Ideas Please! (wartime photos)

[Queenie]

My mum's been going through loads of old photos and is giving me dozens of them. They're of old relations, my grandparents, great grandparents and other people, some of whom I never met. There's also a lot of my dad and his brother as children, family holidays etc but the majority are wartime pics from WW1/2 of male relations in Algiers etc.

I have no idea what to do with these! I don't want to just shove them in a box because they'll get stored away somewhere and never seen again. I can't really use a normal photo album as the pics are all shapes and sizes. I was thinking of some sort of scrapbook type idea but I don't even know lots of the people so journalling would be a nightmare! Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[HERSEY]

Do you know how to quilt or know someone who does! You could make or have made a memory quilt. I've seen some memory quilts at a local quilt show WOW !!

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

I would definitely do some type of heritage album with those photos. Interestingly I was reading an article over the weekend about "lost" information from generations gone by. This was in a geneology magazine (DH is working on that particular project) and suggested keeping a journal for future generations but scrapping is essentially the same thing.

Try to find the information you can - through surviving family members, look up information through whatever sources you have available on the units (government records perhaps?). You might even be able to track down a surviving member of the unit if no one in your family can identify the folks in the photos who can figure out who they are.

And if you are not able to identify the people, at least identify the unit, place, and anything else you can. Sometime in the future you may find someone out there looking for just such info...

Deb

 

[i12go2wdw]

You could put them together to form a few pages and if you cannot find out too much info about the actual people in the pictures you could tell the history of the war in that area at that time. Most people so little about the wars in general that having it in an album with distant relatives might be a good way for your kids and grand kids etc. to internalize it more easily. The pictures definately need to be saved.

JMHO Christine

 

[Queenie]

Our family is working on its family tree too Deb, that's how these pictures came up. My mum had my grandad over to help her name the people in the pictures and most are now identified. He's the last relative from my dad's side of the family who would know anything about their past so mum wanted to rack his brains while she still had the chance. Most people in the pictures have names now and we know where the pics were taken, I just never knew them myself. I love the idea of putting information about the war onto the pages with military pictures Christine, I could ask my grandad to write something as it's him in the pics and I'm guessing there's a lot of (not necessarily happy) memories associated with those images.

I don't know anything about quiliting, if someone could enlighten me that would be great

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

That is terrific Queenie! One thing that I read about was that sometimes with older folks it helps if they don't actually have to write (although if they will capturing some of that old style penmanship is fabulous IMO) but can just tell the story with perhaps a tape recorder going off to the side.

I hate to admit my ignorance of English geography but where approximately is Leeds in relationship to Cornwall? I knew that my maternal grandfather's father had come from there to the UP of Michigan, but just recently discovered that his mother's father and mother also came from there. The really strange thing is that they left in 1870 & 1873 for Nevada and ended up sometime between 1880 and 1900 in the UP of Michigan!

It is a good thing to capture that information while older generations are around to help.

Deb

 

[Queenie]

If you look at a map of the UK, Cornwall is tip of the pointy bit at the bottom left. Leeds is about halfway up the main body (just above where Wales sticks out to the left) and halfway across at that point. Basically it's a LONG drive (by UK standards at least!) My family used to holiday in Cornwall when I was a kid, specifically in St Ives.

My grandad is suprisingly active for his age and drives around all the time to different events (much to the anguish of my family which you'd understand if you'd ever been in a car with him! ) He does calligraphy and could write some short stories beautifully that way, could make the book look even more pretty.

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

I'd say go for it - try to get Granddad to write those stories in his beautiful hand. And at the same time it'll keep him out of the car!

Deb