old family photo's (1 Viewer)

[pappajohn]

Shirls just been sorting through my mothers unimportant papers and she came across this photo of my gran and great gran.

the photo is one hundred years old this year and is in excellent, amazing condition.

how many of todays digital photos will be around in 100 years ????

 

[DESCO]

Amazing how these old photos survive and still in excellent condition.

Used to work for Kodak some of the old photos I saw while there were wonderful, taken on the plate cameras and processed in open tanks, to get a picture then you had to know what you were doing, none of this point and hope for the best.

But times change.

Dave :thumb::thumb:

 

[scotjimland]

how many of todays digital photos will be around in 100 years ????

Hi John

I'm also fortunate to have many old family photos, some dating back to the late 19th century ..
it was having these that got me started on family history .. many are now stored on line and CD

However .. IMO

The only digital photos around in a hundred years will those that have been printed on good quality paper and stored correctly .. digital information could be lost in a flash, whether stored on-line or disc ... and even if they do survive who will have the hardware to read a DVD / CD in 100 years .. ? :Sad:

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[haganap]

excellent photo John, I love old photos.
I do worry about photos in the future, mainly because before you would get 24 or 36 photos developed and placed in an album, now I regually take 500 + on a card, and they dont carry the same.

 

[IrasciBill]

Old Photos

Like the photo. One of the reasons why Victorian & Edwardian photos like this survive so well is because they have been sepia toned. The sepia dye is much more stable than the silver salts which produced the original image and is less prone to fading. Provided they are kept dry and out of direct sunlight, they should last until the paper itself disintegrates.
Agree about the digital photos but because of the sheer numbers being taken there will possibly be a fair number survive - although I take Jim's point about the hardware etc.
One of the side benefits for future historians and family historians is that photos are taken of everyday things now whereas that was much less so in days gone by.

 

[sedge]

My mum got senile dementia and we found only a few photos my dad took when he was in the Army (ie during the last war) whereas there was album after album - snaps and fab photos my dad tok, eg my mum, sis and I reflected in a car hubcap, waterfalls and the like.

Consequently my sister and I do not possess a single photo depicting our childhoods. We sort of both 'appear to' start off in life with our wedding photos!

Pete hasn't got too many either but one everyone loves is his 5 generation one - his grandma, his mum, him, his eldest daughter and her daughter.

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[shortfuse]

Like Jim we aquired some old "family" snaps while researching family history. Some of them had a note on the back regarding who was in the photo, sadly the most interesting ones had no note and nobody had any idea who was in the snap . REALLY frutrating ! :shout:

 

[Paula]

Before my Mum died I got her to get out all the old photos and we put them all in a big suitcase. I went through all the old family pics as we did it - and the new ones and made a note on the back of who they were and some we put the date too. There were a few she couldn't recall who they were - :Sad: mainly friends not family though.

I am not sure we should have done it in biro but we did - probably pencil would have been better.

I think it is really important to do that sort of thing. What's more, do it now while you remember, can be bothered and have enough energy and sufficient grey matter

Your kids wont know or remember who those old uncles and aunts, cousins and family friends were when you are gone. I'd say to everyone who has family, do it now for future generations.
Paula

 

[Janine]

I'm thinking about investing in a scanner like this:

[ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-Journe-Digital-Photo-Scanner/dp/B002DV17KQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1278761455&sr=8-2"]LINK to Amazon[/ame]

It would be an easier way to scan and save all the photos I have.

My great Uncle was in the army in the 1930's and took his camera everywhere with him. He left all of the albums to me in his will.

He built up fantastic documentary of social history in the Far East at that time - even Shanghai being built using bamboo scaffolding. Some of his pictures are already archived at the Wellcome Library and I will bequeath the albums to them.

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[hilldweller]

I'm thinking about investing in a scanner like this:

LINK to Amazon

Could it not be a bit limiting. Any slightly damaged or delicate prints and you are snookered.

A good old flatbed and you can even scan without removing from a mount - maybe.

There's always good offers on all-in-ones if you need a new printer as well.

 

[MIN663]

Could it not be a bit limiting. Any slightly damaged or delicate prints and you are snookered.

A good old flatbed and you can even scan without removing from a mount - maybe.

There's always good offers on all-in-ones if you need a new printer as well.

Agree with hildweller i bought a flatbed from Amazon it included a holder for scanning the old 35mm slides ans negs as well. Good bit of kit we found some old negs and ended up with some good family pics we never knew we had.
Cheers Min:thumb:

 

[GJH]

I agree regarding the scanner. One of the services we offer in our family history business is digital photo restoration - though we don't do so much of it these days. Anything at all delicate needs careful handling.

Graham

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[pappajohn]

i also found the ONE AND ONLY photo of my gran and grandad in the same pic.
late 50's early 60's at a guess.

he was a miserable old bugger

 

[pappajohn]

and this handsome young chap turned into me. :Blush:

must have been a metamorphosis

 

[movan]

I have a photo of my Great grandad after the Crimean war and he has a monkey on his shoulder, which he brought back with him and went everywhere with it .... town, local pub, etc.... It is in lousy condition but still means the world to me as I gues photos then were few and far between. (the photo not the monkey).

Sedge, I have the same problem as you. I wonder why there are so few photos of me as a kiddy..... oh dear left myself open to abuse there havn't I... my ancestors were really poor .... mum's baby brother died and had to be buried in a sewing machine lid in a grave that one of the well off people she cleaned for was burying her brother in... it was the only way for my 'uncle' to be in hallowed ground and not a pauper's grave.

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[pappajohn]

I have a photo of my Great grandad after the Crimean war and he has a monkey on his shoulder, which he brought back with him and went everywhere with it .... town, local pub, etc.... It is in lousy condition but still means the world to me as I gues photos then were few and far between. (the photo not the monkey).

.

good job you're from the north west.

if it had been the north east they would have hung the monkey as a french spy.

 

[movan]

Only just seen your post John....... and to be honest.... it DID mysteriously disappear!!!!!!