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Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,743
Registered: ‎09-22-2017

Re: What do you do with old pictures?!?

It seems like today everyone takes tons of pictures, mainly on their phones,

but in reality everyone is not printing that many of them.

 

Phones are now their new photo albums. 

Valued Contributor
Posts: 685
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: What do you do with old pictures?!?

Sooner...absolutely love your quote..."Then one day I woke up and figured out I am not the Smithsonian"...!!!

 

I often say I am not the keeper of all things!

 

 

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,201
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: What do you do with old pictures?!?

I gave away all the loose family photos to my sister, who lives in an adjacent state; the albums to my daughter. Somehow I have a knack for remembering each and every one of those pictures. My Mom & Dad were picture takers. I kept a few for myself, but they are not displayed.

 

My DH's family worked for Kodak, as he did at one time. Now he has boxes of photos that we just haven't done anything with.

 

I have a ton of pictures that I took myself uploaded on my computer. This summer on vacation I am going to limit my photo taking.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,612
Registered: ‎04-05-2010

Re: What do you do with old pictures?!?

I don't have children, just lots of nieces & nephews. I used to get their school pictures, put them in small frames & displayed them. They're all grown now, so I put all the pics in a box and it's stored in my closet...I'll probably just toss them eventually. I have a set of my parents wedding photos that I'll probably give to my niece (their only granddaughter)--she's also getting their china.

 

There are tons of photos at my parents house and I don't think anybody is going to want them. Their grandchildren don't really seem to care about old pictures. I don't have anyone to pass them on to. So they'll probably be thrown away once my dad is gone.

 

It's really kind of sad.

Super Contributor
Posts: 453
Registered: ‎03-25-2010

Re: What do you do with old pictures?!?

I am lucky that I am the oldest in my family so all photos from every side of the family, every which side, since around 1850.  I scanned every photo then "classified" into which side of the family they belonged.  Each one is labeled with names and dates.  Then on my computer I put them in folders labeled by family names.  Then I copied every single photo and folder onto flashdrives.  I sent a flashdrive to every single member of the family.  My family has grown since I joined Ancestry so once I "vetted" those people, they got a flashdrive with their particular line on it.  

 

 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 15,523
Registered: ‎09-01-2010

Re: What do you do with old pictures?!?

I would consider donating old family pictures to the local chapter of the historical society.   They get calls and visits all the time from people doing genealogy research.

 

A niece of my grandmothers found us after visiting the local historical society office and looking thru family information I had submitted years earlier.   She knew her mother was from this area, but thought the family had long died out.   At that time she still had 2 aunts, an uncle, and about 20 cousins here, which was a big shock.   

Honored Contributor
Posts: 18,415
Registered: ‎11-25-2011

Re: What do you do with old pictures?!?

I’m finally going through my photo albums to ‘thin the herd.’

Remember ‘double prints?’ I have tons of duplicates.

I’ll keep old family photos but random pics?

Toss.

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Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,893
Registered: ‎03-12-2010

Re: What do you do with old pictures?!?

I made a gallery wall in my home office of my favorite framed family photos.  Loose photos are organized in small archival boxes, but I limited myself to one per child and one for friends, one for travel and one for ancestors.  That way, I only kept the best/most memorable photos.  All of the others were discarded.

 

At some point, I may scan all of the loose photos and load them to an electronic frame so that they show as a slide show.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,107
Registered: ‎03-20-2010

Re: What do you do with old pictures?!?

Good post. I have tons of old photos, and I just haven’t dealt with them... These are good ideas to prompt me to get to it!! Thx- 🤓

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,040
Registered: ‎09-12-2010

Re: What do you do with old pictures?!?

My hubby had photos of his sons (now grown) put onto CDs for them (he still has the photos). I have/had a ton of photos from my mother - old family photos. Since I don't have kids or siblings, I gave several albums to my close cousin since she wanted them and she'll share them with family members who want them. I don't keep Christmas photos from family and friends who send them with holiday cards - don't need them and don't want to store them. Old photos are another story. I had so many of them and had to decide how important they were to me. I try to find a home for the family photos, but cousins have their own photos from their parents! It's hard to pitch them, but sometimes I didn't have much choice.