Throwing Away Old Photographs - Page 3

haddon9 · ‎03-09-2010

I feel the same way. My mother passed last May and we did go through many old photos, some of which were thrown away. I ended up taking home quite a bit though.

There are old professional wedding pictures, my parents' wedding album from 1950, and several school and family photos dating back to the 1930s. I packed them up and brought them to my house. They are now sitting on one of the shelves in my basement.

There is a large wedding portrait of my grandparents from 1918 that my mother had framed and hung on a wall in her condo. It measures roughly 24" x 33" and I don't want it in my home. Yet I don't have the heart to throw it in the dumpster. So it still hangs on its place on the wall.

My brother and I have to decide what to do with the condo but it's bee a difficult year for us to go down to Florida.

ECBG · ‎01-08-2011

@haddon9

You can likely take the large picture to a store like Kinko and have it shrunk to an 8 x 10 which you could display.

Tinkrbl44 · ‎08-23-2010

Oh boy, I went through this last year .... a friend passed away and she had tons of family photos, but no one was still alive. She was adopted, had no siblings or cousins ... or even any semi-relatives.

I asked several people who'd known her over the years, and no one had any ideas as to who might want them. I finally tossed them, but it broke my heart to do so.

haddon9 · ‎03-09-2010

@ECBG wrote:
@haddon9

You can likely take the large picture to a store like Kinko and have it shrunk to an 8 x 10 which you could display.

@ECBG I hadn't thouht of that! good idea!

occasionalrain · ‎03-10-2010

Some people like old photos, donate them. Even the frames can be reused. I bought a framed photo of an unknown boy that appealed to me, just something about him.

RedTop · ‎09-01-2010

Pictures are one of the best leads to find relatives.

The only picture my paternal grandfather had of his father was taken on the farm in the early 1940's.

I found that same picture on a genealogy site 2 years ago, posted by someone I presume to be another great granddaughter. I had 2 great aunts who left WV for midwestern states, and know the person who posted the picture is from one of those families. I am still searching for her thanks to this picture.

wilma · ‎03-13-2010

We have tons of old photos here. My husband has huge boxes of them from his family. His father was always taking photos. When his dad passed way, and his mother went into assisted living, my husband got all of the photos. I've never counted, but there must be thousands of photographs down in our basement. 😱

My husband spent a few years, yes, you read that correctly, going through the photos. He would take some to his mom and have her identify the people he didn't know. He scanned them and stored them on his computer. Then he made CDs and gave them to his siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. The original photos are still in boxes in our basement. He rarely throws anything out so my guess is the photos will be in those boxes in our basement for a long time.

I have several photo albums of my family, but they take up very little space. I think I could go through mine and pick out some favorite photos and discard the rest. I could probably downsize to one album.

ECBG · ‎01-08-2011

@haddon9 wrote:
@ECBG wrote:
@haddon9

You can likely take the large picture to a store like Kinko and have it shrunk to an 8 x 10 which you could display.
@ECBG I hadn't thouht of that! good idea!

@haddon9

If you have a Michael's crafts, they do beautiful matting and framing. I have even taken them antique prints where the frame was falling apart.

I have one I especially love of a little girl with strawberries. The frame looks like the image of grasses or plants.

CelticCrafter · ‎03-09-2010

I'm to the point where I'm ready to just throw the boxes out once and for all.

No one looks at them.

My immediate family - parents and siblings - have passed away and I have no one to ask who are these people so why am Ieaving the task to my daughter to deal with once I'm gone.

About a month ago I did go through them, found pictures of my brothers ex-wife and her family - pitch or send to a niece. I asked my niece if she wanted them, yes she did, spent a pretty penny to send them and crickets waiting to hear if they ever got to her. When I had to ask three times I got told I was being passive-agressive. If I come across anymore, they will be thrown out.