What to do with your old family photos? 10 steps to do well
You have just put your hands on many family photos but you don't know where to start to manage them? We guide you in 10 steps!
©️Geneafinder
In summary:
1 - Keep only the interesting photos
2 - Sort the photos by family
3 - Date the photos
4 - Identify the protagonists
5 - Annotate the photos and keep notes
6 - Big photos to preserve them from the effects of time
7 - Name the photos to better find them
8 - Keep the photos in a digital and paper folder
9 - Share the photos and transmit family history
10 - Anticipate for the photos you will leave behind you
If it is not always easy to find family photos for many reasons, it is important to manage them well to see more clearly, to take advantage of these treasures and to better transmit them.
1 - Keep only the interesting photos
This is the first most useful sorting when you just recovered a large number of photos. So you can separate from unusable photos - unnate blur photos, landscape photos (often from vacation) not annotated (unless there is an interesting home or other detail) as well as very damaged and non -recoverable photos.
Gather the photos in doubles or photos of the same event. You can then choose to keep the better quality view.
S’il est trop difficile de jeter ces unusable photos par peur des remords, vous pouvez les scanner ou les prendre en photos pour en conserver une copie numérique « au cas où ». Notez aussi que si certaines photos ne vous intéressent pas, elles pourraient intéresser vos collatéraux (frères, soeurs, cousin.es…).
Do not throw away the unknown photos.
2 - Sort the photos by family
If you are rather lucky and your different branches have taken care to leave you many photos, you will need them sort by family To avoid blunders when identifying the protagonists. This will make your task easier to recognize members of these families in the photos.
3 - Date the photos
A par with the identification of people in the photo, this task is far from obvious. If no annotation has been left in the photo, you will have to go in search of more precise indices.
Here is a list of online resources that can guide you in the dating of your photos according to their format, color, thickness, but also clothes, hairstyles and poses of your ancestors - so take your rule and your magnifying glass, let's go:
- Genea -Logiques - Date a photo between 1840 and 1930
- Guy Joli - Photography in the 19th century (1850-1920)
- Annick Taisne - Recognize and date the photos
- Nicole - How to date old photographs?
- Pierre Connolly - Identify your old photos
- Memoirs and story of Beynes - How to date an old photograph
4 - Identify the protagonists
Unfortunately, not everyone has the chance to find or recover old photos annotated with dates, names or even places. This is where your survey work begins to search for the slightest index:
- First of all and this is the first step, Ask questions to your elders. If memory has remained, then they will help you put names on faces. These testimonies are precious so do not skimp on the means, take a notebook and note all the anecdotes linked to the photo or the person in the photo.
- Pay attention to the little details and cross the photos : vous avez remarqué un petit point au stylo au dessus d’une personne sur une grande photo de mariage mais il n’y a pas de nom ? Cela mérite de creuser ! Au même titre qu’un « Moi » inscrit sur une photo, tous ces indices vous donne des visages à retrouver, des visages « importants » pour votre branche familiale.
A face is already a big clue! You will only have to cross all your photos (preferably annotations) to go in search of common physical details allowing you to find an ancestor year after year or at least members of the same family (thank you genetics).
Other details to look at: clothes, hairstyles and accessories. These can help you identify an ancestor with a very distinct profession, to spot a mourning woman or to identify with certainty the only girl of the siblings to wear glasses.
- Then look for clues to the location : Knowing the place can refer you to the people in the photo. These clues can correspond to the photographer's stamp (which can also help you date the photo) or a mention on a building or a panel.
Also pay attention to the location. A house often comes back? A business? A car? They can be big clues!
- Pay attention to the place of people in a group photo. This is mainly worth for wedding photos, for example. Although there is no placement rule proper, you may be able to find similarities in placement between several wedding photos.
Often, the ancestors at the party are found in the first row (married, parents, grandparents, witnesses, sponsors and godmothers). But sometimes parents can be behind the newlyweds to leave the first row in the deans and children. The furthest ranks can be composed of the brothers and sisters married on the extremities, then of the single brothers and sisters in the middle. The other guests at the wedding follow the same scheme (uncles and aunts, cousin.e.s, friends).
- Finally, let doubt. Nothing will guarantee you with certainty that your identification is the right one. It is by remaining open to the fact that you can go wrong that you will manage to assemble all the pieces of the puzzle.
5 - Annot the photos and keep your notes in an inventory
Once you have managed to date and identify people on your old photos, nothing beats a good old annotation so as not to forget your research. But you shouldn't annotate anyhow. Exit the marker, felt, pen - a good old paper pencil will avoid ink to cross the photo. Do not write in the photo either, but on the back. It may seem obvious but how many photos damaged in the pen do you have? Surely too much already.
So annotate your clues, the names of the people (with their location), the place, the period if it is not the date.
You can also choose Number your photos (previously classified by place and/or date to better find yourself there). You can then keep notes apart from the photographed event.
If you can't write on the back of the photo, Put it in a pocket paper (quality so as not to damage the photo) or plastic (polyester or polyethylene so as not to yellow the photo) with your note.
Take the time to write an inventory Of all your photos to keep track.
6 - Big photos to preserve them from the effects of time
If you have a scanner then this step is essential to keep your photos in their current state and thus avoid greater degradation over time. Although scanner is not rocker, You will still have to choose your settings carefully. For this, I can only invite you to read the article of The ancestors gazette. The choice of these settings will depend on your use of the digitized photo: a resolution between 72 and 100 DPI is sufficient for the web, a resolution between 1200 and 2400 DPI is optimal for a backup copy and a resolution of 1200 dpi will suffice for printing. Sophie Boudarel of the ancestors gazette also explains to us that it is important to scan the photo not in black and white but with a level of 16 -bit gray or in color mode.
If you don't have a scanner, A troubleshooting solution would be to use a smartphone whose photo quality is sufficient. Scanner applications or the camera directly can allow you to keep track of your family photos.
7 - Name the photos to better find them
This is an important step not to be overlooked and we can not advise you better than Choose your method and organization yourself. Remember to register the type of event, the name of the main person, the date or the premises (municipality, department or region) to better find yourself there.
Remember that the method chosen to name your photos should be durable and easy to understand (by someone else or you even years later).
Some photo or genealogy software may allow you to add comments, metadata to your photos or even directly identify your ancestors to complete the annotation. You can also use a photo processing software to add a legend.
8 - Keep the photos in a digital or paper folder
If you want guarantee the sustainability of your old photos despite the effects of time, here are some tips to follow.
The conservation of these is important to prevent them from being altered by light, humidity, temperature and pollution. To keep your family photos, choose Good quality archive boxes (some are even fire), paper pockets or polyester or polyethylene pockets.
Before storing them, make sure they will not stick to each other and have removed all the elements that can damage them (trombone, clip ...). Finally, keep your archives in a dry place, out of the sun and humidity.
In order to ensure the sustainability of your family archives, we can only advise you to scan them, to put them in files and to make several backups of these files. Make a backup on your computer, an external hard drive or a secure cloud (make sure the protection and non-cutting of your data). You can also entrust a copy of your digital files to a trusted third party elsewhere than at home (note that this is also worth for your genealogy!).
9 - Share the photos and transmit family history
You just have to leave your creativity to share to share all these family photos and thus transmit family history.
Website, genealogy blog, shared file but also personalized photo book, photo album or even an exhibition during a cousinade, the choice is vast!
10 - Anticipate for the photos you will leave behind you
Alors que l’on peut prendre des photos aussi facilement qu’un « bonjour » à notre époque, Have you ever wondered what you will leave behind? What do you like to know your descendants of you? Have you ever started to annotate your photos? Will there be one day a paper version of all the photos in your phone? Ask yourself these questions to anticipate now ... Your descendants will probably find out what you look like!
In short, to conclude you will need a lot of patience, courage, a little luck but above all a lot of love to properly treat these treasures of the past.