(no subject)

I think I've mentioned before that, over a period of months last year, I borrowed what turned out in the end to be hundreds of old family photos and records from various relatives - from my Mum, my Nan, my aunt - and painstakingly scanned them to create a digital archive of those images and documents, some of which date back to the 1900s and even earlier. I think the oldest of all is the naval certificate of one distant ancestral relative recording his entire career from 1867-97! At the time I wasn't even entirely sure why I was doing it, other than I wanted to have copies of those images and documents for myself. But the value of the project has been revealed as, one by one, other relatives have heard about it and asked for copies - I've sent CDs to cousins of my Dad living as far away as Australia. Just this week one of Mum's cousins who she hasn't seen since childhood contacted us via ancestry.co.uk asking for prints of some of the pictures we have of mutual relatives, offering in exchange copies of such old photos as she has access to, including some of my great-great-grandfather who died in WWI, who we'd never seen any pictures of before. All in all, I think the project is working out well! And I've loved doing it, as I feel like I've got to know my forebears better than I ever could otherwise - those images have really brought the family tree to life.

I have many favourites among the hundreds of photos that I've scanned. This is one of those favourites: my Auntie Joan, who I was named after, when she was a very little girl in around 1940 - all dressed up in her dad's army uniform with his pipe in her hand!


(In this icon, I'm not far off the same age - spot the family resemblance!)

(no subject)

I think I've mentioned before that, over a period of months last year, I borrowed what turned out in the end to be hundreds of old family photos and records from various relatives - from my Mum, my Nan, my aunt - and painstakingly scanned them to create a digital archive of those images and documents, some of which date back to the 1900s and even earlier. I think the oldest of all is the naval certificate of one distant ancestral relative recording his entire career from 1867-97! At the time I wasn't even entirely sure why I was doing it, other than I wanted to have copies of those images and documents for myself. But the value of the project has been revealed as, one by one, other relatives have heard about it and asked for copies - I've sent CDs to cousins of my Dad living as far away as Australia. Just this week one of Mum's cousins who she hasn't seen since childhood contacted us via ancestry.co.uk asking for prints of some of the pictures we have of mutual relatives, offering in exchange copies of such old photos as she has access to, including some of my great-great-grandfather who died in WWI, who we'd never seen any pictures of before. All in all, I think the project is working out well! And I've loved doing it, as I feel like I've got to know my forebears better than I ever could otherwise - those images have really brought the family tree to life.

I have many favourites among the hundreds of photos that I've scanned. This is one of those favourites: my Auntie Joan, who I was named after, when she was a very little girl in around 1940 - all dressed up in her dad's army uniform with his pipe in her hand!


(In this icon, I'm not far off the same age - spot the family resemblance!)