 |
| Pre-wedding haircut |
The memories of family events fade quickly. If we don't document what was going on, the true nuance of the photos may be lost. The photo above is of my mother and my aunt. On it's own, it is just a photo of two ladies at a local beauty salon. What it doesn't show is, these two are sisters who are getting ready for one of their grandson's wedding. . It doesn't show that they traveled over 400 miles to get there. It doesn't say the who the woman reflected in the mirror is. It doesn't show that the beauty salon was an old store-front from the early 1900's. The only way anyone will know those facets of the photo is if someone who was there documents it.
I have made it my project this year to scan all the hundreds of photos I inherited from my grandmother and my parents. Thankfully my grandmother and my mother were avid documentors on the backs of the photos or on the envelope the photos came in. Still there have been so many photos that were not written on and even though I was there for many of the events. I cannot remember who the people are.
It occurred to me I have to come up with a few ways to get help. I am making Facebook albums so my relatives can tell me who they are if they remember. Also, I will be making some blog posts that will ask for help. "Do You Know This Person" or "Who Is It?", or maybe even "Help Me! I am lost don't remember my name!"
I would love to hear from others on how they handle the forgotten people or events. It does help sometimes to look at a set of event photos and try to document the scene. That sometimes does trigger memories. I have also texted some photos to my sisters in hopes they would remember more than me. So many of the above generation are gone. Both of these wonderful women in the above photo are gone now.
This is a copy of an old tintype. We know the man on the right is my great grandfather, John Thomas Hames. He had no brothers, only two sisters, so the men in the picture cannot be his immediate family. We do know he lived with his aunt and uncle after his parents died so these men may be cousins. They look very much alike as if they are brothers.
This was in my grandparents belongings, found after they died in a trunk. How I wish they had been the ones who dragged out the old photo albums and told us the stories. We would have been able to know for sure who they are. That is why it is so important to either document on the item, and/or tell the stories to the family. I know it has made me a better documenter of family history. I don't want those who come behind me to throw old photos away because they don't know who they are and have no reason to find out.
