Rather than my grandkids finding a cardboard box of old photos in the back of a closet after I’m long gone, and wondering who those sepia toned people are, much like what I wondered when I first glimpsed the contents of some old boxes buried deep in the bottom of a closet, I figured I’d try and put names and stories to so many faces that were the origin of our families.
I started scanning prints, negatives, documents and artifacts during the summer of 2020, shortly after my wife Karin surprised me with Ancestry.com DNA results. Seeing photos from the late 1800’s ………
The images aren’t being uploaded chronologically, and in many cases, pictures in a sequence may not be of relatives on the same side of the family. They are organized by how they were found, and with as much information known. In some cases, if there was writing on the back of a photo, the backside is uploaded along side. Image names and descriptions are not guaranteed accurate and any information you have about a picture, whether names, places, stories or when taken, please feel free to share them in the comment section under the photo.
The scanned files are as large as possible to get as much detail as possible, but due to the sheer number of pictures, they may not be cropped perfectly and their tone/contrast are hardly touched. Doing so would have put this project off even longer. If you need a better version of an image let me know. In order to only make the photos available to family, you must register to request access. We must be related or a DNA match on Ancestry, or someone that though we may not have connected in decades (or ever) can prove familial connection.
Register here for access.