Don't Throw Out Those Old Family Photos!

When my mother passed away, my brother and I were left with hundreds of old family photos. At her celebration of life ceremony, we spread many of these photos over several tables, inviting family members to take any cherished photos.

After the ceremony, many photos remained. About 100 photos had family member(s) we couldn’t identify. We decided to keep them, hoping some of them would eventually be identified.

For the next thirteen years those unidentified photos sat in a box. A few months ago, I was contacted by a distant cousin I had never met. My cousin was searching for very specific photos on the history of her great grandparents’ home.

Unfortunately, I could not help her with this request. However, I did suggest mailing those 100 or so unidentified photos to her. Perhaps some would be valuable to her immediate family. I requested that any remaining photos be mailed back to me.

My cousin contacted me soon after she received those photos in the mail. She immediately identified seven of the photos from her family.

One of the most precious photos was of her grandparents when they were very young. She visited her parents – in their late 80’s – to see if they could identify more of the pictures. She also brought these pictures along on a vacation to relatives living in another state. Several more pictures were found to be valuable to her family.

Don’t throw out those old family photos!

They provide an opportunity to reach out to family members you’ve never met, who will love searching through those old photos to hopefully capture a piece of their family history.

And there is always the opportunity for them to reciprocate. They may surprise you with some old family photos your family members will cherish.

From access to our family tree on ancestory.com, I have enjoyed connecting with many of my distant family members. I have learned much about my family and about the history of our larger family tree.

Keep those old family photos and happily share them.

No one knows how many golden memories are hidden in these stacks.

About the Author

Richard O. Weijo, PhD, received an undergraduate degree from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and went on to receive his MBA and PhD degrees from the University of Minnesota. He was an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Richard was also a Senior Analyst at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and his most recent corporate position was as a Manager of market research and Director of customer channels at Portland General Electric. Currently, he is a consultant and a writer. He adores his young granddaughter Elsie, whose birth inspired his book, Remember Me: Creating and Leaving an Inspiring and Memorable Legacy.