What Should I Do With Inherited Family Photographs?

Do not feel you have to identify, divide or discard inherited family photographs immediately. The most useful first step is to keep the collection together long enough to understand what is there and preserve any names, dates, labels or family groupings that came with it.

An inherited collection may be one of the last places where photographs from several generations still sit together. That makes the context around the images almost as important as the images themselves.

Keep labels and handwriting with the photographs

Before rearranging boxes or removing photographs from albums, look for writing on envelopes, album pages, slide boxes and the backs of prints. Photograph those notes if packaging needs to be replaced.

Where possible, ask relatives about people and places while that knowledge is available. You do not need to identify everyone, but a handful of names can make a collection far more useful to the next generation.

Do not divide the only originals too early

If siblings or different branches of the family want photographs, digitising the collection first can simplify the conversation. Everyone can receive digital copies before deciding whether particular physical originals should go to one person or another.

This also means a photograph does not become inaccessible to the rest of the family simply because one person keeps the print.

Scan in the existing groups

You do not need to create a perfect timeline. A practical structure based on the inherited material is often enough: “Grandad’s album”, “Box from Mum’s house”, “Slides — France”, and so on.

The resulting folders can be refined later with names, dates and events where the family knows them.

Choose important photographs after you can see the whole collection

Once the collection is digitised, it becomes easier to identify the photographs worth doing more with. A faded portrait might merit restoration; a family group could be printed for several relatives; a small selection may deserve framing.

Those decisions do not have to be made before the main collection is copied.

Only Yesterday and inherited collections

Our family collection service is designed for exactly this kind of material: boxes, albums, slides, negatives and family papers that have arrived together and should not be stripped of their context just to make them easier to scan.

You can show us the collection as it is. We will help establish the sensible first step before any work is agreed.