Old Photographs

One of the things I love best about researching my family history is finding old photographs of ancestors. Unfortunately this happens all too rarely, and I only have a few in my collection. To me, old photographs are full of character, and I like to imagine what the people contained within them were like. This is true even when I am looking at pictures of people who have nothing to do with me. The Internet is a fantastic resource for finding interesting old pictures.

As mentioned, I have found it difficult to source photographs of my ancestors. In general, the fact that photographic techniques were only really developed in the mid to late nineteenth century means that the resources available are much more limited than other records that might date back for centuries.

It is often necessary to rely on extended family members to provide photographs, or even distant relations met through genealogy websites or forums. This is exactly what happened to me, as after viewing my family tree a very kind lady emailed me the following picture of our shared ancestors.

The woman sitting on the left is my great-great-grandmother, Sarah McClymont Campbell (nee Love). She was born in 1871. The older woman sitting on the right is Sarah's mother, my great (x3) grandmother, Sarah Love, nee Kennedy. She was born in 1846 and died in 1924, meaning that we can estimate the time the picture was taken to be the early twentieth century.

The following pictures show a third generation of this family, Sarah McClymont Campbell's daughter, and my great grandmother, Jeanie Cruickshank (nee Campbell). The picture on the top shows Jeanie, her husband George, and her sons George and John. George is my grandfather. The picture on the bottom is just of Jeanie and George senior. 

I hope that you've enjoyed my family photos. If so, please leave me a message to let me know, and please check out my post on the historical photos of interest to be found at Historypin.