RANT RAVE & Impassioned Plea... or just an idea of how to give yourself, your family and your descendants a holiday present:

Isnt the infant in the first photo ADORABLE?? such a beautiful gown - possibly an heirloom...
too bad we dont have a clue who it is..

RAVE: I have been going through an absolute TREASURE TROVE of family photos for the last several days and am Over the Moon about being able to Scan them and enter them into our Family Tree.. thanks to the unknown someone who wrote on the back of some of the photos and THANK YOU to my dear late father in law who sat down with us one day and went thru so many of these photos that have little sticky notes on the back where he was able to tell me who they were. its been nearly 25 years since we did this.. now i can do what i promised him and share with the family.
Sad rant: then there are the other photos with no clue especially the really old ones that even at the family reunion i have grave doubts we can identify.. its just been too long..

 pic of two boys is an example of this - aren't they sweet? Note also the condition of the pictures Luckily they have been stored away from light but many of them are glued to high acid cardboard backings (used to be presented that way)  - am still trying to figure out if there is a way to remove them safely



i have run into this before.. when my grandmother died we found two LARGE cardboard boxes of photos and more than 2 thirds were not identifiable by those still living - two thirds.. we have NO idea who or what we lost

pic 3 is a glass plate in DREADFUL condition.. i cannot say being stored safely in an acid free environment would have helped this very old picture but i DO know it couldn't have hurt. The bad part is that these new acid free things simply weren't available until fairly recently.



Now here is my Challenge to you - all of you.



especially with holidays coming up. drag those photo albums out and dust them off - with Acid free sleeves available in all different sizes - with acid free pens available to write data on the back of the pics with new acid free albums and storage boxes you have more of a chance of keeping those memories alive.

PLEASE give your family the very great and precious gift of their history..

WRITE on those photos. NAMES / Occasions and DATES if you know them

don't make family members  go through deteriorating photo albums sometime in the future to realize they have no clue who these people are and in doing so LOSE their own history/family- I have lived through that frustration and loss - so let me tell you its REALLY horrid

THEN STORE THEM SAFELY.. we have the technology and knowledge now!!!

you Can do as i am doing and scanning them into the computer for another way to preserve them.. Please dont think you dont know how!! and put it off
i have only a minimum skill/program for 'fixing' pics but even that is helping clear the photos to make it easier to see the faces or places to identify them. EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPs
THEN SHARE your treasures!! the more places copies are the less likely they will be forever lost..(dreadful experiences with that problem in our family)
and besides
when you are done making Copies  GIVE them to other members of family - its a Great & caring gift

pic 4 one of our Treasures.. based on other photos i "think" i have identified these two

they MAY be Martha Ellen Rutherford and
Felix Grundy Johnson..

IF i have identified them correctly - id based on other smaller pictures

Pic 5 and identified picture although i have no idea when or the actual occasion still we know WHO they are and that is a treasure unto itself

JOHNSONs & DAVISON'sof Missouri and Iowa - Children & Cousins of Elmer Andrew Johnson and Letha Maude DAVISON

top row Margaret Zora Martha
next row Harlen Sam Lester Orlan
front row Leona Birt