting the local newspaper (local to the area the subjects of the photos lived), as many local papers now seem to run "then and now" articles regularly perhaps they would be interested in them, that might spark some interest and information from someone who sees anything printed?

[Glen in Tinsel Kni]

And photo hosting sites such as Flickr are worth using too, add tags with known name, locations etc and the images will come up in google searches.

Try an image search for Goulson and see if you can find any of mine to see how it works.

[Nottschick]

Good idea about the local paper.  If you don't know it - Spalding Free Press and Guardian, The Crescent, Spalding.   They often print photos like you described and you'd be amazed what information is found. 


I live a short way from Gosberton and all the surnames are familiar except Kennerall. 

NC. 

[AngelFish]

I don't live that far away myself, but I don't know any local people who might already have pictures to compare mine against or who might look through them with me.

[CelticAnnie]

Hi Angelfish!

Like you, I am blessed with becoming custodian of a great many family photos -- some loose, but most contained in two Victorian/Edwardian photo albums.  Of course, as with yours, few have names helpfully written on the back.  I am a little luckier than you, however, in that older relatives (now deceased) helpfully identified a few of them. 

But don't despair! You'll be surprised how much can be deduced.  There's a lot of help to be had on this site in terms of dating photographs, which is a useful first step towards identifying subjects.  Also look at the backs -- were any taken in photographer's studios?  That can suggest where subjects were living at the time.  Do you have many photographs taken in the same studio?  That may suggest they are of members of the same family. 

Once you do all this analysis (mine is still very much ongoing!) and then start setting all this in the context of individuals on your family tree, you may find you are able to make tentative identifications of at least some photos after all!

Good luck with it.


Celtic Annie.

[Redroger]

With my grandparents' wedding photo I was able to make tentative identifications of some of the couples by searching for their earlier weddings, a little speculative and not always successful, but it reduced the number of unknowns.

[jane l]

All your names are on trees in anc**try in the  Lincolnshire area so you may be lucky=mary haresign 1831 gosberton =mother mary kennerall 1800 sometimes you find photos on here. last year i managed to identify a photo for a lady on a web site for the isle of wight so don't give up there are many things you could try -lots of web sites etc and you could always put a few on here you never know what might turn up.
jane l

[hwilson90]

I have the same problem. Fortunately some of the photos have been identified by elderly relatives, however I have a few that can only be guessed. It's especially annoying when I can see a clear resemblance to someone in my family now. Some good ideas have been given in this thread though