Need thoughts and advice

[Queenie]

Hiya,

My sister is really bad at remembering to send through photos of her family but finally, after many moths of annoying her - she's sent me a full back up. Herin lies my problem. I now have 6 years of photos of my neice - and no idea how to begin scrapping them. I really want her to have an album like my nephew and her sister will have, but 98% of those pics I wasn't around when they were taken and I have no back stories. It's just: "X on the beach", "X riding her bike", "X blowing bubbles in the park".

The pics are beautiful - sis has art and photography degrees coming out of her ears and BIL is great too, plus they spend a lot of time visiting vert scenic natural places. I just have no idea where to start!

Any suggestions?

 

[AlexWyattMommy]

Any chance there are dates associated with the photos? If you do a property search on them, does it give a date taken?

If it does, then that is how you scrap them. Not every page has to have the story behind the photo. If you think your sister would remember and would really do it, leave a little room for her to add the journaling. Or your neice could ask her Mom/Dad about the photos on that page and SHE can document them.

 

[hopemax]

How often do you talk to DSIS? Could you work the pics into conversation, "I was looking at your pics and there was a pick of DN doing something; what is is from, when, etc?" Do one or two groups of pics per conversation or something.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

start in chronological order and pester the hound out of your sister. With the new baby she can't go far anyway right.

No seriously, I agree with Hope, work them into the conversation. If you know where she went maybe you can do some research and add some informational notes in the pages.

And get some blank journal cards that Sis can add to later.

 

[MazdaUK]

I second the blank journal cards The other thing you can do if there's no dates and you can't pick from obvious things (like I know the first Legoland trip was x and she was in a buggy, but she's walking here so its y or later) then group them by theme with sort of "getting bigger" headings - especially if there's somewhere they go regularly so you've got her on the same slide but different times.

Doing my MIL's album I sorted by themes as I had no idea, then I put together a family tree (badgering her for names and dates) and anyone who didn't fit in I put separately and when she came over for lunch made her tell me who everyone was. Some of them were not family but friends from way back so I gave her those, but there were some random pics of people as children adn I just did one page for them - I'll pick up the individual stories later if I come across more pics.

 

[Queenie]

Oh grief don't even get me started on the family tree photos. So many pics of random children from the early 1900's who could be anyone!

OK I've looked and all the folders are dated, thank goodness. I'm going to trawl through and delete all the ones that are random - BIL has a tendency to photograph really wierd things - and the ones of people I don't know that snuck through sis's purge.

As for asking her to do the journalling, she has a sieve where her brain should be, honestly it constantly amazes me that she remembers which house is hers! Plus if I ask her to do it, it will probably get done in time for my grandkids graduating college... I may try and get loads of pages done, then take them along when I go stay and we can do it together then so she can't forget!

 

[MazdaUK]

I've found that helpful for MIL's album - no use asking DH, he could just remember the house number but had NO idea when his parents bought it, and one pciture he confidently identified he then said (AFTER I'd journalled it )"Actually they might be someone completely different