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Write it down

Maybe not so much now but family photos, especially wedding photos, can disappear after an acrimonious divorce/split.

When my parents split a lot of photos must have been thrown out. I had a couple in which my mother was scribbled out but that's all.

I was lucky though that when my last great aunt died, some photos that must have been given to my great grandmother came in to my possession . They could easily have been thrown away.

I also wonder it there were photos from my nan's wedding that were thrown out when my grandad left her.
 
From the Goonshow. "What time is it Eccles"? "Just a minute, I've got it written down on a piece of paper." Brilliant.
Can't get YouTube video to load. Sorry
Like Emily Thornberry rummaging in her handbag on Question Time for some figure which she found. I loved it
 
Maybe not so much now but family photos, especially wedding photos, can disappear after an acrimonious divorce/split.

When my parents split a lot of photos must have been thrown out. I had a couple in which my mother was scribbled out but that's all.

I was lucky though that when my last great aunt died, some photos that must have been given to my great grandmother came in to my possession . They could easily have been thrown away.

I also wonder it there were photos from my nan's wedding that were thrown out when my grandad left her.
I have my Nan and Grandad's wedding photo. The rest she said her 2nd husband burnt and he said she did. I have them in my memory!
 
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When I worked for 25 years I received a carriage clock. My young boss wrote me a very bad corny poem as he knew I liked poetry whch I put in the back of the clock. Eventually I got the big heave ho but occa isionally I get it out and read it. I wrote a poem for a colleague to give to her best friend. They recently created a private workmates, Website, and she posted it on that and thanked me again. That was nice.
 
Usually the crooks with something to hide
Added later: This was posted concerning Pedrocuts comments on "the right to be forgotten"
 
I have just heard that some ordinary people plan to visit every cemetary in the UK maybe wider? and record every grave and classify them. This won't help the unmarked ones they will still be word of mouth.
 
I have a collection of letters written by my Mum & Dad from when they were walking out together before the war until Dad was discharged from the army. The letters could be scanned but there is also a physical/emotional context to them which would not be conveyed on line.
 
I have a collection of letters written by my Mum & Dad from when they were walking out together before the war until Dad was discharged from the army. The letters could be scanned but there is also a physical/emotional context to them which would not be conveyed on line.
Absolutely.
 
I have just heard that some ordinary people plan to visit every cemetary in the UK maybe wider? and record every grave and classify them. This won't help the unmarked ones they will still be word of mouth.
People already contribute to BillionGraves.com and FindAGrave.com etc. both free resources. Even stone tablets wear away, some faster than others.
 
Like so many of the BHF Forums, a simple query or suggestion becomes a major topic and always interesting and this one is no different, but it does reiterate something that I have said for years, on the back of that photo, postcard or piece of ephemera put in names, dates and locations where you can. As a postcard collector I have become aware that in the years between the wars a lot of photographers printed out photographs on card with postcard backs, strangely enough, a great many actually got postally used. If it was a topographical picture with auntie and uncle in the foreground, apart from the value as part of a family tree to the relatives, it also has value to the topographical collector because it shows something of the location that they are interested in. I have such a card, showing a wedding party in the street outside a house. No indication of the location, but I luckily recognised it and bought it for my collection, quite a find. I do not know who the people are, but I know exactly where they are. Make WRITE IT DOWN your mantra, catalogue those old pictures, even those colour ones that have faded.

Bob
 
Having just found a lot of old photographs that had not seen the light of day for many a decade, could I suggest that we ask our relatives if they know who they are of, whilst they are still with us to answer the question and then write that information on the back of those old photographs?

I was able to remember who a lot of them were of, having previously asked my grandmother (I'm even on a fair few), but there were some dating back to the start of the last century that had me stumped. If only I had asked and then written the answers on the back of them...
 
I found an oldish camera that was possibly my mom's with half a used film in it. I wasn't sure if I should but I finished of the roll and went to get it developed.

I was told however that no one developed that type of film anymore, so it's now on a shelf.
 
As a postcard collector I have become aware that in the years between the wars a lot of photographers printed out photographs on card with postcard backs, strangely enough, a great many actually got postally used.

Bob
I recently obtained some photos that were mostly labelled on the back, not always correctly. (In particular one of a lady was said to be of an aunt - non-blood - but I would put money on it being the mother of the writer as his son was a dead-ringer for her). There is one on a post card, a note on the back implies it was the writer's grandmother, but who was she? Couldn't find her on the census. Had she re-married? The most likely person, but with low confidence, was called 'Tait'. Searched the web for that. Pulled out one of those 'gold dust' transcriptions of a memorial that lists half the family. Right at the bottom was a widow that had re-married - original surname for my candidate 'Tait' - deathplace given as the village shop. Back to the postcard - a village shop, nameboard 'Tait' over the door. Back to the census, a whole lot of sibblings and half sibblings of the writer's mother that I expect he never knew about.

Something that I probably should do is make low-res. scans of the front/rear of mounted photographs. I do tend to crop them if I use them on the web but information about the mount can sometimes provide dates (beware of re-photographed or re-mounted photos though).
 
Perhaps try a local photographic club - someone there may still use film.
Not sure where you tried but there is a suggestion Max Spielman do develop film.

Will check it out. Thanks.
 
The discussions in this thread remind of a day about 18 months ago when the Shoothill collection of about 1000 digital images of old Birmingham disappeared in a puff of azure blue. I suppose we assumed they would be there forever ...

Shoothill (on behalf of Birmingham Library) used Microsoft's Deep Zoom technology to make the images easily searched and viewable. I presume the original prints are presently stored in the library archives but it has never been clear whether the library has digital images.

Over time about 250 of the images had been copied and posted on the BHF.

The link below goes to a post which has links to all the images below. Click the links or use the pdf.
All browsers work ...
 
I found an oldish camera that was possibly my mom's with half a used film in it. I wasn't sure if I should but I finished of the roll and went to get it developed.

I was told however that no one developed that type of film anymore, so it's now on a shelf.
MWS, there are people that will develop that for you, specially photographers. I have an Agfa camera that I bought from a camera shop on Wellington rd just off from Birchfield road in 1960. I used it a little when I came to the US in 1962. Having just moved we found it with a partial roll in it. My first reaction was the same as you then I started looking because I was curious, I quickly found 3 or 4 people that can do that. You might be suprised, good luck!
 
Save the negatives and slides. Great pictures can be created from them, much better than a scan of the picture.
I would scan everything you can in the highest resolution your scanner will go. Even if you save a hard copy of everything over time we revise normal aging deterioration. Scanners and remote hard drives are inexpensive.

My wife was the saver of photos, she used to buy those big books to keep the photos in (we still have many) and they are not in expensive. Now I scan as many as possible or save from the SD card Os save both.
As someone said in an earlier post relating to person letters, totally agree but run it through the scanner it won’t be quite the same but if it’s that significant you will have an extra copy!

I started doing this VERY late and regardless there are so many photos and letters we missed. On my wife’s side there are many more photo memories. I would say take multiple paths, save them, scan them and print them but do it now :)
 
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