Can anyone give me some creative ways that I might find old family photos for my family tree?

Question

I am having trouble finding familly photographs for my family tree.  I have tried asking elderly family members with little success. I have tried Google searches, Ancestry.com searches, etc.  Does anyone have any creative methods for locating old family photos?   My family tree is quite faceless at this time.  Thank you in advance for your suggestions!

Comments

Did you try the archive's in the city were they first settled.  a lot of times you will find that old photos end up at a universty in the city they are in for research.  and also try the old news papers at that time period.    Newsbank.com, you can usssaly find this at you local library.

Answer 1

I agree with the other answers and I would try them first, but 2 other suggestions are to go to the oldest photo shop in town and ask to see their records, You will have to pay a bit to have photos made from their copies and or negatives but some are well worth it.  In my hometown the oldest and best one was closing its doors after several generations and the negatives and copies that weren't bought were going to be recycled for their silver.  My cousin found several that way. The archives also had a heyday.  Another suggestion is to hold a family get-together and have a scanner handy, make it pot luck and pot picture.   Scan them and share the scans.  Those that want prints can have it done from the scans.

Answer 2

Living relatives can be a good way to do it. Some are reluctant to let their photos be copied, others are more willing. I've gotten some from cousins who I have met through travel, others through correspondence.

Answer 3

You could try the local museum and archives in the areas where your ancestors lived. Some have started to put photo collections online. I came across quite a few pictures of my great grandmother's cousins this way. Old newspapers are a good source, too. There may also be published genealogies for other families in those areas, and if there are any connections, a photo of your relatives might be in there.

Of course, having your tree online is also great cousin bait. I had never seen a photo of my dad's maternal grandparents until a second cousin came across my tree and sent me a copy of one she had. I must have had that information online for years before she came across it.

Comments

Absolutely!  My brother-in-law found high quality early 20th century studio photographs of my father's great uncle in an online Minnesota archive.  Until that discovery, we had known nothing about him, much less have great photos of him, his wife, and children.

Answer 4

I have found (& posted) old photos on village/town/regional newspaper sites. So for example a branch of my family comes from a region in Gloucester, England - there is a local history/geneology site for this area and I joined for free (there are members from overseas as well). On the site there are photos of local families, local schools with year photos of pupils, police officers, fire fighters, several mayors, publicansoutside their pubs (including a ggrandfather of mine) and photos that record 'day's out' with everyone in their finery etc. Mostly the names of the individuals are attached, but sometimes folks are looking to the name so the hunt goes on....

Not sure how this might work outside UK - but I am guessing there will be similar sites in other counteries.

Answer 5

I find Google search is quite good at turning up photos of people. Also Google maps and street view come in handy for places.

Answer 6

Occassionally, you can find  a photo of the www.findagrave.com site. Usually though you will only find photos of headstones or lacking that some other genealocal information you may not have.

Answer 7

I take my laptop and scanner to family gatherings.  I ask folks to bring photos - particularly old photos, but also current family photos that they love or photos and announcements of new babies, newspaper articles on awards and events involving family members. it's been the most fruitful way for me to get photos and documents and stories that I would never have otherwise seen or heard.

Answer 8

i started a family group at facebook and suddenly relatives i dont even know are uploading pics of relatives i dont even know yet. there may be groups there already for your family or the area they lived in.

Answer 9

I use my smartphone to take pictures of pictures.  Here are some tips...

Get permission to take photo's of photo's.  If you intend to use them in any public way, get permission for that as well.

First off make sure you get the information from the photo from the photo's owner and any of the information that may be written on the back.

Make sure you have your phones camera set to HR or HD (high res. or high def.).

The pictures should be taken without flash so you don't get a flashback or distortion.  Good ambient lighting is good.  A direct light on the photo will cause glare on the photo.

If the frame is special or has a story make sure you include the frame in your pictures and it's story in your notes.

Rename the picture and save it.

If you use a "cloud" like Drop Box you can have your camera immediate post any pictures you take to it so you have an automatic back-up.

Answer 10

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ is an Australian archives site that I find very good for images, deceased estates, war stories etc etc. Searching on the site is easy as well.

Find and get over 383,652,202 Australian and online resources:

books, images, historic newspapers, maps, music, archives and more

Answer 11

If your family(ies) lived in an area a long time they may have used a particular funeral home or even owned one. If so, you can sometimes find photos in their obituary files that go back usually 2-3 years. Newspapers of the area and date are also a good way to  search on Google or other search engines.

Rick

Answer 12

Ancestry.com has been an incredible source for photos. I have over 2000 photos of relatives on my tree & probably 75% came from Ancestry & occasionally FindAGrave. Also, I have found a few on EBay.

Answer 13

Tips for finding photos on Ancestry and beyond:

- Don't count on a simple name search to lead you to every available photo of an individual. Users' tagging of their own photos is almost always incomplete. Check a husband's gallery for photos of his wife and children. Check the galleries of cousins, too. And, in my experience, geographically distant relatives are just as likely as nearby ones to have photos of your ancestor, because visits from out-of-state kin were prime occasions for taking photos.

- Check census records to see who your ancestors' neighbors were. Then look for trees that contain those neighbors, and see if your family members appear in any of their photos.

- Search the web for photos related to your ancestor's workplaces, schools, and clubs.

- See if your ancestor's former church has old photos on display that you can look at.

- Think of people your ancestor used to talk about. If your grandmother had a lot of stories about her childhood friend Pat, you may be able to use census records or a school yearbook to find Pat's full name. Then you can search user trees for Pat. Some of those trees may contain photos of Pat. One of those photos could contain your ancestor.

- Search for your ancestor at http://books.google.com--even if he or she wasn't the least bit famous. Google Books has all sorts of odd things that don't turn up in ordinary Google searches.

--Amy