old picture of family standing by house

Granny with siblings and cousin (she’s on the far right of the second row)

On yesterday’s post several folks lamented the lack of names on the old photos from their family. I know exactly how they feel.

Miss Cindy gave me her grandmother’s photo album. While many of the pictures are obvious to Miss Cindy because they are of her family and her immediate cousins, others are of nameless people. Of course it’s likely they are directly related to Miss Cindy and by extension to The Deer Hunter and the girls, but since no one wrote their names on the photos there’s no way for us to know who they are.

I ran into the same problem when I worked at the folk school. I started an online feature highlighting old photos from the folk school archives. A couple of folks who played a huge role in the formation of the school stand out in the photos—in other words I quickly recognized their faces. But many others remain nameless.

There were people who visited the folk school from other locales, but in the early days many of the photos certainly contained people who called Brasstown home. Sometimes I would look at a face and swear it looked familiar. When that happened I figured it was because their descendants are still living in Brasstown today and I likely know them.

After I started celebrating Appalachia full time I began staying with Granny one day a week. I help her do whatever needs doing around the house and we enjoy just keeping each other company.

From the start I told her one thing I wanted to accomplish was going through her photos and writing names on them. I told her it was a very important job because once she’s gone the photos that predate me will become nameless people.

Back in the summer I found a good example to prove to her I was right.

We went out to her mother’s house to get mine and Granny’s high school graduation photos. They had been hanging on the wall for many years.

While we were there I found an old family photo of people I didn’t know hanging in a bedroom. Granny didn’t know who they were either. The photo and the frame is very old. I’m convinced they are part of our Truett or Jenkins ancestors, yet will never know since there’s no names on the photo and no one left alive who remembers.

Herman Williams left a comment on yesterday’s post encouraging folks to write names on their photos for future generations. He’s taken his own advice to heart and with the help of his grandson has made a fascinating family website detailing everything from family photos to customs of the day. I really enjoyed poking around the site and I bet you will too. You can visit it here.

There are many tips when it comes to documenting family photos, a quick internet search will turn up information detailing best practices for photo documenting.

Last night’s video: Great Grandmother’s Cookie Recipe – Oatmeal Crispies.

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32 Comments

  1. I wished I had captured alot of our photos when my husband and I got married. Unfortunately I didn’t. Our house as a kid burnt down. We had trunks and trunks if old pictures. I so regret it now.

  2. Old photos are a thing of joy.

    I have boxes of pictures waiting for me to process, as does my wife. Thankfully, most of ours do have some reference to either, `some` of the people, or at least, the location (which can help).

    Concerning digitizing – its a great thing. ALWAYS make multiple copies of what you scan. Work in batches of say, 50 pictures. Once they’re scanned, do whatever magic you want concerning putting names on the pictures and either burn them to TWO (2) CD/DVD or copy to TWO (2) usb drives. The important thing is you want to have whatever is on your computer + TWO (2) additional copies.

    And as soon as you reach some milestone, start sending out copies to family members. Keep in mind you are spreading the seeds of your family’s history. 🙂

  3. Tipper I’ve been doing that very thing with my moms old photos, she’s going to be 98 on the 13th and still sharp but want to get this done. The above picture the lady next to your sweet mama is she a sister of hers cause you resemble her a lot to me. Love those old photos. I enjoy when you show pictures of the family.

  4. When my mother passed away in 1997, I found in her things a large photo of a family group posed on the stairs and front porch of a lovely house-probably taken around 1890. Most of them have some characteristic facial features of her side of the family and some I think I can name from other family photos that do have names on the back. Unfortunately, this picture has no names and there is now no one left who can tell me for sure who they are. Sure wish they had written something on the back.

  5. If anyone is fortunate enough to have family members that are able to identify kinfolks in a picture, please have them do so because it is really sad to look at pictures and you know they are your family but haven’t a clue who they are. I have some that I know but many, many more that neither my husband nor myself can identify and that is on both sides of our family. Since all are gone now that would have known who they were, we are left with nameless kinfolks. We still treasure the photos though.

  6. My precious 96 yr old Mom had to go to assisted living about 4 yrs ago. We had an estate sale at her house before putting it up for sale a year ago, and my brother & I had to clean out the house & we also brought things to our homes before the estate sale. I found a load of pictures & I have been slowly writing names on the back of the pictures if I know them. I wanted to do this for my daughter so she would know her long passed relatives. The ordeal of cleaning out Mom’s house got me thinking that I need to do the same thing at my home. I don’t want my daughter to have a lot of things to go through when I pass. I hauled a lot of things out of my house that my daughter would not want-trying to make it as easy as possible for her. The items left in my house (mostly small things like my great grandmother’s eyeglasses that are the kind that have slides on the sides), my uncle’s shaving cup he carried in World War I, churns,
    beautiful Crystal, China, my grandfather’s pocket watch & pocket knife and many other things. I think this is a good idea for parents to do to ease the burden for their children after the parents pass.

  7. Clicked on the link to the Williams website but couldn’t get any of it to load. I was really intrigued by the Grandma Got Run Over By A John Deere, being a HUGE Old JD fan. Was hoping maybe to see some pics of an old classic.

  8. That’s a wonderful family photo of Granny and her family. I totally agree with how important it is to write information on photos. For my mom’s 75th birthday my daughter and I transferred all my parents old photos to new acid free photo albums to prevent further fading of the photos. I realized back then I didn’t know hardly any of the people in the photos. This was because some were relatives or friends I either didn’t know or relatives in their youth that looked way different than their older selves that I remembered. Thankfully at that time my parents were alive and we matched names to most of the photos. Sadly, there were some they just couldn’t remember since they were both up in years. My daughter and I noted each photo with all the information they gave and since some photos had years on them that was extremely helpful. Sadly, they stopped printing years on photos back in the sixty’s to early seventies. It’s best when writing directly on photos to use acid free ink pens made for photos so they don’t fade over time or cause damage to the photos. After learning the importance of information on photos I made sure to write names, ages, location and dates on the back of my photos. I’m ashamed to say that now days since I, like so may others, use my smart phone to take pictures haven’t had any pictures printed out. The digital age is now slowly taking away the need for printed photos. I still get school pictures of my granddaughter and write all her information on them.
    I went on Herman Williams website with the link you shared and it is really well done. I started watching the first video, but had to stop since it was over 3 hours long and I didn’t have time to finish it. What I did see was great information about his family. I know his family will cherish the website he and his grandson made together in love for their family legacy.

  9. my question is, what to do with all these photos of nameless people?
    all my elders are gone. so there’s really no one to tell me who these people are. my daughter and her kids have no interest in folks that are nameless. the only thing I know is what side of the family they came from.

    1. Have you considered donating the photos to a library, college or historical collection in your immediate community? We recently had a similar situation and I found that my Mom’s college in central Kentucky was quite interested in the images to add to their collection. Unlike large 3 dimensional items (quilts come to mind), they had so much more room to house “ephemera” which takes less space. They loved the images not only for the people but also for the clothing, and surrounding context found in the images.

    2. Lisa, if you have any older siblings, aunts, uncles, older cousins or older close family friends that knew all your family that are still living, share photos with them to ask if they recognize any of the people. I found some old photos that didn’t get identified when my parents were living, but my aunt and my older cousin were able to identify who the people were, location and the approximate year it was taken. Even if all your immediate people have all passed ask their children, because they may have the same photos taken by their parents/grandparents that does have that information written on the photos. Just because your parents didn’t write that information doesn’t mean their siblings didn’t write or share that information with their children or grandchildren. It’s worth a try! I know it worked for me.

      1. I really wish I could, my Mom and Aunt were the only children my grandparents had. my cousins are as clueless as I am. I’ve even posted on find a grave, and haven’t gotten any response. I’ve literally spent hours and hours on the Internet trying to find relatives, you would think it would be easy, and I’ve had no luck.
        I’m so glad it worked for you! maybe someday I’ll trip down the right rabbit hole

  10. After my parents passed, I found, in storage, a larger sepia portrait in a very ornate frame of a young gentleman in what looks to be a Civil war uniform. I did not give it much thought and it was again stored until I rediscovered it a few months ago. Curious as to who the portrait might be of, I carefully removed the portrait from the frame in search of any info. All the portrait had on the back was the name ‘Taylor’, which was my mother’s maiden name. But as to who the portrait actually represents is still a mystery. I’m assuming it’s either a portrait of my mother’s grand or great-grandfather.

  11. One of my cousins found an entire photo album, beautiful velvet cover with the color faded from red to almost pink and full of gorgeous old studio portraits from the late 1800’s / early 1900’s. Not. One. Single. Name. None of the photos were documented with a name, a date, a place – nothing. It was heartbreaking. So now, anytime I come into possession of an old photo, the first thing I do is take it to my parents and get them to identify as many of the people in it and I write the names in order on the back. I still get old photos, from my mom especially, with people that we can’t identify any more.

  12. I have a large, 2′ oval framed picture of my mother taken in NC mountains. She was a baby and sitting in front of a very old tobacco barn. At least that is what she told me when she gave it to me. She was easily confused at that time and of course, it is not documented. The glass covering is shaped to protrude outward like a giant glass egg and is amazing that it hasn’t broken over the years. I”m 76 and she was about 1 year old in the picture. Years ago I went to a family reunion and my cousin told me the picture was of my Mom’s little brother. He remembers it and our ‘Maw’ Bonnie Haley telling him about it. It reminds me of her no matter who it is and her baby brother is no longer alive. So here it doing what a old family picture should – reminding me of my Mom.

  13. I have pictures, too, and I don’t know all the people in them. I wrote the names and ages of our girls on the back of the pictures we have.

  14. I am lucky enough to have my mother’s, my grammars and my great Aunt Polly’s photos. all but my mother would be well over 100 today. my grandmother did make an attempt to label her photos which helped identify some of Mt mothers and Aunt Polly’s as they are all from the same side of the family. I wish I had sat down with my family before it was too late to find out who these people were.

  15. We have been trying to do same last couple weeks. Years ago I sat down with mom and identified many. It has been fun but we have tons of photos to do . Putting them in albums for easier access and to share rather than in boxes in the closet.

  16. So true , we need to make note on the back who the photos were. I am eternally grateful to an uncle who spent most of his retirement years both documenting family history and collecting old photos. Many he did not recognize, but with his friendliness and familiarity with all the folks in the county, he was able to collect and put names to most faces. If folks would not loan a photo for him to copy, he always had an excellent camera and with their permission would snap a clear view of the photo. I can go on Ancestry.com and see the many handiworks, photos, and history put together by my dear uncle. Back when Doss was the thing he personally documented, copied, and sold a huge book in the area to many just to keep the history alive once he was gone. I have a copy he gave to my mom. Sad to say, with all the research and time spent, I can think of nobody who would value my collection gathered with lots of help from him. He sparked my interest, and I have spent many hours on genealogy. Unfortunately, my limited time is spread all over the place. It is an only a winter project and must be shared with painting and baking. So great to see you encourage the keeping of the old photos, stories, and traditions which keep the history of our Appalachia alive.

  17. My cousin got after his mother for not naming people or location or year on photos.

    On his following visit, she very proudly told him that she had been on the job.

    The first photo he checked had this notation on the back: “Taken last summer.”

  18. Side note: I saw your Truett family name and had to tell you…..my husband has always wanted a grandson named Treutt! My son even told me for years he was gonna name his first son Truett to surprise my husband. Well in the end my son couldn’t get his wife to go for Truett so they were prayin on it and then when my son was reading scripture he read Revelation 19:11……”and I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True,” and thought to himself, that’s it and named him after Jesus……True! (instead of Truett.) True Gentry, our first grandson.

  19. One summer Sunday when I was a young married mother, I sat with my grandmother (Granny) on her front porch going through and naming photos of older generations. So glad I did! Also asked questions of her and my grandfather about their families, but wish I had asked many more. Don’t delay with ID’ing photos!

  20. Great ideas re: How life was! Yes, for years coming up, I’d fuss about No Names on back of photos so when I took photos, as soon as I received them, I wrote names in ballpoint with light pressure so as not to engrave the photoside. Then I gave my adult kids theirs.

  21. Those older pictures are precious. I have many that didn’t name the people with no way to identify them now.
    Along with many backups on external hard drives, I’m printing many pictures and putting in albums.

  22. I meant to add this, by sitting in the car they thought they would be able to drive away from a tornado if there was one.

  23. We have many pictures that belonged to our mother but have no idea who the people are in some of the pictures. My mother and her parents lived through a tornado that came with 150 yards of their home (May 5, 1933 Belton, SC) before it turned and centered her aunt and uncles home killing about 5 of her relatives-the Thompson’s of Lebanon community. She kept all of her pictures except for the ones on display in a white pillow case . When I was a child in the 50 and early 60’s, she and her parents ( my grandparents) along with us children would all sit in one car during bad thunderstorms. Daddy would be away from home at work. Grandmother also had her pictures in a pillow case and both of them would grab the pillow cases and have them with them in the car. I know people today consider this strange, but I guess until you live through something like this we can not understand how it effected them. She was only 7 years old and in grandmother’s arm standing on the back porch watching the tornado coming straight toward them before it turned. She never completely got over it and was always terrified during bad thunderstorms. Me and the Thompson’s granddaughter (my cousin) were talking about this tornado over the past weekend, in 1933 it was estimated it did 1 million dollars worth of damage, today it would be about 23 million.

    1. Randy, I sure understand what your grandmother did with the photos in the pillowcases because I have always said my photos here at home would be one of the first things I would grab if I had to leave in an emergency. I’d carry as many as I could. She was very smart and also very caring to do that.

  24. my aunt, who lived to 103, had an old photo of an unknown baby that had been taken from a photo album. the black paper it had been pasted to came off with the photo when it was removed, obscuring the name on the back. over the years we’d all look at it and wonder who it was (everybody was still around then) until one day i decided to work patiently at it until it revealed “…your little cousin, irene.” irene was my aunt’s contemporary, born around 1906 on her father’s side, and also was still around at the time, we knew irene, mystery solved.

    they’re all gone now, for a couple of decades, and i am 71.. i have no idea (my mom’s generation would have said “EYE-dea”) where that picture is now, or if whoever has it knows who irene was any more than we knew who the baby was.

  25. This is why, during one summer, I went to my grandparents house and digitally scanned all their old photos and albums. I named each picture/file with who it was and how they were related. Now that all grandparents are gone I still have my folder of Kinfolk, backed up on my computers.

    1. You might consider backing it up to the cloud or an external hard drive just in case your computer crashes and you can’t retrieve it from the old hard drive like mine did. I went to a computer specialist to see if they could get into the hard drive, and they said they would try but no guarantees and I would have to pay them $1,000 up front just to try. They didn’t get my money and I still have the old hard drive thinking maybe someday if I win the lottery I might try it. Ha! Ha!

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