This is me in 1948 in my home town of Stranraer in Scotland with one of our neighbour’s daughters.  by johnfalconer

This is me in 1948 in my home town of Stranraer in Scotland with one of our neighbour’s daughters.

This was a studio photo which I “scanned” with my iPhone. There are very few photos of that time as no one had a camera in our family until the sixties. Before today I never knew this photo existed. The earliest photo I have of me is around 1952. Of course, this is not taken by me … I only scanned and processed the old photo.

So what an exciting day it was for me today. My sister-in-law had mentioned several times that I should go to her place and pick up some old photos that my late brother, her husband, had. Well I did that today.

There were a couple of hundred photos going back to the 1910s! I’d never seen most of them. There were birth and wedding certificates. Army and WWII stuff. About 10 letters of all sorts going back before WWII. My mother’s travel diary from 1976. My father’s originally written personal story from 1913 to about 1960 (I thought this existed but I’d never seen it and my mother said Dad had destroyed it!) And many, many other documents that I am just starting to go through! It’s just a fabulous treasure chest of memories!

Apparently, my late brother found all these photos and documents in a box in Mum’s apartment just when they were selling it after her death in 2006! If he hadn’t rescued them they would have been thrown out. He roughly sorted them some time before he passed away.

I am thinking of putting these photos and documents together with other photos I have in a book for the extended family. That will keep me busy.
Cute and great idea to get an album together, Will be so nice for family to look back on one day. Put dates and names on the back so family and future ancestors have more information :-)
January 24th, 2024  
Wonderful restoration. You are so blessed to have the history and memories
January 24th, 2024  
What a treasure you have found, such a great idea to make a book for the next generation. It must be so interesting to go through all those memoirs.
January 24th, 2024  
Love these old photos
January 24th, 2024  
What a great find. We have a bunch of slides going back to the 1950s. I have thought abought having them scanned, but the cost seems a little prohibitive.
January 24th, 2024  
How exciting what a great find. When we were in lockdown I scanned over 200 photos, some dating back to my great grandparents, that I had since we cleared the house after my Mum died and I had kept in a box ever since. I then put them in a photo book and am very pleased with the result. You are going to be busy putting your book together
January 24th, 2024  
What a lovely photo and what a project you have in front of you, but how wonderful to have come across all that. I hope the photos have been labelled well enough for you to know who is in the majority of them. That's always difficult, otherwise. Your mum's travel diary and your dad's story - that will be so interesting for you to read. And you'll learn so much about them and the family whilst reading, I'll bet. My dad has written up a lot about his family, which I find invaluable. Just his own observations and stories about each family member, going back to both sets of his grandparents, so it's a treat for us to have and to hold. I've been to Stranraer on many's an occasion - catching the ferry over to Larne. It's been a while though. x
January 24th, 2024  
Too cute. Thank you for sharing.
January 24th, 2024  
nice throwback photo
January 24th, 2024  
Gorgeous photo!
You have the most precious treasure to unfold. Yes time consuming however so exciting…
I also have a challenge which I discovered in 2014, I’ve kind of organised it ready to read & write. I’m not ready to do yet… my thought is to begin early summer.
It’s photos that I love, just so precious…
Wonderful
January 24th, 2024  
Wonderful heritage shot
January 24th, 2024  
So good to have these old photos……as you say photos were quite rare in those times!
January 24th, 2024  
And what a bonny lad !! Such a gorgeous photo to treasure !
January 24th, 2024  
Great photo and nice processing. Sounds like you just received a real treasure.
January 24th, 2024  
A wonderful shot, I love how you are clutching the laces of her little shoes.
January 24th, 2024  
What a fabulous treasure to have.
January 24th, 2024  
Lovely old images
January 24th, 2024  
Wonderful capture....you haven't changed a bit! ;-)
January 24th, 2024  
Aww! Someone sure loves you! That's precious.
January 24th, 2024  
Wonderful photo and interesting narrative.
January 24th, 2024  
Those are some of the best discoveries! It's even better when you can identify the people and places. You'll have hours of pleasure putting that book together and I'm sure the rest of the family will be glad you did!
January 24th, 2024  
How wonderful to have..
January 24th, 2024  
What a wonderful memory and a real treasure! You looked so angelic!
January 24th, 2024  
What a wonderful and valuable treasure!
January 24th, 2024  
Awesome find and a worthy project… enjoy your time working on it.
January 24th, 2024  
super look back in time John
January 24th, 2024  
Oh what a great day you must have had looking at all this family memorabilia! I think it’ll make a great project!
January 24th, 2024  
You haven't changed a bit!
January 24th, 2024  
Precious and sweet photo. Interesting narrative. I’m glad you found this personal treasure.
January 25th, 2024  
A wonderful find!
January 25th, 2024  
That is precious.
January 25th, 2024  
A treasure trove of family memories. I don't have any family members interested in this stuff, beyond my brothers.
January 25th, 2024  
Such a cute photo
January 25th, 2024  
Nice.
January 25th, 2024  
What a precious gift for you, your family and future generations. It does sound like you will be very busy on this project.
This is a very dear photo.
January 25th, 2024  
What a treasure! And your project sounds wonderful
January 25th, 2024  
Family treasures, for sure! Thanks for sharing this find with us. So cool to discover a baby picture that you didn't know existed! Glad your brother found these and saved everything.
January 25th, 2024  
Awwww....
January 25th, 2024  
Fun to find such an old photo
January 25th, 2024  
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Thanks again for commenting.
I’ve spent many hours today sorting through the photos. But my mother did not write on the back of the photos who was in them. I know a lot of them but the older ones are a mystery! Let this be a lesson to us all … caption your digital photos and write on the back of the hard copies!!!
January 25th, 2024  
@johnfalconer my mom was great at writing on the backs of photos. I feel that many digital photos will be forgotten as they are harder to label.
January 25th, 2024  
Lesson learned :-) maybe we should write in a fine black marker pen too.
January 25th, 2024  
Such a fabulous find! Have fun making the book
January 25th, 2024  
@kjarn @kitkat365 @danette Thanks for the much appreciated comments.
January 26th, 2024  
@kitkat365 no- don't use a regular pen. Make sure you use an archival quality writing utensil- pen or pencil. The ink or lead of regular pens and pencils actually eats away at the photo over time. Most craft stores have the safe kind.

My aunt- my father's older sister- was the info keeper in our family. She kept records of a lot of the family shots. But on my mom's side there was not a consistent effort to record who was who- so I'm at a loss on a lot of the people.
January 26th, 2024  
@olivetreeann
Thanks. I was concerned about damage to the photos so I’ll get a special pen from the craft shop. John.
January 26th, 2024  
@johnfalconer Glad to help!
January 26th, 2024  
Great blast from the past
January 26th, 2024  
@swchappell
Thanks. i didn’t know Mum was right and I was such a beautiful baby!!! 😂😂😂
January 26th, 2024  
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