Old Family Photos

For my Daughter's 21st birthday I presented her with an album "Your first 21 years", having sorted through copious boxes of family photos since her birth. While doing that I organised all the folders into years so when it came to my Son's 21st his album was much easier to make up. I also included such special certificates, Swimming, Guides, Scouts, D of E with badges, etc. They both love them.
Recently had a good sort out of (now deceased) parents' old photos and destroyed all that meant nothing and kept only a few good ones, dating and naming where possible for when I am no longer around .

Some years ago I binned any photos of unknown people or places, the rest, some in albums are with my daughter, up to her and my son what they do now.
All my photos of the last fifteen years or so are online.

And use pencil, not pen which can damage the photo.

For heaven's sake, everyone - please label photos! I've got some from my mother's belongings who are definitely relatives judging by the family resemblance, but no idea of names!
With digital, do something similar

I threw away all my albums. I kept the photos of people and special occasions. Initially they were in envelopes - one for each year. then I bought four large albums and put all the photos in them, in chronological order and all labelled so my DC and GC know who their ancestors were and what they looked like. the fourth album isn’t complete and I still add photos eg DHs 80th birthday or the rare night when GD had dinner with both grand fathers.

I did this last year with my parents photos and my grandparents’ photos and slides; there were 1000s. I looked at everything (also inherited a slide viewer) and then binned anything where I knew neither the people or the location. I didn’t feel guilty at all.

I went through all my photos last week and sorted them into 2 boxes . On the back of some photos the names of the people as my children wouldn't know who they are . One box is for my daughter and family when I die. The other for my grandsons by my son and daughter in law. My son estranged me 5 years ago his choice I never saw it coming plus he did it via email and letter.

Hopefully my daughter will beable to get the box to my 3 grandson's. I only know the oldest 2. But I have no intention of dieing for 10+ years .

I did throw about ones who I didn't know , scenery and ones that where tatty. It's done now so I will never have to do it again .

My photos (and there are more than I thought) are scattered in different places, boxes and drawers around the house. I always planned to put them in albums, but only managed to fill a few. However I discovered that I enjoy finding the odd one here and there much more than looking through an album, which can get overwhelming. One in isolation seems much more interesting, especially with a magnifying glass so you can see all the details. I especially like looking at brickwork, roof tiles etc. and thinking I am seeing more than the people in the scene noticed themselves at the time, which feels like a sort of time travel. (I am probably autistic.)

I am a passionate genealogist and have spent years visiting distant relatives who have eventually identified most of the people I didn't know. I have written up my family history and included photos, records and artefacts.
During lockdown I made it my mission to archive everything in acid free boxes, wallets and tissue. I have labelled everything too. In my "death folder" I have requested that all the material is taken to relevant archives rather than binned or taken to charity shops, and my son's say they will do this for me if there is no one to take over my genealogy hobby.
I know this is not for everyone but it seems so sad to me that these people are forgotten.

I have just got rid of photo slides. All scenery which I can’t identify. Slides have only a very small space on which to write and impossible if they are plastic cased. There are several duplicates of gravestones.

How sad I feel to read about all these old family photos being dumped.Does social history not have a place in today's world?Over time I have had same problem receiving collections of old photos and have taken up the fascinating hobby of scrapbooking.Take a look on pinterest and see what you can do.My family love looking through the decorated albums as opposed to a tin of old photos.

When my mother died, I parked them all, but in contacting folks in her address book, I made contact with my late cousin's ex. About 2 years later she wrote and asked for his family tree for her son's school project.
I started going through her photo box. Between my other cousins and I we have identified quite a few.
As we live quite far apart, I have scanned and shared. I have also posted a few of groups where she lived, where I was born and to wartime pages, where they have been welcomed.
But while very interesting, it is hugely time consuming.

The only solution I can think of was that I joined a genealogy online site and uploaded photos under the family members - or with unknown groups, just add a note with any info you know or think to be correct.
I don't know how long these sites will stay active, but I would hope for a reasonable time.

I think this topic is very sad, and a loss to (social) history.
Also the fleeting nature of cloud stored, multiple, singular digital photos will, I'm afraid, also be a loss in future - not to mention AI digital editing distorting how things really are.

How sad I feel to read about all these old family photos being dumped.Does social history not have a place in today's world?Over time i have had same problem receiving collections of old photos and have taken up the fascinating hobby of scrapbooking.Take a look on
Pinterest and see what you can do.My family love looking at the decorated books as opposed to a tin of old photos.

I gave a lot of family photos to a relative..then decided to do the family tree..please don't bin photos .I now know how valuable they are to fill in our Ancestry information.
It often, as it did in my case doesn't become an interest til late in life. I'm 87 and just today recieved pictures from a kind person who tool pictures of my late husband's Great Grandmother's grave..

If there are any of particular interest, like I have a person in a disabled bath chair with hand pedals, or an ancient rare embossed metal (monochrome) photo print, or scenes from a known place like the Glasgow 190x exhibition where my uncle was a student on a horse drawn tram, then maybe an historical society, museum or exhibition might be interested.

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I found this photo at my mums when she died. I’d never seen it before. Thankfully there was a surviving family member who was able to tell me who everyone was. I would have hated looking at it but having no knowledge of who the people were. And, thanks to the internet I was able to find out which football team was in a photograph I bought from a charity shop!

As a genealogist, I am saddened to hear of very old photographs being dumped. I also have lot of slides from 1960/70's and it is quite pricey to have them digitalised or printed. I was forced to go thru parents collections with a time deadline. I had to travel abroad in covid times and house had to be cleared for sale. Quite a chore, yes dumped many holiday scenes and there were a lot of duplicates due to the custom back then of getting a cheap second set.

I've yet to properly sort out my old photos but I have made a start by throwing out all photos of views and places with no people in them.
Thankfully my Mum insisted on writing the names of everyone in photos on the back 'because one day you might want reminding', a habit I have copied. She also did that to old photos she inherited, so I have the names of every person in the photographs, but not always who they are in relation to me...............!!
I'm intending to take photos of the photos with my i.pad and then turn them into photo books in a chronological order. That's my plan anyway................

My late husband loved to take slides. That was a very popular thing back around the 60's-80's. The trouble is, I now have boxes and notebooks filled with probably thousands of slides!
I digitized some of the best and printed paper copies, which are in an album. But there are still so many that I haven't gotten to!

I've gotten pretty hard hearted about throwing out most of the scenery ones. I only keep the pictures of people. Nobody wants to look at scenery of someone else's vacation, no matter how nice. I just disposed of the Grand Canyon yesterday.

I have 1 photo if my GM on my mother's side and one that has my GF on my father's side in it. There are very few with my inlaws and only wedding pictures of my siblings. Masses of my own family pictures and my children will recognise all of those. Think sorting them out will be a job for the autumn/winter. Over recent years photos have been stored on line. Just a word of warning, if tge online stirage is not in your name and you want it changed to you say after a bereavement it's impossible to do due to data protection laws ie there may be someone in a photo who wouldn't want you to see them. Sent in marriage, death certs but not acceptsble. Only way I got round this was changing a/c to my email address and it works. I can access all.

My sister cut all the good photos she had and made them into a photo collage in a frame, obviously people she knew, then she put it on her wall. It is lovely to look at and she is copying them for her two adult children. I am in the process of doing the same with my photos, why keep photos in an album or box.

I too have also been sorting out boxes and boxes of photos. I’ve discarded a lot with people who we’ve either lost contact with or can’t remember who they are so my family will have no idea either. I have two Victorian photo albums one from my mum’s side and one from my dad’s. Unfortunately they came to me from other family members after my parents had passed away so I have no one to ask who the people are. But a lot of the photos show adults and children in their ‘best’ clothing and are interesting if only for the fashions. I really don’t know if my children will want them after I’ve gone 😬

A few years ago I did go through boxes and boxes of photos and managed to whittle them down to one huge plastic box full. Now I have quite a few more after various relatives have passed away and probably need to go through them again. A lot of them will have my late husband on so I'm loathe to do this as I don't think I'll be able to discard any of those but as has been said will anybody want them or will they just end up in a loft somewhere because children won't want to throw them away either. Maybe I should just dump the whole lot in the bin and save the next generation the bother?

I have some old photos from my Dad, he was a professional photographer, but I have 4 large plastic storage boxes full of photos that I have taken, I got my first camera when I was 5 so plenty from my early years. In the 80s I worked at a photo processing company where I got all my films free, and photos produced free, so I have thousands from that time.

A few weeeks ago 2 of my daughters came round and decided to start delving into the boxes, I said that I hoped to have them all sorted out before I die so that they won't have to do it after I'm gone and they begged me to leave them so that they could do it themselves. So I know what I'm doing with all mine. Thanks kids.