[TroutStalker]

We still have all the old photos that the living can recall, and that's still a lot. It might be fun to take all the others and make things up to write on the back.

[sweetliberty]

"It might be fun to take all the others and make things up to write on the back."

Might I suggest contacting your local hustorical or geneological society and see if they would be interested in the photos or might have a suggestion as to what to do with them.

[ccmay]

Obviously, you can do a lot of thinning out. Pictures of people nobody recognizes, with nothing written on the back, are pretty useless. Obituaries of people you know are not your relatives are also useless. But you never know what someone will find useful.

While cleaning out my grandmother's stuff after she died, I found an old daguerrotype of a woman, a picture that is possibly 150 years old. My mom had a vague idea that it was a relative of her mother's mother but didn't know any more. I intended to keep it more for its antiquity than anything else. But lo and behold, the velvet padding in the leather case fell out as I handled it. I found a notation giving the woman's name, birthdate (1827), birthplace (Edinburgh, Scotland), and the names and birthplaces of her parents. Turns out she is my great-great-great-grandmother, and opened up a whole new line of genealogical inquiry.

I urge you to save the really old pictures, and pictures or obituaries that provide potentially useful genealogical information. Even the worst pack rats tend not to have more of these than a small photo album can contain. Keep it, or perhaps give it to your local family history society.

-ccm

[mtbopfuyn]

Oh, no! I can't believe you threw out that stuff. I agree, a genealogist will curse you. People, please cart all those old photos and clippings around to all the old relatives and have them ID them on the backs. Donate what's left to a local genealogy club, library, or museum, university history department. Donate those items which can be identified by a landmark (school, courthouse, park) give it to the appropriate person of each location.

I became the family genealogist at the ripe old age of 20 when visiting a relative. We happened upon a box of old family photographs in a box out in the horse barn. There were pictures dating back to the Civil War for goodness sakes.