Family Treasures
Meet Marie & Neil McDougall, my paternal grandparents.
Last night I got a message on Facebook from my cousin Rob (gotta love modern day communication). He's been going through hundreds of photos from my Dad's side of the family and recently started the process of scanning them. He uploaded the first batch of 100 and I went
through them all, image by image, with the biggest smile on my face.
This is my family.
My history.
My treasure.
I had no idea my cousin had been working on this project.
I actually feel kinda speechless.
So often I have looked through photos like these at antique stores and have wondered about the people and their stories and their families.
These are my people. My Dad is the little guy on the right in the photo above.
I love the ones like this where there is a group gathered. It would be cool to make a little book of the group photos over the years since I have a handful from my childhood through today.
These are my grandparents.
So what am I going to do with these? I am not quite sure yet. Most likely they will be integrated into layouts/projects for my upcoming Big Picture class about scrapbooking Yesterday & Today (the timing could not have been much better). I am hoping to get some stories from my Dad and go from there. I would also love to enlarge a few of them (that first one for sure) to hang in my home.
These are really special treasures.
Photography is so, so cool. 
On another note, I am the Guest Blogger today over on Creating Keepsakes' blog. I did a little write-up about using color from your photos as a jumping off point for the other choices you make in putting together layouts.
Hope you have a great weekend! Giveaway post coming tomorrow morning.
you're very lucky. My grandparents were Mennonite farmers and there are VERY little photos of anyone. the few I have, i treasure.
sarah
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I am lucky to have many old photographs from my family, some going back five generations. I'm in the process of framing dozens of them to do a massive photo wall spanning 50 feet in my upstairs hall. I lucked out last year and found sets of black frames in various sizes (10 total) for $19.99 at Walmart.com. I bought three sets. I have them all filled already and need at least three more set possibly! As soon as my oldest is back in school, up they go. I've been wanting to do this project for seven years! My theory is that while it's nice to have photo albums of your precious photos, it's more important to see them...have them part of your everyday life. So, wall space available, I say frame a bunch of them together.
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Ali...
They still have the set online...and other sets too at very good prices (even a set of 10 scrapbook frames for $10!!). Here's the link:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8204018
I have the set and it's just a typical black frame, good quality with a bith of detail, but not ornate.
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These ones here are all low-res (not print quality). He just sent a message through facebook with a link to download a file on another server :).
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Hey Kim - I won't be at the summer show but am planning to be at the winter show.
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What a treasure Ali, I have so many old photos and it is what I struggle the most with, to give them justice. Would love to see some of your ideas in your class - it would help immensely. They are the ones that make me the happiest!!
Have a great day!!
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Whenever I visit my maternal grandparents I browse through my grandmother's shoe boxes of memories. Sometimes I jot down the memories and stories she tells me while we look through them together. Complete treasures.
Have a nice weekend.
Bises, D
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I love old photographs you are so lucky to have so many. They always tell such great stories :)
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Ali,
I almost posted this the other day in response to your question about photos from the past. I think it's important that everyone get the stories behind the photos (names, location, date--the details behind the photos) before the older generations are gone. My mother had boxes and boxes of old photos, many without anything written on the back, with the stories about them in her head only. Unfortunately, she died a few months before we were planning on tackling them. There isn't anyone else that knew all that she knew and now that's lost. It's one of my biggest regrets but it's also my biggest incentive. I make a point of photographing my son as much as he will allow and scrapbooking the stories behind the photos so that when I go he will have a record of his personal history. I only hope he will appreciate it and cherish it for the treasure it is.
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That first picture of your paternal grandfather really shows an amazing likeness to Simon. Isn't that fun to see how the family genes can get carried on like that?
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This is so special. My bf has been working on a project like this, too … gotta love the new scanner, especially the extras for scanning slides and negatives! (It's a CanoScan 8800F) I have lots of old negatives from my family, too … haven't done anything with them yet as I am working on another big project right now (my last university project, which fits into this whole collecting of family stories, too) but I am really looking forward to learning more about your upcoming class.
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Coming out of lurkdom to comment....but I couldn't NOT. Oh my gosh, that 4th photo down, you look exactly like your grandmother! Genetics are such a weird thing! That is very cool!
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Those pictures are awesome. Kudos to your cousin! I think my mother-in-law has a stack of pictures but I'm daunting by our slow scanner. Does your cousin have any suggestions or tips, e.g. scanner recommendations, attaching info to the pix? I would be all ears!
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Lucky you...your cousin is doing all this and sharing. I've been going through a box of photos like this myself so that I can and to our family history album.
I love the layout you did for the creating keepsakes blog. I find myself short on time lately so I have also been making my pages simple. It's what appeals to me now.
Thanks for sharing. You've inspired me to tackle the box of family photos again this weekend.
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My father-in-law did this for my husband's family years ago, and we love having a CD of all those images. There are some wonderful stories that go along with them...
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Ali this is wonderful!! I'm so upset because years ago my mother threw away all of her old photos. I tried to salvage some but I only have a handful. I would LOVE to see photos like this of my family.
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Ali,
I stumbled on your site through Etsy the other day. I come here everyday now as a result of the intriguing and interesting works you create.
I have just purchased my own camera this morning, and I am extremely exited to use it when it arrives. Can I ask though, what camera do you use? I now own a Nikon D40!
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Ali--I have just recently found boxes and boxes of old photos like these that span over 7 generations of my mom's side of the family and I don't know where to begin--I would love to see you incorporate some of this into the class!
thanks for sharing your people with us!!
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Ali, that is so awesome. How lucky you are. I've been wanting to collect family photos like that and have come across a few. I was able to scan some of my father in law as a child(my younger son is a dead ringer for him as a boy). The more and more I get involved in scrapbooking I realize how little I know about my parents and grandparents and I don't want my children to miss out on that. They and I need to know our roots. Thanks for sharing those with us.
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love the old photos, my mom just gave me old photos from when I was a kid. I guess my family wasn't big on pictures, they are few and far between of my grandparents and their families. i was a bit taken aback it looked like Simon was in one of those photos!!!
That's what I love best about old photos, the family resembelence. Enjoy these!!!!! Have a great weekend.
Annette
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Not long ago I started scanning many of my maternal grandma's old pictures. They are so fun, so beautiful! And it's fun to have them on my computer and use them as screen savers or wallpaper. I am interested to see what you do with some of these old photos of your family, I've wanted to do something with the pictures I have but I'm not entirely sure what. Maybe I'm just looking for a little inspiration!! :)
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I scanned in all of my parents photos (1940s forward) a few years ago. At the time my mother thought it was a silly thing to do and didn't express much thankfulness. When my one grandfather died, it was really nice to have quick access to the digital versions of these photos. When my other grandfather passed away, my mother was very quick to ask for all the digitally scanned photos of him. It's great to have this historical record of the family at our fingertips. Now that we've received even more historical photos, looks like I'll be busy scanned for quite some time!
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oooppps "busy scanning for quite some time!"
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that is SO wonderful ali
i'm a vintage scrapper
and love heritage photos so much
i'm also, always going through the antique store boxes
looking for cool old photos
thanks for sharing!
xo
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Ya know what I love most about these pictures? The people are being silly and having fun. In so very many of these old photos the tone and look is so formal - with people all dressed up and stiffly posing (has a lot to do with the high cost of photography and thus, being used only for the most special occasions). But I just love seeing people in swimsuits fooling around in front of a car (with writing in the dust on it). God, how many of those exact same pictures do I have?!?!
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