Thursday, December 6, 2012

Create Your Own Ancestors -- Really?

I Spent some time in an antique store last weekend and found this little basket of goodies. When I searched through the little basket for some indication of price I found this note.

CREATE YOUR ANCESTORS! $1.00 ea.
 While I was glad to pay only $1 the suggestion of creating your own ancestors didn't sit well with me at all.

Are there people who really do that? I know there is bound to be a bad apple in a every bunch.

My goal here is to find old photos and other ephemera that have inscriptions or definite markings of the person who originally owned the lost family treasure so I can at least attempt to reunite them with the correct family members. Therefore, I tend to stay away from photos that are unidentifiable.  I only bought two of those photos, but I might just end up going back and getting them all for fear that someone actually will create their own ancestors!

So this has got me to thinking.  Should I start putting a watermark or something on the photos I post?  Or disable saving images?

This photo has no identifying marks and was found in an antique store
 in the Jacksonville, Fl area.

I hate to think that there is actually someone desperate enough to put someone else's ancestor's face in their family tree. Maybe a watermark will force more communication about a lost family treasure.

I would appreciate your input.


Leslie Ann

6 comments:

  1. I doubt there are many out there who would actually do this. But, I agree, there's a bad apple in every bunch. What exactly would they do? Claim to be a relative of someone no one else knows? It's not worth (in my opinion) trying to "save" all these photos. If someone does what you say but has no other proof that becomes their problem, not ours. And then how would we lovers of old photos even prove they weren't a family member?? An inappropriate sign to say the least. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. I was at the antique stores today, doing the same thing. When I spoke to one of the sellers about a framed baby photo, she had a "create your own ancestors" story. Apparently when her husband was stationed in Germany, they picked up some old framed portraits. With them handing in the house, the kids asked who they were. She told them it was their Great-Grandparents. Years later the kids were showing their spouses the portraits, now in storage. That's when the mom finally got around to telling them that they were just random people. The kids were devastated. Just imagine that they never found out these were random people. They would pass them down to their kids and later they might put the photos up online with the wrong names and dates... Terrible.

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    Replies
    1. That is terrible! I can't even imagine someone doing that.

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  3. Wow! I can't believe the antique store owners put that sign there! And Valerie's story is just terrible. Like you, I can't imagine someone actually telling their family that a random person in a photo was their ancestor. How sad!

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  4. MAD Crazy,

    Actually I was always curious about a friend and her very large turn of the century pictures. When I asked if they were her relaatives she said no that she had picked em up at a Flea Market. I expressed that I thought it was weird to have people not related to her hanging up. She said she knew many folks who did that.

    So maybe finding it out now is better? So it's put the test to see what comes out of the woodwork???

    Thanks,
    DuSyl

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    Replies
    1. I can see maybe hanging a beautiful old photo to fit with your decor, but I'm going to have to draw the line at claiming someone else's great-great grandma as their own!

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