[Blessings2You]

It's one thing to accept that my children and granddaughter are NOT going to want duplicates, similars, blurries and negatives of every photo ever taken of every relative and ancestor back 'til when Moses was still in the bullrushes.

It's another thing to stand over a wastebasket with pictures of Mom and Dad in my hand.

[kicker]

Ah, I save them all. Let the next-of-kin make decisions when I'm gone. My brother (gone now 10 years from cancer) called me keeper of the flame. Let them decide what they want and don't want.

[Snoopy]

Originally Posted by kicker

Ah, I save them all. Let the next-of-kin make decisions

Save the pictures. It will be hard for you to know which pictures your children or grandchildren may or may not want...let them make the decision.

[SallyC]

I have all the pictures saved by my Grandmother, her two Old maid Sisters, some of MIL's, of peeps I never knew and my DMother's.

I went through and tossed a bunch of Grandma's. my 2 great Aunts and Mom's. I already gave a collection box of photos I took and saved to DD and she has an historical Family album, she made, in the 3rd grade, with a few of our Ancesters in there.

Everything is neatly packed away in cubby holes. she will have fun going thru and tossing, after I'm gone.

ALL DONE..

[Dejibo]

do everyone a favor, write on the back of the photo. Please tell us who it is, and approx what year. Cant remember the year, just say mom and dad in the 60s! I hated when I inheireted the box of photos from my dad, and 1/2 had nothing on the back. it took me a decade to figure out that my grandmother was a teenager in a couple of them. I am glad I took the time to research them.

I agree, keep um!

[Blessings2You]

I bought some clear plastic sweater boxes from the Container Store (I LOVE that store) and have a different box for each "branch" of the family (photo albums fit in them). I have inherited photos going back to my great-greats at least.

Lots of mystery pictures, but the ones I know I'm putting in albums (at least in page protectors) and labeling, such as "Wales Cheney, born 1835, wounded at Bull Run, married to..." and so on.

Also have copies of death certificates, war records, obituaries, etc. which I am putting with photos. I have those tabbed pages to separate the family by siblings, so all of the cousins are filed with the proper aunts and uncles.

It's going to be harder when I get done with my Dad's side (Vermont mostly) and get to my Mom's (Ohio/PA/Ontario) because I didn't know them as well and I don't know the missing pieces.

I'm doing it as much for myself as I am for my offspring. I'll do the family history stuff. When I croad, they can have the joy of sorting through cardboard boxes, old Christmas cards, Tupperware, and seven sizes of clothes that don't fit.

[karousel]

Originally Posted by Blessings2You

It's another thing to stand over a wastebasket with pictures of Mom and Dad in my hand.

Please tell me they were duplicates of ones they already have and cherish.

My mother and aunts all have the same pictures of all the same family members. So when my Aunt Lucy passed away it took forever for all of us to go through the pictures. The duplicates were not tossed, just put in a box that my mother still has. Guess my sisters and I will be the recipients of duplicate pictures -- pictures we all already have. If my mother gave me those pictures today, you can bet I would never toss them in front of her, even if they were duplicates of ones I already had.

My one sister is the keeper of family pictures. She has every aunt, uncle, grandparent, etc., on her staircase wall. My other sister is the one who has keepsakes from some of those relatives. I'm the keeper of the family tree and all the juicy secrets all written down in a book.

[ali12]

My mum and I tend to save all of our photos also. I have a Facebook account so we don't have many physical 'photo albums' - we have lots of albums on there though to save space!

My mums kept all of my baby and younger childhood photos. It's nice being able to look at them every so often. I have lots of photos of my boyfriend and I (weve been together 7 months) and my family that have passed away. It's nice being able to look at them and remember the good times.

I do know how frustrating it can be when family throw away really good pictures you wanted to keep. My grandad died nearly 2 years ago and my nanan wanted to keep a really old pic of him, however his sister threw it away. She cried for days.

I want to keep my photos to look back on when i'm older, however I do delete the bad ones lol!

[TwoKidsTwoCats]

I scanned all the family photos my mother "inherited" from her family. Every family now has a copy on CD. The paper copies are so old and fall apart, so at least it's preserved for future family genealogy researchers.

I need to scan my own photos and convert VHS and Beta tapes to DVDs. Then the old stuff can be tossed.