Precious Photographs and Personal Items

I have a lot of them especially from the home of my parents and others that have been given to me over the years,  Precious photographs, photographs of people who were family members who I never had the chance to meet but have heard so much about, photographs of loved ones who I knew and have now passed and photos of my birth family and special times.  No end of photographs and then there are the photos that my dad took as well.  I want to sort out in due course some "official albums" but I also want to put them online for my family to have access to if they want to as well.  I think this will be a job for the winter months more than anything else.  A lot of photographs I am not sure who they are and some of them its as though I am instinctively knowing who these people are and being able to place them successfully and receiving outside confirmation of this as well.  I am hoping once I have got the photos sorted a bit more to have a word with my cousin (she is a little older than I) and might be able to give me much needed information.  My cousin also passed on family photos from my Uncle as he thought I was best placed to store these and pass them on in due course.  Some of these I had not seen before.

I have started to collect together some "vintage style" proper photograph albums in which to place the important photographs into and had thought that I would initially concentrate the photos by family name rather than just general albums.  We have family names of Ellingford, Christie, Ashcroft, Coxon, Bagley, Wheatman, Grayson, Green, Barton, Kirk, Edwards...  There are a whole lot more names out there but these are the most recent.  I would however appreciate your ideas on how you have dealt with your family photos to preserve them for the future and whether you have any tips to a newbie like myself.  I really want to do a good job of this and also leave notes of family stories etc. like a time capsule.

I am also keen to reproduce some of the photographs so that they can be framed and displayed however I do not want to ruin the originals and so am going to look into how to do this.  I had thought to make some embroidered frames or surround frames for the pictures as well as I think it finishes photos off a lot better

One of the things I have also thought of doing is that because ours is a blended family that there are a lot of items that belonged to my mum and dad. I have two nephews that they should by right have those items that belonged to close family passed back to them with certain provisos for generations to come.  That is what I am thinking of at the moment in any event.  The sorts of things I am talking about are jewellery and smaller items and although not necessarily expensive have a lot of memories and history.  Every piece of jewellery my Dad bought for my mum he wrote a little note to her.  Bless her she had kept every single one with the relevant piece of jewellery.  So touching so loving and its that love that I want to pass on to the generations to come.

I have a particular piece of jewellery that belonged to my Great Grandmother on my Nan's side which is her silver engraved fob watch with illuminated dial. It also has a graduated chain which is solid rose gold 22 carat. My Grandmother had inherited this and traditionally it is passed on to one of the girls in the family.  There was no girl to pass it to in my Nan's family and so it was passed to my Dad.  He in turn left it to me. That is a piece of history and really belongs to no one individual but we are mere custodians of it, and it is that piece of jewellery and other jewellery like it that I want to protect.  It is not to be sold under any circumstances.  It is not the wealth of the item that is important its the life and celebration of that life through photos and stories that carries on the love and ethos of those that came before.  This is what I am trying to protect.  Then of course there is my mum's jewellery and of course my own.  I intend to photograph the individual pieces as well so that there is in effect an active catalogue of those personal items.  

These projects will take a little time and effort but they all need sorting out so that nothing is left messy and complicated and that those left behind have a clear idea of what to look for and what belonged to who etc.  It will be worth it in the long run.

Right catch you soon.

Pattypan

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