Great Sites For Lost Heirlooms!

Received this in the email today and just had to share!

"Reunite the Family"

"All kinds of people have become interested in reuniting family treasures with the their families, and not just genealogists. Antique dealers, historians, librarians, and ordinary people have had their interest piqued with saving these orphaned belongings. These include photographs, diaries and journals, family Bibles, jewelry, and other possessions.

The Internet has provided many facilities to help reunite items with their families. Let’s explore some of the options available for placing photographs.

Dead Fred – This website, located at http://www.deadfred.com/, is the preeminent place to search for photos, post photos, search by surname, check the “mystery” pictures, search by photographer, and examine annuals.

Look at Me – “Look at Me: A Collection of Lost Photos” can be found at http://www.moderna.org/lookatme/ and allows you to browse the pictures or post your unidentified items.

Slices of Time – This site, at http://www.slicesoftime.net/, is dedicated to reuniting old photos with families. The price of each photo is $10.00, which covers the webmaster’s costs. Photographs are organized alphabetically by surname, if known. Unknown photos are grouped together, and there are categories for location, schools, and a collection of links to other sites.

Ancestor Genealogy Photo Album is located at http://ancestorarchive.com/ and is a free database of vintage photographs. These are organized and searchable by surname. There are also unidentified photos and a special collection of yearbooks, etc.

Adopt a Photo is a site maintained by Anne White of Battlement Mesa, Colorado, at http://annewhite.home.mindspring.com/index.htm. It provides a temporary place for lost and orphaned photographs. While not all states are represented, the pictures are grouped and browsable by state, gender, couples, children, and other criteria.

Heirlooms Lost – This site, at http://www.heirloomslost.com/, “is designed to put people directly in touch with one another regarding lost family treasures.” A person can post a message concerning something they want to sell or reunite, or a person can post a message about something they are seeking. This is an interesting “broker” service.

FamilyOldPhotos.com – This site, at http://www3.familyoldphotos.com/, has more than 20,000 photos of many types. You can browse by surname or type, and you can browse through the vast collection of unidentified pictures.

eBay – The online auction site is a place where photographs of all types are posted for sale. These include Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, cabinet cards, cartes de visite, and other photographic types. (Search for these by keyword, or simply search for “vintage photograph” to see all search results.) Many people list old photographs for sale here and even include the names of the subjects, if known.

LostFamilyPhotos.com at the website of the same address claims to have “9,678 surnames, 3,178 images and family ephemera to buy” as of this writing. There are interesting items ranging from Daguerreotypes to stereoview cards.

While the websites I’ve listed may or may not help you place the photos you have, they may give you some ideas. I’ll wager that you will become engrossed in searching these sites for your own family members, just as I did. You may also want to contact the site owners for suggestions about setting up your own site to help reunite photographs with their families."

Happy Sunday Evening!
cbh