topic Re: Family Photo Albums in Community Chat

Family Photo Albums

timeless — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 02:13:09 GMT

As the official keeper of many family photo albums, I sometime feel like I'm holding onto a past that the future will not care to inherit.

It seems to me that our progenitors thought that physical photos would be preserved with revere. But I'm not seeing that.

How many photos are in antique shops? Family memories that have been jettisoned because their "today aesthetic" hates it?

How do we as the "older generation" impart the importance upon the iPAD generation that a physical photo is to be preserved?

I don't know...but I keep the physical of all my family. The musical albums; the "good china"; the family albums...

The major "pain-in-the-ass" INHERITANCE we have had to find a way to preserve...for our family. Those who will care, anyway.

Re: Family Photo Albums

Mz iMac — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 02:32:53 GMT

@timeless 10+ years ago, my children ~~asked~~ told me to scan their childhood albums & put on a DVD since I am retired. Each has their own photo albums. This project would have taken months up to a year of my valued time to complete.

After thinking about it for 2 seconds. I gathered each photo album, started collecting Amazon boxes. I boxed each & every album for each child, w/a note inside.."do it yourself or do w/it what you wish"...drove to the PO & mailed them off 2 weeks later. They are all scattered across the USofA. None live nearby.

Every year since I asked one of the grands if their parents made any family DVDs. Their answers have always been NOPE!

Re: Family Photo Albums

timeless — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 02:43:19 GMT

@Mz iMac "Every year since I asked one of the grands if their parents made any family DVDs. Their answers have always been NOPE!"

I really don't know what to do about this!

Re: Family Photo Albums

Mz iMac — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 02:47:26 GMT

@timeless The grands look through the albums from time to time. Other than that, their family albums are either on their phones, iPads or computers & tv as rotating screensavers. Just not on DVDs.

Re: Family Photo Albums

beach-mom — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 03:06:52 GMT

I have a painting of a great, great, great aunt Amelia as a young girl in prairie clothes. My grandmother didn't know much about her, only that she had the painting and gave it to me. She doesn't even know where her great aunt lived. "Amelia" is written on the back of the painting. She looks to be a young teenager, with her hair in braids, and not smiling.

My maternal grandfather's side came here in the late 1800's. My paternal grandfather came in the early 1900's. I don't know much about both of my grandmothers' sides, only that both were English.

I don't have the painting up, because there is a smudge across the front. But I feel guilty getting rid of it. IDK what I will do with it eventually. It's not easy for any of us entrusted with pictures like this, is it?

Re: Family Photo Albums

timeless — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 03:10:27 GMT

My point here is to keep the PHYSICAL media. No matter who says to throw it out or transition it to the latest computer file.

HOLD THE LINE. I believe our future will need these physical (holding in their hands) help from us and those that came before us.

I see so many videos on line talking about "down-sizing" for those that are over 50 so they can retire.

But I don't see many that are saying they need to keep the family "inheritance" in photos, etc.

My belief is that the younger generation will be grateful their parents didn't toss it all because of "asthetic" of the day.

Re: Family Photo Albums

timeless — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 03:15:08 GMT

@beach-mom

Keep it, please!

I have a similar photo of my mom in her wedding dress. I't an albatross in today's esthetic. So I keep it in our closet.

Thanks for understanding what we are going through! Keep it.

Re: Family Photo Albums

AuntMame — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 07:13:19 GMT

When I inherited my mom's stash of photos I put together about a dozen small photo albums of families and ancestors. I had sorted the photos by families. I shipped them off to cousins, nieces, nephews, even elderly aunts and uncles who I thought might like to see them. I received only a few thank-you notes. Though some were highly grateful and so effusive in thanks and surprise I was glad I did it. It took me a lot of time and expense to do this but...I was glad I did it. I passed the photos on to the next generation as best that I could. It is up to them to cherish and preserve them, if they wish to do so. It is out of my hands. That is the best one can do.

I also offered to send digital copies of many of the photos, but no one took me up on that.

Re: Family Photo Albums

SloopJohnB — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 08:08:14 GMT

@AuntMame wrote:
When I inherited my mom's stash of photos I put together about a dozen small photo albums of families and ancestors. I had sorted the photos by families. I shipped them off to cousins, nieces, nephews, even elderly aunts and uncles who I thought might like to see them. I received only a few thank-you notes. Though some were highly grateful and so effusive in thanks and surprise I was glad I did it. It took me a lot of time and expense to do this but...I was glad I did it. I passed the photos on to the next generation as best that I could. It is up to them to cherish and preserve them, if they wish to do so. It is out of my hands. That is the best one can do.

I also offered to send digital copies of many of the photos, but no one took me up on that.

Your last sentence sums things up perfectly. Ain't nobody got time for that. Lol. But I do. I love to thumb through photo albums and such. But then again, I'm old school. I still love to read a book, an actual book. Magazines and catalogs, too. I still subscribe to the daily newspaper. I prefer sheet music over a computer screen. I'm sure my kids don't agree with me. 🤷

Re: Family Photo Albums

Laura14 — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 10:14:21 GMT

I have my grandmother's albums. About thirty of them.

My favorites are the ones of great grandparents I never met to see who I look like. I love family history and I was very lucky to have one set of grandparents who told us stories about growing up every night after dinner. It left me with a real appreciation of where I come from not to mention fascination with how things were done years ago.

My other grandmother would never speak of any of her family so I took that as a cue that not all was well.

I have a strong appreciation for my family history even though I never flip through these days.

But, I think you have to give kids an entry point to curiosity with storytelling. Or wait until they settle down and have families themselves to really appreciate what the physical, and now digital media, are all about.

Re: Family Photo Albums

Shanus — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 10:32:44 GMT

@timeless So very true and definitely a pain in the a*s. When my younger brother passed 25 yrs. ago, I became the "keeper" of albums and family archives.

I inherited albums, records, jewlery, china, etc. My saving grace was when we sold the house and moved to our apartment. We only chose what was important to keep. Photos were taken out of albums and sent to a company who sends them back as DVDs. My kids have had duplicates of any photos they wanted and no interest in inherited furniture, china, etc.

I think that generation isn't as sentimental as we are so that's the way it goes. I've accepted their wishes to not want the physical memories.

Re: Family Photo Albums

candys mine — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 11:52:03 GMT

It's a strange new world. Individual connections to one's family past are being forgotton by choice. No anchor to the past means it's easier to drift where another current Directs you.

Keep your tangible history.

Re: Family Photo Albums

CelticCrafter — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 13:05:11 GMT

If someone wants to keep old photos, that's fine. How often do you really go through the boxes or books looking at them?

I've made the decision to start getting rid of them so it's one less thing for our daughter to do. She won't have to feel guilty or be another generation of who the heck is that because none of the backs were named or dated.

Re: Family Photo Albums

goldensrbest — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 13:14:35 GMT

As a person that has always loved photos of family members,some of which i never knew,i found it difficult to part with those,but i had to weed out some,my son,and grandaughters have no interest in them.

Re: Family Photo Albums

Eileen in Virginia — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 13:15:09 GMT

When my MIL died 11 years ago, I agreed to scan the crate of pictures and photo albums she left behind. My logic was that I was retired and this was something I could do in my spare time. The pictures ran the gamet from my in-laws' formal wedding album to some pretty awful amateur photographer's shots (probably taken with someone's new Christmas/birthday camera). The timeframe went from the early 1900's to the 1960's.

What started out as interesting quickly became mind-numbingly boring. There were a few funny instances like the one where I gave Granddad a third eye while trying to use the Edit feature (thank heavens for the Undo feature!). Few of the pictures were labeled, so we had to guess who a lot if the people were. There's a whole bag of pictures of an unknown family in the early 1900's at what looks like the prairie. Interesting, since both sets of in-laws were born and raised in New York City.

I kept at it for about a year before I couldn't take it anymore. DS tried it for a couple of days before he quit. Neither of DH's sisters were interested in accepting the baton, so the crate sits collecting dust. Then, the laptop I had scanned them to died! 🤬🤯 I'm not going to try to restart this project because, at the end of the day, I don't think anyone really wants these pictures. We're going home in July and I'll give them one last chance to take them. If not, I'll keep some for ourselves and get rid of the rest.

It's interesting that, during the time that these pictures span, photography evolved from a profession to a casual hobby. Cell phones hadn't been invented yet.

Re: Family Photo Albums

shoptilyadropagain — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 13:30:28 GMT

My parents, or rather my mom, were never really big on taking pictures and having tons of photo albums. When my mom passed away last summer, I had the task of going thru the photo albums she did have. Neither my brother nor I wanted them nor did we have room for them either. My niece and nephew had gone through them years ago and took what they wanted.

I ended up taking them home, taking the pictures out and shredding them. I did find several that I kept (parents wedding pictures, etc.). I found one album that had all old-time pictures in it that I had never seen before. I'm assuming these were relatives but there were no names written anywhere and I didn't even know if they were from my mom or dad's side of the family. I had thought about saving it to ask a few remaining aunts and uncle on each side of the family but most are in pretty fragile health, and/or live in a different state and I didn't know when I would get the chance to see them and ask them. Besides, as executor of mom's estate, I had a million other things to get done.

The pictures that really mean something to me are scanned kept in a private folder on Facebook and my brother has done the same thing.

That's what we did and worked for us.

Re: Family Photo Albums

deepwaterdotter — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 14:04:39 GMT

The only thing the younger folks in my family are hoping I preserve for them is $$$.

Re: Family Photo Albums

Puppy Lips — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 17:12:25 GMT

I have all my mother’s photo albums and scrap books. It takes up a lot of space. I don’t know what I will do with them. Kids surely don’t want them. I may take the photos out and put them in photo boxes. They would be more likely to keep those. If the photos are not labeled on the back, I can do that at least, saying who was in the photo.

Re: Family Photo Albums

timeless — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 19:28:46 GMT

@Puppy Lips I have all my mother’s photo albums and scrap books. It takes up a lot of space. I don’t know what I will do with them. Kids surely don’t want them. I may take the photos out and put them in photo boxes. They would be more likely to keep those. If the photos are not labeled on the back, I can do that at least, saying who was in the photo.

That's what I have done, too. Most photos I have inherited didn't have names of the people in them and it took a long time to complete.

I remember when I was newly married, over 40 years ago, I sat down with my husband's grandma and labeled the people in the albums she gave me. I never would have known who they were since many had died. Glad I did that before she passed on!

Re: Family Photo Albums

timeless — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 19:33:48 GMT

I see a lot of answers mentioning digitizing the photos.

I've sent away for copies to be made of many that are on the slides I inherited from my dad, but I've kept the slides and projector/screen anyway!

I just can't seem to get rid of any physical, regardless of duplicating them in digital! The thought of tossing any of it makes me slightly ill.

*shrug* lol