Photos - Why Bother?

[bainbrig]

I'm in the midst (well, not far off finishing), sorting out four and a half thousand digitalised photos into subfolders. I took all our digital scans (20 years worth) plus our previous 30 years worth of cardboard pics which I scanned in, and decided to organise/sort them into a better order than a folder saying 'All Scans'.

Moment of existential angst, though. Mrs B said "Of course, when we're gone nobody's going to want that lot..." Which is totally true, of course (she has a habit of saying things like that).

We have no kids. My sister (older) has never shown much interest in her family history; Mrs B's siblings might have some brief interest, but I doubt if THEIR children are that bothered.

So, to echo Mrs B's sentiment, why am I bothering putting all our pictures into such pristine order? Is there any point to it? Would I be better off having a kip, or reading one of the hundreds of books I haven't got round to reading?

BillB

[spathiphyllum]

You're doing it for yourself.

[maggiebee]

Personally would delete the lot but............you have taken the time and trouble to sort them in to folders so they must hold some value for you.

[spathiphyllum]

Photos don't mean a lot until they're all you have left.

I'd keep them.

[Old_Geezer]

Because it's there.

Analyse everything you plan to do and you may just stagnate and do nothing.

[bhg481]

Like you, we have thousands of photos, some dating back to the 1800s. Any photos containing interesting people (ancestors, family etc) have been copied into a directory "Family Photos", with sub-directories for each year. I have realised that once we pop our clogs our holiday photos will be of no interest to anyone but pictures of family may be; storing them in that manner means that on our death just the "Family Photos" directory can be kept (and copied to anybody interested) and the rest can just be destroyed.

[Cloverjo]

Some descendants of the current children might be interested. If it makes you happy and it is interesting keep doing it. I’ve told my dad not to throw away any of our ancient photos.

[anneasquith]

Do it. It must be very therapeutic , and great to “look” back at memories ,

[Peter Pedant]

if you have scanned them - you can annotate them

I know the details of most of my parents photos
but the younger generation are fearfully ignorant

Grandpa was in a concentration camp - no he was in a POW camp. Are they different - yes completely. How did he avoid getting gassed?..... but he was in a Deaf Camp?

[jno]

as spath says - you're doing it for you, not the kids. At your time of life you shouldn't be living for the kids anyway, let them do their own living.

But yes - do sort out anything of family history interest and label it properly. Maybe you and your kids aren't that interested in genealogy, but at some stage someone will be, and they will mightily regret not finding out what ancestor X knew about his family. (Everyone doing family history says this.)

As for the rest, your call. If you want to read, read. Overall, though, my feeling is that cataloguing photos is a finite task, one with a point where you can say "All finished". Reading stretches out forever like Parkinson's law.

[pixie374]

You never know who might be interested in the future... if you are enjoying it and happy to carry on, then do.

[Calicogirl]

Have you got an ancestry account Bill? You can upload photos there (I'm the present custodian of our vast family photos and like you we have them going back to the dawn of photography really). The people you know now might not be interested (or think they aren't) but others with a looser connection or those to come might be. Mr Cal had no interest in his family tree til I insisted I did it for him (and found loads of photos someone else he didn't know studying the same branch of his family had put up) then suddenly he was all over the idea because he could see photos of people he'd only previously heard mentioned by name, and it jogged his memory about stories he'd heard about them as a kid, so yes there will be value in yours to someone after you've gone, select a few interesting and old ones and upload them x

[andres]

I have just finished sorting photos out into albums for each of our grandchildren. Photos taken when they were here at our house and others when we took them on holiday. It has taken me quite some time but the pleasure they got from looking at them was well worth it. Their parents were able to see some of the things that the kids got up to when they were with us. Created a lot of fun and laughter.
They will keep their albums for showing to their own children.Much better than dragging people in to sit round a computer.
If you have any that are of local interest or places you have visited over the years then I definitely think they will be worth keeping . Local history museums are always on the lookout for old pics.

[bainbrig]

No kids, only cats, and them all Gorn Before - anyway their (the cats') attitudes to such things are different from/superior to mine, I think.

Peter P: now that is one family history I WOULD like to hear about. Will you adopt me?

Ancestry already have some of the Victorian pics, possibly of interest to someone.

Maggiebee - I've often thought you might be Mrs B under an assumed name; you do say very similar things...

BB

[jno]

good idea about the local history, andres. I've spent a few months strolling around Pinterest looking for photos or things I can remember from 50 years or more ago but nobody I knew ever took photos of.

[jno]

sorry, Bill, I missed your remark that there were no kids. But other relatives may still take an interest. There's usually only one in each generation anyway.

[woofgang]

I have just sent a load of stuff to my sister's adult children who wanted it, shredded almost all of my own paper photos, and the rest sit in a big photo file all lumped together. There is no family left of my late husband's side and we had no kids so in answer to your question, I have no idea...if you are enjoying it, do it, if not then stop.

[bainbrig]

Well, I WAS enjoying it - as it meant looking at a lot of our memories (1969 onwards, lummy...) - and I've always been interested in Mrs B's extensive family.

I'm not OCD, but I do like things organised! So I'll carry on, as a point to it all might emerge (how like life) eventually.

BB

[Bazile]

Future generations might be interested in them , even if the current ones aren't

[andres]

jno-^^^^-We have a Past and Present website for our town and its amazing looking back at the past. You can't beat old photos . I have some going back to my great-great-ancestors. Most of them were Studio portraits but sadly my uncle,who left them to me, didn't put the names on the back of some of the photos so it's a bit hit and miss as to who some of them are.

[MallyJ]

I threw all the family photos that came my way on the death of my remaining parent away. My brother had taken what he wanted and I have no one to give them to so it seemed the most sensible thing to do....my memory is not that bad that I don't remember the people or incidents shown in the pictures....that was a 30 years ago and I have had no reason to regret that at all.....I do a clear out of stuff fairly regularly.....it is very liberating...!