Seeing our ancestors

[Rab]

Has anyone had any luck in finding a picture of an ancestor since taking up genealogy as a hobby? If so how I'd be keen to know the story behind their find. I'm sure there must be lots of different places out there where a picture of some of our ancestors are kept. Maybe it's just knowing where to look or more likely reliant on luck.

In my own search I have been lucky to find one picture. I was over the moon to find it but it hit me very hard in the pocket. I knew my grandfather was in the Merchant Navy in the 1940s so I had a search on the National Archives site to see what they had. I got very excited when I found that the NA had thousands of seaman's poches in their vaults and most of these included ID cards.

After a search I managed to find my Grandfather and his pouch existed. That was the good part. I sent off for an estimate to have it digitally scanned as I can't get down to Kew and got a mail back with a quote for £100. It took some deliberation to finally part with the cash but I finally did and a month or so later I was sent a link to download 4 PDF files.

Before I downloaded the files I still did not know what exactly was contained in the pouch because they don't tell you. All I knew was that there were 10 pages to be scanned. I was very happy however when I opened up the first PDF to see the identity card there. On the ID card was a picture of my grandfather aged 22. That made it all worth while.

Does anyone have any similar experiences?

Rab

[DavidWW]

The only picture that I have of my great-uncle Joseph Young Webster DCM is from the Angus newspapers reporting his death in Flanders, obtained courtesy of the scrapbooks held by the regimental museum of The Black Watch (The Royal Highland Regiment).

Many of the Scottiosh regimental museums has similar WWI scrapbooks.

David

[Sobil]

Hi Rab,

I've been lucky so far, my lot seemed to think they were very photogenic so there is at least one photograph of everyone so far.... well since the camera came into nationwide use anyway!

I'd be interested to know what year your grandfather's photo ID was from. It's a route I will have to follow in a couple of cases and I didn't realise the cost could get that high. I seem to recall another post on TS recently where the lady was delighted to receive photographs of all the ships her relative had sailed on when she applied for a "Pouch". So far it seems well worth it as long as you are sure you have the right person.

In my searches I have come across a few websites that include group photos around dockyards for various occasions, I guess if you know what someone looks like you could try Googling the ship names and the word photograph or photo to see what else you can dig up.

Photo's make all the difference, I just read through the entire tree of another branch of my family and despite heroic acts and great architects the two most memorable were the poor chap invalided out of WW1 with flat feet and the one who died of Bowel Cancer. No photographs and you are nothing more that a brief bio...... time to get snapping

Sobil

[CatrionaL]

Hi Rab

During my father's life-time I had never seen any photos of his father (who died when Dad was a teenager) or grandparents or whoever. Some time after his death and that of one of his older brothers, we visited our uncle's widow who took out her photo album. There was a beautiful studio photo of our grandparents with their four boys, my father a one year old. Unfortuanatley, Auntie wouldn't agree to part with it even temporarily.

Imagine our delight when on opening our Christmas cards that year, we each found a copy of the photo in question. It now has pride of place in my office.

Catriona

[Davie]

Hi
The earliest I have in my own direct line is of my Grt Grandfather, Finlay McNaughtan, pictured in Denny's Shipyard.
He was born in Buchanan Parish 1837.
He died in 1914 at Victoria Street, Dumbarton
The pic was in with other family stuff
Davie

[caraid]

I'm going to count myself very lucky in the photos that I have, all been handed down by various family members, now I'm custodian . I have got both my Grandfathers in uniform, 1 a Merchant Seaman, and another in the Black Watch, also have 1 of my husbands Grandfathers, and my Uncle has loads of photo's of my Caithness ancestors, but won't part with them at the moment , but I did manage to get a Family Bible from him, which was first written in on July 14th 1787.

Caraid

[Rab]

Lots of success stories there. Although I've not had much handed down in the way of photos I'm making an effort to ensure I hand as much down as possible. I'm not doing to great at the moment. I have pics of three grandparents but not fourth. I also only have pics of two great grandparents from a possible eight and nothing beyond that.


@Sobil- My grandfather's ID card was from 1941-44. I was hoping that he may have had his own photos in the pouch but unfortunately not. In particular I was hoping their would be a pic of his father but there wasn't. The other documents in the pouch were all pretty useless to me apart from his discharge medical report. He'd been in the Cameronians before running off to see his dying wife and then went into the Mechant Navy but nothing pertaining to this was in the pouch.

[ASGROOMBRIDGE]

Hi Rab,

Like you I need to go down the road of the Merchant Navy but how do you know you have the right person, I am looking for Andrew McGowan in the Merchant Navy in 1920 and there seems to be a few of them. As he was never heard from again it would be very interesting to get the pouch, also I have never seen a picture of him.

On a lighter note I was sent a photo of my great grandmother by a cousin I came in contact with on a web site. What a thrill that was.

regards,
Audrey

[catbug]

I have a picture of both sets of my GG Grandparents on my dad's mum's side (if that makes sense). They're not from that far back though - one is from around 1915 (just before my Great Granny was born so she's not on it) and the other is from around 1950, which is of my grandmother with her grandparents at a family wedding. I think the first one might be some sort of 'official' photograph as my GG grandad is wearing a kilt and has on an army hat and stuff (sorry, I don't know what the outfit's called - very ignorant!) and the children are wearing kind of frilly clothes which was proabably unusual as they were quite a poor family. Most of my family married and had children very young so it sounds further back in time than it actually is. My grandmother had both sets of photos (she is still alive) and only recently found them. They were in a bit of a state so I scanned them into the computer and cleaned them up the best I could - still not perfect but ok I suppose. It turns out there were lots of old pictures that had been handed down but my great grandad kind of 'freaked out' after the death of his mum in the 1960's and burnt all the photos in a fit of grief, so that explains why the photos my gran managed to rescue were in such a mess! Even though there's only a few I'm glad I have them

[Tracey]

Hi Rab
When i first started this, like you do i asked everyone questions. My dad couldnt even remember his own grandmothers real name ( she had so many last names ). My cousin said to me that our gt grandmother lived with a famous Scottish violinist and he thought his name was Skinner so i put that vaig description in Google and up came Aberdeen University web site. Pat Ballantyne has written about James Scott Skinner and there was a photo of my great grandmother on it !! not only a photo but a drawing of her as well by Skinners artist friend David Waterson. I have yet to locate a painting he is said to have done of her. As soon as i contacted Pat she put me in touch with my dads cousins who he hadnt seen since he was a child.She was my first contact and would have still been strugling if i hadnt found her she was my Angel !, what a find for me !! As it turns out other family think one of these isnt her but her daughter but who cares !! I have since been given loads of photos that have been dated back to the late 1800,s only one of which is signed and have found a few matches to whos who via finding others researching out lot but there are many more to place names to faces but whos rushing But you do get gut feelings when looking at these photos. i am almost 100% sure that one is of my gtx2 grandfather the journalist as he looks like one and oozes Donaldson