Over Christmas my sister cleaned out some boxes of photos. She didn't know where half of them came from, and most had no names on them, some people we knew, most we didn't.
I got a whole bag of pictures of my uncle, he passed away 13 years ago. He was a submariner in the Pacific during the war. Those pictures were of him in uniform, most I had seen before, but some where of him with the, um, female natives. G-rated stuff but I can see why his wife didn't have them. I know one person who is still alive and could help me label some of the pictures, but I may not see him until summer and there's always that chance he could pass away before then. Another set of uncles, twins, were in Europe. The one in the Army had a CO who was taking pictures of everything, and would sell reprints. He always bought two sets, one to be sent immediately home, another that he kept with him. (I just realized that we always heard about censorship of information during the war, did the pictures make it home untouched?) He said he had all these pictures but he never brought them with him when he visited. I'm sure they would tell quite a story. Anyway there's something that everyone should do immediately: dig out those old photo's and label everything you can. Collect all the data you can about family past births, deaths, marriages, children. Get it typed up for paper and electronic storage. You may not be interested but someone down the line might be. It could take a long weekend (I know mine will) but it will be worth it. Kevin T.
