As I mentioned, after I shipped hundreds of photos, I was able to focus on what I had left. Besides my direct line keepers, I had a lot of unknowns. I do not pitch photos easily, but I also have a use it or lose it philosophy, finding a solution for a pile of unidentifiable photos required thought.
Last month, with much relief, I dropped a large envelope with 152 photos off at the local genealogy department. Yes, that picture (below) is 152 photos, doesn’t look like that much, does it?
In Indiana, many county libraries have very good (staffed) genealogy departments. I use several of them regularly. The one in my town happens to be one of the best in the country.
I had called earlier and explained that I had unlabeled photos from my great grandmother’s album that were approximately WWI era. They discussed it within the department and then called to say that yes, they wanted them, if I was willing to write an accompanying piece about my great grandmother.
I wrote, youngest helped me edit. I included information about my great grandma’s parents and grandparents and two husband’s. I talked about the restaurant that her mother and step-father ran in the early 1900’s near the railroad station, where they worked and met many people. I talked about who might be in the photos, mentioning family lines and WWI soldiers.
The library is going to scan the photos and include my piece when they post the collection online. I am not sure if it will be edited or included as I wrote it.
The relief, to have something meaningful to do with those photos, was huge. I estimate that most were taken before 1922. So yes, 100 year old photos.
I could not bring myself to pitch them. But I had to think very hard what to do with them.
