Add Dates
Add dates to your photos. Don't write across the back of faces. Write on the backing of the white edging strip, or stick on a label on the back. or label a paper cover.
Add Names
You know who you are. You know the names of your parents. But twenty or thirty, or forty years later, after the bride and groom no longer have living parents, it becomes increasingly difficult to remember names. How was the name spelled? Did they have a middle name? Was their nicknme their real name? In England names sometimes do not convey relationships. Junior and senior can lead to confusion. The Chinese give their children names which identify their order of birth. Maternal uncles are called by a different name to paternal uncles. Clarify whatever you can, whilst the older members of the family are still alive and remember clearly.
Add Personal Details
Personal Story One - Clothes Dating Wedding Photos
An elderly relative by marriage came to talk to me at a relative's 80th birthday party. He showed me about a hundred photos of people I didn't know. Many were old wedding photos.
Finally, a photo of a couple he couldn't identify. "I don't suppose you want to see these," he said,
I smiled politely, and looked down.
I gasped. "That's my parents!
"Are you sure?"
"Of course. I know my parents."
"I wonder what it's doing with all these wedding photos."
"It's their wedding photo."
"It can't be. She's not wearing white."
"Firstly, it's wartime, and white was in short supply. Secondly, it's her second marriage. Her first husband was killed in the war. So she's not wearing white."
"Oh. Would you like the photo?"
"Oh, please. YES. Thank you!"
So I could tell a lot from that unlabelled photo.The people. The date. The reason for the style of dress. Why my father is wearing a top hat and a buttonhole. Why the bride is not in white."
Finding Family Photos For A Funeral
When my mother died, I wanted a photo to display at the funeral and on the dining table afterwards. The night before, I sat with my father, going through photo albums. A few of the photos had dates. A few had placenames. Most had neither.
Who were the people photogrpahed with my parents? Were they important family, and good friends or merely bystanders?
That was a long time ago.
I remembered being with my father after my mother died. I wanted one great photo for the funeral. We went through a shoe box of photo folders.
I was able to fill in several features of groups of photos. Sometimes my father could remember the year, or the season. If I filled in the details for one picture, that helped me identify others. If my mother was wearing a pink dress one year and one location, the adjacent photo of her in the same dress was prbobly the same year and the same place. Unless they were on a tour or a cruise or driving holiday. But hostly they stayed in the same place.
I decided to do some house clearance. I am in my late seventies. Even if I manage to stay in my house for the rest of my life, I need to throw away a lot of things and keep only those which are essential to my family history.
Photos of people nobody knows will be thrown away. One day my grand-daughter might think, I wish I had a photo of my great garndparents.
House Clearance Of Photos
I am now carefully labelling all my photos. That one photo of my parents' wedding is very important to me. My grand-daughter has a wedding photo of her great- grandmother in 1943.
But this week I got out a photo album. I had inherited it from my father after he died, or took it from him after my mother died.
Who were the small figures in the photos? One small female in pink kept appearing. Were teeny solitary figures my mother?
Some people might think that old photos of important buildings should be kept. But the\ose of your granny are of no interest. I take the opposite view.
So what do I do? Throw away all the photos?
No, not yet. Even if I were to load them up online before binning or losing, at least I would have a record of names and dates and places.
Colouring Photos
You can brighten old photos with colour.
Useful Websites
https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/Colorizing-Black-White-Photos?language=en_US
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