Where To Put Old Photos

[jaydj]

So my mum has just passed away and i'm slowly trying to clear away things and wondered what you guys did with all the old photos?
I'm keeping some for the memory's of course (especially the amazing black&white ones) but there are so many I dont have the room.
It feels bad to just dump them but I'm guessing they cant be used or recycled
Thanks

[maggiebee]

I would scan them and save them in a folder on your computer/laptop.

[Buenchico]

When my father passed away, the only thing that I wanted from his house was the big, green family photo album that I knew he'd kept in the cupboard below the bookcase since before I was born. When I went to find it though, it wasn't there. So I was never faced with much of a problem like the one that you've got now. [I gave his collection of wild flower photos, that he'd amassed over the years, to an acquaintance of his (who, I think, accepted them just out of politeness) but I now find myself wishing that I'd kept them.]

Photos shouldn't be put into the recycling bin
https://www.recyclenow.com/recycle-an-item/photographs
but you might want to consider
(a) scanning some of the photos to your computer, before dumping them ; and/or
(b) donating any which show local landmarks (or 'life in the olden days') to a local history group ; and/or
(c) offering them on Freecycle (or similar) to anyone who might, for example, want to make use of them in an art project

[Barsel]

If possible, ask other members of the family or people who knew your Mum if they would like them.
When a cousin of mine died, his family got rid of all his photos and I was devastated as I'm sure there would have been some of our close family amongst them.
Sorry to hear about your Mum. x

[andres]

If you have children or grandchildren you could put them into albums ,one for each of them.Mine really appreciated this but asked me to make sure that I put names (the ones that I knew ) on the back of the photos.

[bhg481]

I would bring back the death penalty for anybody caught destroying old photographs without digitising them first. You owe it to your desendants.

[andres]

I have photos going back to the early 1800s. Great -great grandparents etc.
I doubt whether there will be any point putting photos on computers. At the rate technology is advancing computers may well be obsolete.

[Hazlinny]

I remember seeing a box of old photos in an Auction House and felt quite sad .... someone's life and that of relatives and friends more or less "dumped". I am making family tree albums which use up some (but by no means all) of older photos.

[jno]

Haz, I think unless you can identify people and places, there's no point in keeping photos. I'm still wondering about a photo my mum left - a naked man, full frontal, by a swimming pool. Apparently Italy during the war. I'd sure have liked to hear the story behind that one ... But because we had no idea who it was or why it had been kept, we chucked it away.

[Hazlinny]

I know what you mean, Jno. My Mum had a picture (painted) of a very bleak hillside with factory chimneys in the distance..seemed important to her but I never asked about it - maybe it was where lovers met?

[jno]

yes, if people start researching their family history, it's usually because a parent's just died and the children realise they should have asked more about their past, and so much of their memories has just vanished.

Apparently my mum was quite miffed that none of asked about her war experiences; but in fact she's talked to me about it a lot when I was little, so I didn't need to ask, and when I wrote up my family history most of what she told me is in there.

Just not the naked man...

[bhg481]

I had a suitcase full of old photos going back to the mid 1800s. Most had notes on the back so I was able to label all my digital copies with the names. I take Andre's point about computers becoming obsolete in the future but then it can be someone else's task to move the photos on to the next system. The beauty of digital copies is that you can distribute copies to any number of people without having to pay a fortune for duplicates.

[Barsel]

Thank you for BA jaydj.

[Old_Geezer]

In a box in the attic, surely.