Seeing our ancestors

[Rab]

My husband has just said he has plenty he would pay good money to see the back of. lol
Audrey

Lol, that's families for you.

[maggie]

Hello
i am lucky to have been entrusted with the safe keeping of lots of family photos on my irish side of the family tree mostly of the postcard type the great shame about these photos is the lack of information as to who they where though some did have names on the back and even messages .
my best photograph has to be of my 2xgreat grandfather and four of the five children he had, one being my great grandfather his wife is not pictured but i think she might have been pregnant at the time with the fifth child taken in Penang around 1890 by Keng Yoong photographer Chukia street Penang. 2xgreat grandfather was a prison warder in Penang or at least that is the family tale he was recorded as a prison warder in 1895 on his death cert back in Ireland records for his service just might be in London which i hope one day to be able to go and search for, my hope is that because of his unusual surname it will stand out PRONI
don't have them .
I also have their marriage certificate from 1883 which is in wonderfull condition given that it's 122 years old and was found in a dusty/sooty attic.
I only wish that i could see what some of my ancestors from scotland looked like thanks to the wonderfull help i have had on this site i know about their lives but can only wonder what they must have looked like
regards maggie

[Sobil]

Rab,

Back to Marine records, Merchant and RN, can someone clarify the information given on a search.

I looked in the UK National Archives for Merchant Marine and the list I'm sure gave the document date, not the birthdate, and the place name was the place registered, not the place born. I'm also pretty sure my grandfather's document date was the date his ticket expired, since he died shortly after and was in his retirement on that date.

It seems the search information given between Merchant and Navy, and England and Scotland, pre WW1 and post WW1 must differ. Can anyone offer a short idiots guide to who gives what where so I can finally get this clear in my thick skull?

Also we all have photographs and in some cases there must be non family members in the photographs. Has anyone ever heard of a "photograph exchange". It seems logical to have a place where everyone can post their photographs, or the names of those in them, so that relatives hunting a photograph of Great Uncle MacDonald might find one of him with his best friend or work colleague. Don't know if one exists or who would want to host one but it definitely seems the need is there.

Sobil

[LesleyB]

Hi all
Yes, a web site for "lost souls" would be great. Those people in photographs who you just can't identify - I have a few of those. I think there is an ancestor-type photograph site but as far as I remember it was an American based site & I can't remember the address. Will add it if I have any inspiration as to where it was later.

I don't know about anyone else but in antique shops which have postcards for sale, I find those boxes full of postcards sized photographs quite unsettling. I suppose they must have found their way there due to house clearances and the like. Lots of faces from the past with, in most cases, no identification.

I often wonder, if one of "mine", who I haven't any seen pictures of, were in there, would I recognise them? ...and then I get waylaid for hours in the antique shop, sifting through all the lives in the box....

best wishes
Lesley

later:
This is the web site I was thinking of, and I found another too
http://www.deadfred.com/
http://www.familyoldphotos.com/

[joette]

Lesley I do exactly the same thing I am much more interested in the ordinariness of History as oppossed to the Great& Glorious.
My Mother once saw a photo of a handsome young man in an antique shop she looked & looked & kept thinking "I know that face".It was in a nice frame & she didnt have the cash.
Anyway a couple of weeks later she was talking to an old friend who was explaining she had been clearing out her maiden Aunts house.This Aunt had been sweet on my Mothers Uncle who had died of War Wounds in 1919.She told Mum about selling some things in the Antique shop including a photo of some unknown young man!!
Mum knowing of the relationship rushed to shop but the photo was gone.She often thinks that probably the buyer ditched the photo & kept the frame.
When I asked her how she knew it was her Uncle Davie who had died several years before she was even born & due to the early deaths of his parents with no surviving photos she replied"his eyes were my Mothers & my heart just knew" So if you see buy.

[ASGROOMBRIDGE]

Joette,

I am with your mother there, after many years of not knowing my grandfathers family I found a connection and from there another second cousin, a lovely lady in her late 70's. on meeting her she showed me pictures and in one is a man not known to anyone. I looked and saw my eyes and my heart knew it was my great grandfather on one of his rare visits home, he left Lesmahagow and went to Glasgow, took us a short time by car but in the days of working 6 days a week there was not much time to come home for visits or the money to for it.

It cant be confirmed it is my great grandfather but I know.

Audrey

ps Sometimes you just have to believe