I have been reading the article “The Lost Generation. Is This The End Of The Photo Album? Written by Di Castle”
I started thinking again about my vast collection of photos.
My husband and I have been taking family photos since our first son was born in 1971 and I would put them all in albums to start with. Lots of baby photos, as I had to share our son’s progress with my mother who lived in Australia. Then our daughter arrived so this ritual continued and once our third child came on the scene we decided it was time we had a holiday. The camera was duly loaded with film and recorded our many camping holidays in France.
My photo albums
Several films would be filled with children having fun on the beach and the different places we visited but unfortunately not all put into albums or dated. Some years sadly we never got round to having the films developed and they would be found in a cupboard years later and we didn’t waste money having them developed as we thought they would be ruined and would only be similar to previous years photos.
Photos in hamper
By the time digital photography became a big thing we had a cupboard full of albums and a hamper full of those that never made it to albums.
A few years ago I thought I would try and sort them out. My daughter helped me and we picked out the good photos of my first born and put them in an album. My next problem was what to do with those that weren’t good. So difficult to throw them away, but did eventually get rid of some. When we came to the time when my daughter was born I couldn't decide what to do. It would be good to give each child an album of their early days but I had reached the photos that had more than one child on. Which child would have which photo? Here I gave up and now have piles of photos waiting to be stuck in albums. The ideal solution would be to scan them all and everyone could have a copy. This prospect is unimaginable as there are far too many. Along the way have have scanned a few to show the children and embarrass them too. I do sometimes look through the albums myself and really enjoy looking back and finding photos I had forgotten about.
Since I started tracing my family history 20 years ago (can't believe it is that long), I have been fortunate to have received old photos of ancestors, some from my mother but many from distant relatives I have had contact with. I treasure these and have them all scanned on my computer. I have also started to put them in an album with description of who they all are. I am now up to adding the photos from my childhood which my mother had kept. When she passed away my brother said I could have them as he and his wife had been living in a caravan at the time and didn't have anywhere to keep them. Such great memories and it is nice to have an album to look through and to show people. My earliest photo is of my great great grandmother Mary Stacey, who was born Mary Wilmot in 1837.
My great great grandmother Mary
I also keep a lot of my ancestor's photos in frames mainly on the study window ledge along side photos on my grandchildren. I have photos of my children when they were young in a multi frame on the wall. Memories are important to me and I do like to look through my digital photos too. I have almost 30,000 photos on my computer but not all family memories as I am a keen photographer of wildlife too.
I haven't been very good at filing my digital photos either so often difficult to find one I want. I do now file them by year and month but often wish I had a system where I can find a certain subject. I am not a very organised person but will try and sort them somehow rather than leave it to those left behind when I am gone.
