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If you have multiple children, as we do, why divide the photos at all? We have had them scanned and a digital file of ALL the pictures made in multiples, to give to our children and grandchildren. The physical photos? Who knows? We'll let them decide later. They get wet, or faded, etc.
We also have super-8 movies of ourselves and the kids when younger, and tape recordings from 1957 on. As you can imagine, these things are a hoot to watch and listen to! They are all digital now, in multiples, and given away to the kids. The originals? Who knows?
From what I see younger generations don't care about inheriting old albums. Unless they are into genealogy, family albums are a millstone that need to be stored or moved. The sad truth is that unless things are labeled, and/or the person knew the family member, those pictures are just old pictures of strangers.
I think older people have a much greater sense of responsibility of keeping "family treasures". I inherited high school yearbooks of two aunts who never had children. They sit in a box because I feel too guilty to ever get rid of them and yet, what will I do with them later? My own children never met these aunts so are they responsible for passing them down in perpetuity?
That's the thing, past generations never had the luxury of collecting albums. Before modern technology, war and immigration did away with collections if people even had the money to afford them. Now we can have thousands of pictures per person, and even more in digital storage. I wonder how future generations will deal with keeping family heirlooms.
Re: in bold: (( I inherited high school yearbooks of two aunts who never had children. They sit in a box because I feel too guilty to ever get rid of them and yet, what will I do with them later?))
Why not try to contact the high school and see if they would like them for their library? (that is providing that the school is still open) If not, see if you can find a community web page classified for the town the school was in, and advertise that you will give them away to someone who is interested, providing that they pay the postage to send them along.
my mother made photo albums for each of us 6 kids. She picked the worst pix! I pulled the tolerable ones out of the album and scanned them onto the computer, and tossed the album.
my husband has hoarded thousands of snapshots. Unsorted and never looked at. I'm making him sort, scan, and discard before we move; I'm not shipping a bunch of worthless junk.
I've also gone medieval on mementos. Just because my family had something when I was a child doesn't mean I have to lug it around with me forever.
Just wondering....how many people sell their old family photos. Browsing through antique stores, I often see personal family photo`s for sale. Why would someone want photo`s of people they don`t even know, that have died many many years ago? Something I have always wondered, and this thread reminded me . Sorry to the OP, I know this is not what you had in mind for this thread
I am a collage artist who has a number of "acquired relatives" that I have bought in antique stores. Sometimes they are identified but mostly, their names are lost. I have scanned and recycled these abandoned people of the past into physical and digital artwork. I don't do anything to destroy the original photos so someday I guess they'll either be sold again or dumped. I like to think of them living on for awhile ... at least until someone throws out my work.
For example, here is one early-1900s little girl who's been with me for a long time – not related to me, but special none the less.
I think older people have a much greater sense of responsibility of keeping "family treasures". I inherited high school yearbooks of two aunts who never had children. They sit in a box because I feel too guilty to ever get rid of them and yet, what will I do with them later? My own children never met these aunts so are they responsible for passing them down in perpetuity?
For the yearbooks, consider sending them to Ancestry.com or some other internet repository -- there are several that collect old yearbooks and make them available to subscribers who are researching genealogy. When my uncle died last year, he had his high school yearbooks, plus his partner's high school and college - I sent them on to Ancestry.com so they can scan them and they will be available for others doing genealogy work.
I've carted cartons of hardcopy photos from house to house through the ages and they're quickly fading and becoming a burden to even me. For the last few years, I've been keeping my photos in the cloud. When my mother-in-law died a few yesrs ago, we all inherited a box of photos. Someone went through a lot of work making copies and divvying them up. My husband has no interest in them. I think with the next move we'll toss most of our pics.
So true. I salvaged two whole boxes of family photos, some very old, when we cleaned out my paternal grandfather's house (my uncle who still lived there was relocated to a nursing home after a stroke, and we were preparing the house and contents for auction). . We had rooms and rooms of stuff to sort, catalog, and clean out, but I held on to those pictures. I went through them with my dad one afternoon, and he was able to identify most of them (he wrote the info on the backs). He was the last to be familiar with the people and places in the photos, and only one who could identify them. Some were of ancestors taken on the old farm his family had owned (which was sold in the 1940's...I wrote about that in another post).
Yes, indeed.
Most of my mother's family immigrated from Romania in the 1930s, but quite a few stayed behind. I was able to locate a few of them, thanks to the fact that my grandmother had labeled the photographs by name, date and location.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coloradomom22
I inherited high school yearbooks of two aunts who never had children. They sit in a box because I feel too guilty to ever get rid of them and yet, what will I do with them later? My own children never met these aunts so are they responsible for passing them down in perpetuity?
Why don't you contact the high schools involved, and ask if they have need of them? I recently discovered my high school has digitized all available year-books and posted them on the high school's web-site in pdf format for down-loading, although they're missing a few years from the 1930s and 1940s.
If they have no need for them, try contacting your local historical or genealogical society.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jiminnm
I also use them for work on my family history, but am in a situation where I have many old photos and docs and have no one to pass them on to. We have no children and none of my cousins have shown much interest in genealogy or their ancestry. I would welcome any suggestions as I would hate to simply sell them or have them sold later.
I'm not sure they have any resale value, but try contacting your local historical or genealogical society.
I have a small bookcase that is in one of my closets with all of my photo albums neatly arranged in it. On the binder are the years for that particular album. Very organized. I also do have a box of pictures that I've tried to sort through. I think the problem I had is that back in the day when you got double prints I would save both sets, one for my albums and the other I'd put in a box. Now I'm trying to match the pictures and I've tossed many that are duplicates.
I also went through each album and removed the pictures that aren't of my family. For instance, I took a couple rolls of film of a cousin's 40th birthday party years ago. 95% of those pictures are of her and her kids and other relatives. She has a copy that I had given to her after her party. I don't need or want these. I did this with all my albums.
I also was into making scrapbooks a few years back when they were the rage. I have about 10. They have our best photos in them. One is a family heritage book that has all of our grandparents, great grandparents, wedding invitations, and other family mementos in them.
I really planned on getting rid of many of the pictures in the albums, but to tell you the truth, they are organized and out of the way and it's not really invasive in my life.
As for my elderly mother's pictures, I've gone through all of them. I left them in 2 containers in her closet. One is labeled so I know it's all trash when the time comes that she no longer is with us. The other container I'll keep. But, for now, although she never looks at them, she is comforted knowing they are there.
I am a collage artist who has a number of "acquired relatives" that I have bought in antique stores. Sometimes they are identified but mostly, their names are lost. I have scanned and recycled these abandoned people of the past into physical and digital artwork. I don't do anything to destroy the original photos so someday I guess they'll either be sold again or dumped. I like to think of them living on for awhile ... at least until someone throws out my work.
For example, here is one early-1900s little girl who's been with me for a long time – not related to me, but special none the less.
I always found it sad when looking through antique stores the many pictures of people who have lived and died and all that's left is a picture which even a complete stranger may or may not buy.
Eventually, our most cherished pictures will no longer be important to anyone but that's how life and death works.
I inherited my mother's pictures when she passed. We made photo collages for her funeral and I told the cousins to go take what they wanted. I still have a TON of them left, along with my own stuff. I did take everything out of any frames they were in so I can store the photos easier. They're currently in plastic tubs. Once I move next year I'm going to have to decide if I'm lugging them all to my new house, which does NOT have much storage space. I also have some plat books from our family farm, which is no longer in the family, some antique farm records of my grandfather's, which are pretty cool, and the title from our first house. I have no idea what to do with them...
We only have one daughter, so at least I don't have that worry. There is still a lot of stuff of her's in my house, and I've told her she has to decide what she wants, but she lives in an apartment in New York City, so...it's not like she has room for it.
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