Any hints on finding photos of ancestors on the Internets?

[grasswire]

Google image seems to be useless, turning up way too many images that have nothing to do with your search.

Thanks in advance.

[pipi_k]

1. Got a photo or two

from "Genealogy Bank" this past March. Of course, you have to sign up for it, which I did. Got a month free, I think.

I found some cool newspaper articles, and a couple of photos, but after a few weeks of searching, there really wasn't a whole lot on most of the family so I canceled.

Ancestry.com has name groups you can search (I'm pretty sure you don't have to be a member) for possible relatives. That's actually how I got most of the photos I have for a particular branch of my family...I connected with a cousin who forwarded a bunch of photos to me that she had.

Just a couple of ideas....

[No Vested Interest]

2. I have found much good material in genealogybank.com.

More short newspaper articles from smaller cities when life was slower and a visit or an illness was reported on.
These articles put flesh on the names of these ancestors and their families, about whom I heard little from my parents.

I did find photos of my grandfather and another of his second wife, from whom he was divorced and whose name was never spoken within our family. It seems she went up on a plane - as a passenger - in about 1920 - that was the subject of the article.

[shanti]

5. you had a nice cousin, it seems

Last edited Thu Sep 11, 2014, 12:26 PM - Edit history (1)

some are not so nice. about 2008-9, i found some photos of my paternal great grandparents. there were TONS of old pics from the turn of the century and earlier, that were posted on a photo hosting site. come to find out, the owner of the pics was my second cousin. dad was the only child of both of his parents, and his father was one of two, the other being his older sister. two other sons had died in childhood.

as is usually the case, the daughter gets the lion's share of any family keepsakes, and my aunt got it all. my grandfather was not that close to his family either, so my father never got to know his cousins well, and they were all girls. all along, while growing up, i don't remember my dad even talking about his family, so i never knew he had any cousins.

SO.......i emailed this cousin and we shared family history (she knew a LOT). we discovered that we even called our great grandmother the same nickname! that was wild, because i don't remember being around her. everything was going well, and then i asked her if i could have copies of the pics (not all, but some), and she sent me "3" photos - of my grandfather, not our mutual g grandparents, which is what i really wanted.

she even emailed my dad, so she knew we were family.

then i never heard from her again, she just stopped answering any emails. i was crushed, because i really wanted to talk to her on the phone and ask more genealogy questions, and she was the LAST link to my dad's side of the family.

sorry to be longwinded, but yeah, i just don't get some people, why be greedy?

[blackcrow]

6. I found some distant cousins

One was great about photos and even had pics of ggrandparents he scanned in and sent me. A couple of others just didn't seem to give a darn. I also had one who seemed to be fearful about sharing anything, all I asked for was copies

[historylovr]

3. It seems to be hit or miss.

A search for one turned up exactly who I was looking for, but it probably helped that I knew of and already had those photos. A second search turned up someone different entirely. I had good luck when I did a paid membership on Ancestry[dot]com, and sometimes people will add photos besides headstones to Find a Grave. Wish I could be more help.

[No Vested Interest]

4. Ancestry.com has a yearbooks section

where many photos of individuals can be found in high school and college pics.
These are often group photos of clubs, teams, bands, etc, as well as individual graduation photos.

There may be other ways of locating school pictures, i.e., there are some yearbook sites and well as some school and college alumni sites that could be searched.

[pipi_k]

7. Wanted to add something cool

that happened the other day from being on Facebook


A relative of one of my aunts happens to have a public account, meaning that anyone can see any of the photos he's posted.

I would never have thought of looking at his stuff, and it was actually Mr Pipi who first discovered the photos of my mom's brothers and sisters from a long time ago

PLUS!!!

A photo of my mom's grandparents on her father's side.

From like 1901 or so, about 9 years before my grandfather was born.

So I've decided that I'm going to start checking out other people's facebook albums, and maybe even relatives of theirs whom I don't even know.


They can be awesome sources for articles and photos

[HeiressofBickworth]

8. Here's a website to try

deadfred.com It's a genealogy photo website and they have 18,648 surnames you can search.

[Nay]

9. If you know the state they lived/worked in, you can check the state historical

archives OR the person's city historical society for any items on your ancestor. I got some professional bios w/photos from the Wisconsin State Historical archives. I also have constant contact with a Wisc historical society in the town where most of my relatives started up -- they sent me tons of info, including copies of photos in their newspaper and magazine archives.

[Spider Jerusalem]

10. You'd have to be lucky enough to have someone who scanned photos of your ancestors

which depends on whether or not some local historical society had photos of them, or whether a distant cousin you didn't know about had photos of them, so, the odds are pretty lowish that you'll find anything. I found some photos of some of my ancestors on the National Archives website, but that's less to do with luck and more to do with the fact that my distant great-uncle (by marriage) was Mathew Brady (the photographer; Civil War, etc), and the National Archives has most of his negatives and prints.

[kdmorris]

11. Sometimes you can find them on ancestry.com

I know it's like the evil anti-genealogy, but I am still thrilled when I find a photo of them.

I looked also for regiment pics of my civil war ancestors.

[TuxedoKat]

12. On a whim

I googled one ancestor's name and up popped a drawing of both him and his wife! I was pretty amazed. Need to do some more of this.