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Gathering Visual Information and Artefacts - International Institute: Difference between revisions
Gathering Visual Information and Artefacts - International Institute (view source)
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This category includes paintings, photographs, postcards, and illustrations from books and other sources, as well as maps. Some families are lucky enough to possess oils or water colour paintings of members of their family. There may also be portraits of people or houses in other media. You should definitely ask whether anything survives and have copies or photos made. Enterprising family historians have been known to trade such copies for family information from secretive relatives! | This category includes paintings, photographs, postcards, and illustrations from books and other sources, as well as maps. Some families are lucky enough to possess oils or water colour paintings of members of their family. There may also be portraits of people or houses in other media. You should definitely ask whether anything survives and have copies or photos made. Enterprising family historians have been known to trade such copies for family information from secretive relatives! | ||
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Photography started about 1840 but few families have any pictures before 1860 or so. Most families do have a box or album of photographs of people and places associated with their family. Make sure that you find them before someone throws them out. Archives have indexed collections of photographs of places and people in their areas, so be sure to ask about these as well as the written sources. | Photography started about 1840 but few families have any pictures before 1860 or so. Most families do have a box or album of photographs of people and places associated with their family. Make sure that you find them before someone throws them out. Archives have indexed collections of photographs of places and people in their areas, so be sure to ask about these as well as the written sources. | ||
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It is a good idea to accumulate a collection of copy photos of each ancestor, even if your primary goal is not to research every line at present. Family photos tend to disappear if no-one is known to be interested in preserving them! Too often have I heard the lament from someone just returned from a funeral that, “They threw out Auntie’s box of photos because they didn’t know who they were/ they were only dead people/they thought no-one was interested.” Such tragedies can be averted by letting everyone know now that you are the ‘nut’ in the family who cares about all those dead people. | It is a good idea to accumulate a collection of copy photos of each ancestor, even if your primary goal is not to research every line at present. Family photos tend to disappear if no-one is known to be interested in preserving them! Too often have I heard the lament from someone just returned from a funeral that, “They threw out Auntie’s box of photos because they didn’t know who they were/ they were only dead people/they thought no-one was interested.” Such tragedies can be averted by letting everyone know now that you are the ‘nut’ in the family who cares about all those dead people. | ||
Do you have a good black-and-white picture of yourself and each member of your present family? Many people only have colour photos, and if you’ve taken a look at some of the early ones from the 1950s you will see that they have faded considerably. We know that B & W photos last at least 150 years. | Do you have a good black-and-white picture of yourself and each member of your present family? Many people only have colour photos, and if you’ve taken a look at some of the early ones from the 1950s you will see that they have faded considerably. We know that B & W photos last at least 150 years. | ||
==== Postcards ==== | ==== Postcards ==== | ||