Take time to Identify Photographs!
This is a very low-tech suggestion for all of us who love to do family research. Take time to identify your photographs, especially the old and vintage originals. Use a pencil and write the name of the ancestor on the back of the photo. The approximate date, if you know it, is also a wonderful addition. The knowledge you have of your family and ancestors can be lost in just one generation, so this is an important task. You can take this one step further and scan your photos in to FamilySearch, where they can be identified and preserved forever. I love to see my pedigree with pictures I have scanned attached to each person in the tree. It makes history come alive! Best wishes as you do this important work.
Answers
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Sometimes the act of writing makes an impression. To avoid damage to the photo, to enable more info and to ease scanning, I prefer to attach a sticky-note to the back of photos.
I have asked my mom to identify as many people as she can in old photos. Sometimes she'll tell a story regarding that person or the occasion of the photo and I'll use a larger sticky-note.
I scanned them all to a thumb drive at my local public library. Before scanning, I detached the Post-It note and placed it beside the photo.4 -
Great ideas!
@Nyx773 mentioned getting details from their mom…This reminds me of how helpful the Memories App can be. Using the app (on my iphone), I click the headphone icon, the plus button, and I can record a story someone is sharing about my ancestor. That story is immediately uploaded to my Memories Gallery where I can then tag it to the appropriate person!
This is a great reminder to all of us to ask questions about our ancestors, and then be willing to take the next simple step by recording and tagging that brief memory!
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