In our last blog post, we spoke about how adding words to your photos makes a story interesting.
Maureen Taylor, known as the Photo Detective, has been using Twile with her Mother to build their family timeline and found that uploading photos to the timeline and the conversations that followed became quite emotional. Thanks to Maureen for sharing her experience…
I believe that each photo is a story worth telling.
My work as the Photo Detective is proof positive of that fact. I find the Family History in family photos by studying the details in a picture.
Images can help someone remember their past. For some looking at a photo is life changing. A picture can reveal where they come from and whom they look like. For others it’s the collection of images that fit together to tell the tale of their family’s past.
A research timeline is a great way to organize your information, but don’t overlook the storytelling possibilities that extend beyond the lifetime milestones to the photo memories. Pictures of ancestors (living and dead) expand our understanding of our family history. All you have to do is “listen” to the stories they are trying to tell.
A Living Example
I uploaded pictures and details of my mother’s life into Twile. I know her story (or so I thought) and since it wasn’t the first time I’d looked at the images, it was easy to arrange her pictures by date and occasion. Then I sat with her while she looked at them.
Her first reaction at seeing her life on the screen was, “Oh my, I’m old.” Looking at her baby picture through her wedding photos made her feel all of her 86 years. She’s a forward-looking person, but her wedding group portrait gave her pause. She whispered, “I’m the only one left.” She stared at it for a few long moments and then with a sigh she began looking through the other photos. The power of those pictures transported her (and me) into the past.
She focused on one in particular.
She’s the little girl in the white socks and beret crouched down in front. Flanked by her brothers with her parents in the back right. Center and to the back left is her oldest sister leaning her arm on her future husband. A simple question about her cute beret and the memories started flowing:
“Oh that’s me in the center. My sister Lauretta (to the back and left) and her future husband in the (center in the fedora) loved to dress me up and take me to the movies.”
“We saw everything. There wasn’t a Shirley Temple movie they didn’t take me to.”
When asked how old she was in that photo she said 5. That one picture was a door into her life at that time. She talked about a lot more of her life than just that moment.
Her relationship with her older sister: “Because she was so much older she was like a second mother to me”
Recollections of the first day of school: “I didn’t like it so I walked home. My mother took me back saying I’d just have to get used to it.”
And her parents: “There was a family gathering at our house every Saturday night with music. My mother played the piano and she and my father sang.”
All these jumbled memories from ONE picture. We still had a lifetime of pictures to go.
What will your pictures reveal?
Before it’s too late, add pictures to events in a living person’s life using Twile and sit with them while they reminisce. You might hear tales of bravery, lost loves or stories about warm summer days. I guarantee those pictures combined with the simple facts of that person’s life will be mesmerizing.
Maureen Taylor, known as the Photo Detective, finds the family history in your picture mysteries. She’s been featured in top media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Today Show. To discover some stories behind your favourite family photos visit her website.
Also: Family Tree Magazine – Photo Detective Blog:
- Walt Whitman and Your Old Family Photos
- Old Blue Eyes in A Family Photo
Related Links:
- Adding words & documents to your photos
- Using citations and references in family history research
- Using Timeline Technologies in your family history research
- A Twile acount for the WHOLE family (plus two more Twile features)
- Twile Partners with Findmypast
