Time - The Identify Thief

A Guest Article - by My Sister Janet

Here is one of a series of articles that my sister wrote about a year ago for an online newsletter which is no longer published.

As someone who has inheirted (because no one, other than my sister, wanted to take them and my sister already had taken all that she could jam into her apartment) this is a topic that interests me greatly. While time consuming, this can provide hours of interesting detective work as well as the joy of solving the problem of who is who.

Thinking that HubPage readers might find this useful and enjoyable reading I have arranged to re-publish it here. Enjoy.

Chuck

What do you do with a Boxful of Old Photos with no Labels?

In the last newsletter I talked about the importance of labeling your photographs. So what do you do about that boxful of photographs from your grandmother's house that only have a few labels on them? If either of your grandparent's are still around, sit down with them and go through the photos. If they are gone, which they probably would be if you have their photos, what about any of their brothers or sisters? Your parents would be the next on the list to ask, followed by your siblings and cousins.

Time to Play Detective

If anyone can provide information on any of the photos, such as names, approximate dates, possible occasions, and the relationship of the people in the photo to you, it will be a great help. Even good guesses can be a start. If one person can say "I think that was the 4th of July picnic," you have a start. Go on to the next possible informant and ask if they can tell you who and what/where the photo is. If they can't, say "Aunt Sadie thought it might be so-and-so, or it might have been the 4th of July picnic." That may be enough to jog their memory, to either confirm or contradict the prior identification. They might say, "No, not the 4th of July picnic, but the Memorial (Decoration) Day picnic. I remember because..."

A Tape Recorder can be a useful Tool in This

This might be a good time to tape record their answers and memories. Contact them ahead of time to find a good time to sit down and go through some photos. Mention that you would like to tape record your conversation, if they don't mind, just in case your note-taking can't keep up with them. Very often pictures evoke other memories, such as "No, that's not the 4th of July picnic because on the 4th that year we did thus-and-so..." When you're tape recording, you should identify the photo, such as, "We're looking at a photo of two men and three ladies sitting on a blanket, with two children nearby." Then allow the person to talk through their identification of the photo. That way you will be able to go back to your notes and tape and make sure you have the correct photo. Don't be afraid to ask questions, such as, "How can you tell that's Bessie, and not Esther?"

Scanning the photo not only allows you to preserve and share the photo but enlarging a section can aid in identification.

The Stories could be a Real Bonus

Getting two or more people together to identify photos could lead to even more stories, as often one story leads to another and another, as they begin to reminisce. Just use your judgment about whether to cut them off at a certain point, or allow them to continue. Refrain from writing any information on the back of the photo until you have exhausted every source. Then if there are still questions as to identities, make sure you note that, such as "John Newman thinks this is Aunt Bessie Smith." If you have other photos of Bessie taken at about the same time, you may be able to compare them, or even identify them. Remember, though, that people can change hair styles and colors, gain or lose weight, grow or shave a beard/mustache. (Just another reason to identify your current photos as quickly as possible! Hint, hint!)

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Comments

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Mark Rollins says:
2 years ago

This is why my wife spends a lot of time scrapbooking.

Chuck says:
2 years ago

Mark, thanks for the comment. Identifying people in old photos can be a time consuming task and with digital photography it will only get more difficult given the cost of taking and storeing digital photos is nearly zero thereby enabeling people to take and save a lot more pictures.

Chuck

Debbie Cook says:
2 years ago

My mother-in-law is the historian in our family. I am amazed at how she remembers so much about so many people. Digital pictures are often not renamed once downloaded. At least they can be date identified - but we still need to take the time to give those photos somekind of identifiying names. Thank goodness for folders!

bobmnu says:
2 years ago

My father in Law is going thorugh his old photos and I am scanning them into the computer. I try to label the photo as complete as possible when I label them. It is geting more and more difficult. He has found photos taken back wehn his grandfater was a young man. These photos were taken with a Box Camera and the quality is not the greatest. Do you have more tips for dealing with old photos?

Chuck says:
2 years ago

Bobmnu - thanks for visiting my Hub and for your comment.

As to advice, first, as the article pointed out, check with other relatives, friends, etc. who may also have knowledge. These people don't necessarily have to be contemporaries of those in the photo. Instead they may have other old pictures of some of the same people and the people in those photos may be identified on those photos. They may also be able to tell you who these people are NOT thereby limiting the possibilities as to who they ARE.

The web can also be of help. Geneology (family history) ranks right up with pornography and religion in terms of having the greatest number of individual websites. In addition to numerous commercial and non-profit sites that host family histories there are also many individual sites all of which have pictures as well as letters and other information. There are also sites where you can ask for help from other people who may have information you are looking for. It wouldn't hurt to post a few of the pictures you are trying to identify on the help sections of some of these sites and ask if anyone can identify the people in the photo(s)

Also, look for anything written on the photo that might explain its origin. For instance, the the first photo that appears at the top of this Hub shows six people - two middle age adults, three young adults and one teenager. On the back of the photo was written "Reveno, PA" and the photo came from the home of my great-aunt Abbie who had continued to live at home and support her parents as an adult and who had inherited and kept their home after their deaths. She was my Mother's aunt and thus from the Corbett side of the family. The woman in the lower right corner bears a very close resemblence to pictures of my Aunt Abbie's mother (my great-grandmother). The gentleman next to her appears in other pictures with her taken at when she looked to be the same age as she is in the picture and he also has the same build as other pictures of my great-grandfather as an old man so it is easy to conclude that this man is my great-grandfather. I also know from what I heard in my youth from my Aunt Abbie and my mother, that my great-grandparents had 4 children - Robert, Abbie, Charles (my grandfather) and Harvey these facts are also documented in a one page biography of my great-grandfather found in an old book entitled History of Rochester and Monroe County N.Y. From Earliest Historic Times to the Beginning of 1907 and which I have transcribed and published on a RootsWeb page at: http://www.pa-roots.org/data/read.php?1110,410568 . From this I am able to deduce that the young woman is my great-aunt Abbie, the teenager on her left (upper right of the picture) her youngest brother, Harvey, and the other two (top and bottom left of the photo) her older brother Robert and my grandfather, Charles. I haven't yet been able to determine which of the two is my grandfather but am leaning toward the one in the lower left. Old letters, which I also have, confirm that the family, while they spent most of their lives in Rochester, New York, came from Pennsylvania and not only maintained close contact with the family back in Pennsylvania (some of whom lived in Reveno) through frequent letters but also traveled back there periodically (and the family there visited Rochester as well). So this is like a detective trying to solve a mystery and it can be fun as well as rewarding.

Thanks again for visiting and commenting. Chuck