I have a box full of old, unlabeled pictures. I am sure that most of us do. It saddens me to know that I might never know who some of those people are. Are they related to me? Is it a picture of a neighbor, a distant cousin, a best friend? Who knows?
And yet I find myself making the exact same mistakes. Do I go through and label all of my pictures? It seems silly to label my children or my aunts and uncles, whom I obviously know and will never forget. But I have to remind myself that someday my great-grandchildren might be going through my pictures and wondering who on earth these people are.
I have decided that I need to take the time to sit down and label them – both digital and print – so that future generations can identify them.
We do have a great advantage with the digital age though – I love that the date is automatically part of the photo’s properties. 🙂
Here is one of my many unidentified pictures, of a couple of Norwegian kids. I have no idea when it was taken, or who they are.
In seeing my own shortcomings, I think that I have finally forgiven my ancestors for not having labeled their pictures. I’m sure that they never imagined that I would be wondering and wishing I knew who these people were.
