West 47th Street, NY NY (circa 1934)

On a recent visit with my amazing Aunt Pat on Long Island, we sat down and browsed thru some old family photographs.  What an absolute treasure.  Most of the pictures were not labeled at all, and some had partial information.  Together, we played detective for a few hours and filled in as many of the blanks as possible.

We grouped the pictures in a variety of ways … some had obviously shot the same day, others had matching serial numbers on the back from the developer, while others were so unique we couldn’t group them.  If one picture was labeled “About 1928″ we carefully wrote that on the like pictures.  If 5 pictures were all of the same people (and we were certain who those people were) we wrote the same info on each picture.  Maybe they will get separated in the future.

At one point Aunt Pat asked, “Have you done this with your own pictures?”

Ack.  The more I think about my own pictures, the more worried I get.  It’s all fine and good that the majority are digital … but almost none are labeled with names and places.  That is something that will get easier with time.

Dates and times have been part of digital pictures from the beginning.  Many new cameras have started tagging photos with GPS information (referred to as geotagging).  iPhoto ’09 has added facial recognition.  Those technologies will become more and more the standard over time.  But what good is that if your pictures are rotting away on an old hard drive or CD-ROM.  Yup.  CDs and DVDs aren’t going to last a fraction as long as those unlabeled pictures sitting in that shoebox.

Get in the habit of printing them, or copying them to new media every few years.

To understand my favorite photograph of the day, you have to know that I’ve never seen my grandmother smile.  She was … serious.  Even when in a good mood, she had a stern look on her face.  Also, my grandfather passed away before I was born.  If this photo had been taken today, I think almost any photographer would have deleted it immediately.  But look closely and you’ll see it tells a story.

Dellers at Sunken Meadows

The camera was probably set on the ground (the grass is so close to the lens).  I think the timer has been set.  The family is in a park, maybe having a picnic.  My grandfather is sitting on his knees, with part of a smile on his face.  Had he planned on sitting lower?  Is that his suit coat under him?  To his left is Uncle Lawrence, waiting patiently.  The picture was taken the year my father was born, but he’s not in the picture.  Grandma is likely pregnant with him.  Aunt Patricia holds her baby doll and wears a grin as she watches Grandma race into position.  Look closely at my grandmother and you might see it.  Is that a dimple?  And a smile?  She tries to sit down in time.  Click.  She doesn’t quite make it, and I’m thankful.

[city], [county], [state], [country]

Unless the word City or County appears as part of the official name, those facts should be ommited.   Some examples:

Longmont, Boulder, Colorado, United States
Irvine, Orange, California, United States
Las Vegas, Clark, Nevada, United States

Please don’t abbreviate any part of the location.  If you know the full details, you may omit a portion, as in this Suffolk County example:

Suffolk, New York, United States

New York City is kind of a zany example.  The city is made up of 5 boroughs and also multiple counties.  New York county makes up the majority of Manhattan.  Manhattan is the name of an island, and not actually a city.

New York City, New York, New York, United States (aka Manhattan)
New York City, Kings, New York, United States (aka Brooklyn)
New York City, Queens, New York, United States (aka Queens)
New York City, Bronx, New York, United States (aka The Bronx)
New York City, Richmond, New York, United States (aka Staten Island)

Now some terrible examples:

Dozington, Worcs., England
Drummond, Grnt, MT
Hubbardtown, , VT

Blech.

I’ve got a great printout of a Passenger List. I can read the names on it. It’s a Great Grandparent and some of her kids. Wow! I forgot I even had this. I want to track down more records like this. How the heck did I find this one? What’s the microfilm number? Did I get it from a Family History Center or from the National Archives? Did I find it first on an index? When did I find it? Did I look thru that whole film and strikeout on other ancestors?

After several attempts, I’ve come up with the following strategy for tracking sources:

• Detailed source templates in my genealogy software
• An individual image folder for each ancestor that includes their person ID from my genealogy software
• Consistant filenames that include details that tie it to the citation: Birth Certificate – Deller, Francis [0018].jpg

Here’s a closer look at one of my source templates in Reunion:

United States Census Citation

Fortunately they got this date right

“According to The Longmont Ledger, 9/8/1911 page 5 she died at the age of 33 at 105 Main Street-Longmont”.

I just saw that on Findagrave.com. Did she die on September 8th or August 9th? If you’re in the United States, it’s probably September. If you’re in Europe, it might be August. Either way, it’s a dumb way to write the date.

The really annoying bit is that I recovered the obit for that researcher, and my email stated, “8 Sep 1911″. Pfft.

Writing the date should be such a simple task and not open to interpretation. Unfortunately, many family historians manage to muck it up. There are two common issues you want to avoid:

a) Never write the month as a number
b) Never write the year with only two digits

The Good

04 Jul 1776
07 May 1942

The Bad and the Ugly

1/8/2001
8/1/2001
Jan 1, 08

You might as well be writing it as, “Either January or August the 8th or 1st”

http://www.findagrave.com/