Looking at old family photographs can be a bit like walking through a history book. You see the clothes people are wearing, the hairstyles, and the cars, and you get a sense of what life was like in that era.
Sometimes when you look at an old photo, you might see a person that stands out in it. You also see that they appeared to be important to your family before you were born and it naturally piques your curiosity. You want to know who this interesting person is and how their life turned out. It’s an adventure to try and figure out who and where people are in unknown photographs.
In this post, we will provide tips for describing and identifying images. With these tools, you will be able to uncover the stories hidden in your family’s old photos.
Why Identify Old Family Photographs?
Many people have old family albums that have been passed down through the generations. These albums usually contain many unidentified photos and while some may view these photos as nothing more than sentimental mementos, they can actually provide a valuable window into the past.
Here are four reasons why it is extremely rewarding to identify old family photos:
Put A Story To The Face
Sonder is a relatively new word that describes the profound feeling of realizing that everybody is conscious and has a life as complex as yours, which they are constantly living despite your personal lack of awareness of it. This feeling is strong when looking at an old photo of a complete stranger and imagining their life story.
However, this feeling is further amplified significantly when that stranger is actually a long-lost ancestor. That is why it can be quite gratifying when you find out the story of a family member that lived generations past.
Build Your Family Tree
For most of us, the upper limit of our ancestral family line that we know about is our grandparents. We don’t know any further because all our family members were dispersed around the world and created families of their own.
Building a family tree will help you fill out gaps in your extended family tree since you likely can’t depend on your ancestor’s organizational skills. You can also discover distant cousins while researching unidentified family photographs.
You never know, you might be directly related to a monarch!
Understand Your Family History
Another important reason to identify old family photos is to simply understand yourself through them. By identifying the people and events in your family’s history, you can begin to understand their motivations, values, and traditions. It will also provide a picture of why you might have certain tendencies that can be explained by genetics.
This self-understanding will give you a greater appreciation for who you are and where you come from.
Help Elders Reminiscence
The process of identifying images itself is a great way of helping elders remember their past. As they explain who is in the family portraits and when they were taken, they will likely remember other details about that time in their lives.
This can be an excellent bonding experience between you and your elders, as well as a way to gain insight into their lives. Plus, it’s just really cool to see what your great-grandparents or other relatives looked like when they were your age.
How To Identify Old Family Photos
Okay, so there is a particular photograph that you are curious about and want to identify. How do you go about it?
These five steps will help you in identifying images:
Digitize The Old Photographs
The first step is to scan the old photographs into a computer. This will help you get a closer look at the details in the digital images and make them easier to share with others.
Include as much information as possible when you are scanning or taking a digital photograph of an old photograph, such as:
- The date the photograph was taken
- The location the photograph was taken
- The people in the photograph
- The occasion the photograph was taken (wedding, graduation, etc.)
You can also use your smartphone to take a digital photograph of the old photograph. Just be sure to use the highest resolution setting so you don’t lose any detail when you enlarge the image.
Examine The Unknown Photos for Basic Information
Start by looking at the unknown photograph for basic identifying information. If there is a photographer’s name or studio logo, that can give you a clue as to who took the picture and when it was taken. The same goes for any identifying marks on the back of the photograph, such as a stamp from a photo finisher.
If there are people in the photograph, see if you can identify them. This can be a difficult task, but it may give you some clues as to who the photograph belonged. If the subject of the photo is unknown, look for identifying features that might help you figure out where it was taken.
Determine The Location
If you’re struggling to identify the location, try looking for landmarks. This can be anything from a large body of water to a mountain range.
You can also look for street signs or other identifying features like architectural style, that might give you a clue as to where the photograph was taken.
Keep An Eye Out For Background Details
The background of a photograph can sometimes give you clues about the time period it was taken in. For example, cars or clothing styles can help you date a photo.
In addition to helping you date a photo, the background might also give you clues about the location.
Identify Who You Can
If you’re lucky, you might be able to find identifying information like names or dates on the back of the photograph. You should also ask your living relatives for whoever they can remember in the picture.
If the people in the photo are not identified, look for identifying characteristics like military uniforms or religious clothing that might give you a clue about who they are. You can also look for features like wedding rings that might give you clues about the subject’s relationship with each other.
Put It All Together
When you have all of the components – you know when and where the photos are taken, as well as the stories of everyone in them, the remaining is lightwork. Putting them all together is a matter of creativity.
Whatever way you display your search results, they will certainly provide you and your family members with more insights and appreciation for your shared history!
Tips For Identifying Photos
While there is no surefire way to identify every old family photo, there are some tips and tricks you can use to make the process easier.
Use Genealogy Websites
You can use the databases of many websites designed for genealogy research to help you identify unknown family members. Try searching for the name of the person in the photo, the location where the photo was taken, or even the type of photo.
You may also want to try a Google search using terms like “old family photographs” or “vintage photos”.
Restore Damaged Photos
Sometimes, you might not be able to identify photos simply because they are faded and have lost some important detail.
This might seem like a dead end in identifying old family photographs, however, that is where we come in!
We are MemoryCherish, the #1 photograph restoration company nationwide. With a little description, we will enhance your low-quality images and bring them back to life, exactly how you imagine them to be.
How Do We Fix Your Picture?
Our specialty is the restoration of blurry and old photos!
Our restoration artists will closely examine and enhance your blurry image, remove stains, mold, blur, refine and add more detail and color to each picture.
No matter how many photos you want to fix, we won’t stop until they are in the best photo resolution. We can handle any damage on any photograph!
Our commitment to producing stellar quality restoration service has even landed us on news reports by ABC, NBC, and FOX news.
What Do I Need To Do?
First, you need to make your print photos clean and ready for restoration. You can check out how to clean your old pictures.
Next, you need to carefully make photo scans of them. Then, you upload it and pick your restoration options.
You place your order, and that’s it!
How Long Does It Take?
We would restore and send a digital copy of your sharpened image back to you by email within 24 hours. If there is anything you would like us to change on your restored image, revisions are allowed on every restoration, completely free!
We also offer nationwide delivery of restored pictures in prints!
Can I Contact Someone For More Information?
Our customer support is available 24/7 to answer any further questions. You can send us an email at: support@memorycherish.com.
