Found Faces, Lost Names

I found a great blog. I am truly humbled. It calls me to task over a matter I’ve struggled with, and I do remember my faults this day.

True confessions: I’ve been swamped with the boxes and boxes of nameless faces framed prettily in decades-old photographs. When I go through stacks and stacks of pictures of the same scenes through umpteen iterations, I lose my resolve to serve faithfully as the family historian. And yes, regretfully, I’ve chucked more than my fair share.

What’s a two-to-three-generation-removed gal to do? I have no resources left—no great aunts or great grandfathers to ply with those endless questions to get it just so. So the fifteenth-billion picture of Lassie and company finds its way to the bottom of the trash can.

So sad. But I’m sure at this point, you are excusing me. At least I’ve been doing penance.

Yet today, I found confirmation that there is a way to resolve the issue. I found someone who has made one simple gesture her mission: to serve as matchmaker between subjects of antique photographs and their long-lost relatives. Such a simple goal, yet so elegant a pursuit.

I wish I had her platform. I mean, what do you do with a photo like this one?

Central California Farm? From Bill Bean collection

Or even this?

Possibly same California location - Bill Bean front row, far right, 1939

 

But “Far Side of Fifty” has an audience of over 1500 followers serving as fellow sleuths as she posts antique pictures, one shot a day, on her blog, Forgotten Old Photos.

Not all the photos remain forgotten. There are at least thirty endearing stories of The Reunited—this blogger calls them “Full Circles.”

Somehow, I wish I could ship my entire collection of the unnamed and unclaimed to her for one grand feature story.

It would do my conscience good.