I've got a box full of old photos as well as 8 photo albums. Rarely looked at and I guess after I've gone they will all be chucked out. Which is understandable but sad. I'll share some on here then they'll be around for ever -or until the internet is succeeded by the next technology!
This first is my Grandad and Grandma on their wedding day in 1924. This Gran died when I was just a baby - they had a small farm and she is one of those people I would have loved to have known.
And Grandad's son - my real Dad - marrying Mum in 1951 at Stowmarket Church. The same steps used now for getting into the church and the Osier cafe - for the best cheese scones.
My Dad died in a road accident a few months before I was born. I would have liked to have known him too. The two Aunts, my Mum and my cousin all died from cancer well before old age and my Grandad - Mum's Dad on the right- from the nasty lung disease after working with asbestos and dust all his life - and from heavy smoking of un-tipped cigarettes. So much cancer in the family - quite frightening really.
I still have Mum's wedding dress - because I'm not sure what to do with it, seems wrong to throw it out yet that's what I'll have to do - it's gone a very strange colour.
Back Tomorrow
Sue
Lovely old pictures 📸 good memories even though your dad died before you were born. I've had two friends die from cancer. One in June. Other one 2017. Take care.
ReplyDeleteSuch fabulous hats in the first photo. I have a wall of family photos in the hall - and even the recent ones are printed in black and white. They represent happy memories of those loved and lost, and unanswered questions about those I never knew, and a sense of continuity. My grandfather died a month before my brother was born, in his early 60s. Now my Bro is that age - and looks just like Grandad did. And at one end is great aunt Jessie - and granddaughter Jessie at the other. But I really must label them, because when I'm gone, who will know who's who?
ReplyDeleteSuch very precious memories - well worth preserving. Perhaps one of your children will appreciate them and preserve them too. xx
ReplyDeleteI can see the family resemblance in all the photos. You look very like your mum and grandmother.
ReplyDeletePrecious photos. My family photos are treasured possessions, some on my study walls as well as saved on the computer. They are irreplaceable.
ReplyDeleteI do love to look at old photos like these. I was struck by the difference in expressions between these two. They were obviously told not to smile in your grandparents photo.
ReplyDeleteSuch great photos. I’m collating 75 years worth of photos, have reached the 1970’s. A lot are going in the bin, views, people I don’t know as when I’m gone they will be thrown so it’s purely for my interest. I do wish that people would still have photos made into snaps and not just push a phone in front of your face, albums are just so lovely to sit and remember family. My husband died at 57 from cancer, 18 years ago on Friday, life seems to get harder on my own as I get older, def. struggling with garden and it’s small. Sandra.
ReplyDeleteInteresting pair of photographs. Not smiling in the first, though there are some smiles trying to get through, and then the happier smiles of your parents. I once tried making albums of all the separate grandchildren but it fell through.
ReplyDeleteLovely photos but so much sadness too. I don't think the younger generation understand photos like we did. We had so few of them that we looked after them. They have millions on their phones, they never look at. Maybe a fashion museum might like your mum's wedding dress. That way it will still be around in the future.
ReplyDeleteI love looking back at old photos (whilst trying not to get too sentimental!) It is really hard getting rid of things after a while - I still have my mothers Honeymoon going away outfit from 1956 & the skirt & jacket she wore for my Grandmother’s funeral in 1966! Do you follow Nancy Birtwhistle ( she won bake-off in 2014) on Instagram? If not, you should have a look. She has some great eco cleaning/gardening tips, including how to wash/get stains out of a wedding dress (May 21st post) - maybe test bits first! You could then either turn it in to something else (I have made cushions covers from old college jumpers) or just leave it & hope it will be of some use in the future - vintage wedding dresses are very popular! Glenda x
ReplyDeleteDefinitely photos worth keeping. Are you sure one of your children wouldn't want them? What about saving them in case one of your grandchildren might be interested, after all it's their history too. My Dad's sister (my Godmother) saved everything, which came to me as she never had children and I'm so glad she did as I now have photographs of my Great-Grandparents and a Great-Great Grandmother. I also have a wedding photograph of either a Great Aunt or Uncle taken after WW1 when all my Grandad's brothers, sisters and their spouses and children attended as well as my other Great-Grandparents. So don't get rid of them until you're absolutely sure no-one will want them.
ReplyDeleteThe photos of my Dad's parents generation I had to throw away, with regret, as my Mum had had died and they were not labeled. Since then my albums have details but I suspect that as my brother and I produced no children there is no one to worry about it. The great tip, collection on a Monday! Lesley
ReplyDeleteOld wedding dresses - it's horrible getting rid of them but the colour they go and storing them is a problem too, but when it comes to photos, I find it impossible to chuck them out........
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
Great wedding photos. Family history is important. Your grandchildren are young now but possibly one of them will take an interest in keeping the photos. I hold all the family photos. My son loves history (including family history) and will take possession eventually.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great way to pass on photos with explanations to family members, Sue. I just read in a newsletter I get for retired people about a man who does "Throwback Thursdays" and texts or emails photos with stories to his relatives each week as a way of passing on family history.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed studying the photos and looking at each face and outfit!
It's a shame to throw them out - they mark history. I seem to be the family archivist and am doing my best to make sure succeeding generations have some idea who's who in the thousands of photographs we have, all digitally stored now.
ReplyDeleteLovely pictures I would hope your children would want some for a family tree.
ReplyDeleteThere is a young woman who takes vintage dresses and cleans them and fixes them and resells them. If I come across her again I will get her web site it's nice to see the old dresses all looking new again and being reused.
Cathy
There are people who who repurpose old wedding dresses to make baptismal gowns for children in the family. Also sadly, some wedding gowns are recycled into burial gowns for babies.
ReplyDeletehttps://cariki.co.uk/blogs/the-green-road/where-to-donate-my-wedding-dress-in-the-uk
These are priceless photos - I hope you can preserve them for eternity somehow. Maybe one of the genealogy websites like Ancestry. Mine or on Tribal Pages.
ReplyDeleteLovely mementos of time past.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Sad for you not to have known your father and how hard for your mother to do that pregnancy alone! I hope she had family to help once you were born.
ReplyDeleteWe have a fair number of family photos and my mother regrets she didn't beg her mother to write on the back who many of these people were.
Precious photos indeed. Like you, I ask what going to happen to my photos? As you say, they'll end up in the trash which is a great pity. but nothing we can do about it At least you've preserved yours by posting them online as well as I have done
ReplyDeleteWhat beautiful photos, I am sure that they will be more appreciated than you think by the next generation.
ReplyDeleteMake sure they have all the names and important information that you remember written on the back in pencil. We have just been going through my Aunties old photos. Since she died a few months ago and we have really appreciated all the information she took time to put on the back of them. Well all apart from a mysterious 'George' that none of us recognise!!
PLEASE take time to write on the back who the photographs are of. I always told Mum to do that but she did so few. We didn't throw any of the photos out (there were people we recognised) but we know who so few of them are and it's a shame. It would be really nice to put a name to the face.
ReplyDeletesince mother lost her marbles ive found im now the family elder and cousins keep popping out the woodwork and asking who people are in old photos i just ink names on the back of those i have , theres nothing sadder than a nameless photo
ReplyDeleteI'll have them please mother dearest
ReplyDeleteGood on you son of Sue. Bless you all.
ReplyDelete