I was very fortunate to become interested in researching my family history when I was just 11 years old. I knew all of my grandparents and my grandmothers, in particular, were both interested in family history. When I began researching my family history, I also became interested in family photographs. Once I exhausted my grandparents by making them write on the back who was in the photos they had, I began tracking down relatives. I wrote dozens of letters to my grandparents’ siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins and anyone else that might have reason to have a photo of an ancestor. I explained who I was and that was interested in family history and then I asked if they had any photographs that they would be willing to allow me to copy and that, of course, I would return the originals. I guess folks were enthusiastic that a young kid was interested so several sent photos. In some cases, they let me keep the originals because no one in their immediate family cared about it!

Over the years I have amassed a lot of old family photos. Below is a sampling of photographs of my direct ancestors I have managed to obtain. As you can see, they include all four grandparents, all eight great-grandparents, 14 of 16 great-great-grandparents and five 3x great-grandparents. I’m still hoping I’ll get lucky and find photographs of my 2x great-grandfathers, Isaac Newton Bailey (1862-1895) and William Edward Blanton (1845-1885).

This is one of my favorites – my 2x great-grandfather Sidney Baxter Edwards of Surry County, Virginia. I love the hat tilt, the hand holding the lapel and of course, his interesting mustache and whiskers! Sidney was born in 1850 and died in 1920.

It’s not too late for you to begin your own family history journey. Collecting and sharing photographs of your ancestors is a great way to begin. Don’t put it off or your older relatives may not be around to help you. And they’d love to hear from you.

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