So Before Digital...

[NellahBean]

I have boxes of old photos. All of my childhood photos. I took them when I left home because they had been sitting in the basement for years and I knew I'd be the only one who would ever do anything with them. It's killing me that I don't know exactly when they were taken or what they are of. I've really been wanting to take it on as a project to scan them in and scrap them, but I know that will be a BIG project and I'm worried about how I'll handle them when I actually do get to scrap them. Not having the date is really going to bother me! How do you put albums together with all of your old pictures? Just your best guess? "Circa year" labels perhaps? And do you scrap them individually or do you scrap them pocket style? Maybe I need to get a bunch of snapshots templates?? Lay it on me ladies! I need HELP!

[scrap2day]

I might group together with similar photos.

Such as a mixture of Christmas photos throughout the years.

Or I mix with current photos. For instance, I'm lucky enough to have a copy of my mom & my late uncle riding fair rides as kids. I put them together with pics of the grandkids riding amusement park rides. It's fun to see grandma as a kid riding similar rides.

Try not to get caught up in the lack of dates and details. Look for the themes or the stories you want to tell from your childhood and add the photos in to represent that time.

Have fun with it! You are very lucky to have so many photos to work with,

[Megan Turnidge]

Oh man. I wish I had this problem! I have maybe 20 photos from birth to age 12 and I only have some photos after that because I would buy lots of disposable cameras! I'm not sure how I'd approach it! I might start with any photos where I remember the event and go from there.

[mariewilcox]

I don't have a lot of photos from my childhood (most photos that were taken were on slides) but the ones I have are dated on the front of the photo because that's how they were printed back then (I'm kinda old ) The ones that weren't dated my mom was pretty good about jotting the year down but not necessarily the month or event, but I'm good with just the year and can pretty much guess the time of year.

I haven't scrapped any yet... I have most of them scanned though and some day I'll get around to scrapping them.

[luckyme]

I wouldn't say I have tons of childhood photos, but I have a few. One day "when I have time", I'd like to scan them in and post them to a private Flickr or FB album and get my family to comment on them to tell me who is in them, when and where they were taken, etc.

[adi&co.]

yeah i wish i had this problem too, lol! I don't really have any suggestions other than I'd try to guess at the year at least

[NellahBean]

Originally Posted by iciclelady

I wouldn't say I have tons of childhood photos, but I have a few. One day "when I have time", I'd like to scan them in and post them to a private Flickr or FB album and get my family to comment on them to tell me who is in them, when and where they were taken, etc.

Heddy this is brilliant!!! Thank you!!!

[kristijoy]

I spent a couple of years (about 5 years ago) going through a big closet my parents had photos in from my childhood and theirs. I wanted to do it before they passed on and still had memories and stories to tell. I organized them and put them in new photo albums (that weren't those old sticky ones...ick!!). Then I scanned the ones I wanted to scrap (the stories I wanted to tell). My parents are still around, so they have this closet in their house. It's fun to look through the albums with them and chat and share stories.

I had most of it done, but there is still one album of my Grandfathers from the 1930's (when he was in Hawaii in the service before WWII) that is in shambles. It was on old 'scrapbook' with black paper that had photo corners that held the pictures with writing in white pencil. The pictures are a mess because they've fallen out of the album. One of these days I'll pull it out and see if I can do some detective work to match the photos to the captions. Might be hopeless....

[kristijoy]

Originally Posted by tx-nana-scraps

When I'm not sure of old photos that I'm in I will sometimes guess and sometimes put Circa and the year. Since I was born in 1943 all the photos are b/w and don't have dates. I have scrapped them with color photos, scrapped them by themselves.
Definitely take the time to scan them in so you have copies of them. Yes it's time consuming, but worth it.
I've scrapped my daughter who was born in 1966 finger painting when she was little with photos of her two daughters (born 1996 & 1998) finger painting and the same with learning to ride bikes. I love to mix color and b/w photos.

I love this idea Sandy of doing 'multi-generational' layouts!!!

I've also made scrapbooks of my grandparents and my parents that are for my son. They are more along the lines of "This is the person who is your Grandpa" I put in pictures and stories that my son would be able to relate to or think was special about Grandpa. Like pictures of him playing in the high school band, riding the horses at the state fair, water skiing, etc... I also wrote basic biographies of each grandparent: when/where they were born, raised, the types of things they liked to do when they were young, types of jobs/places they've lived, etc...

[Lelly]

This reminds me that I really really need to start pestering my family for any old photos they have that I can have/borrow to scan in & scrap. My nan passed away at the beginning of May and since the beginning of this month my grandpa has been in hospital & the hospital have said he's got about 3 days left max so it kinda makes me want to grab as many photos and memories of everyone, those two especially so that my kids can learn more about them and what they did in their lives as they're still too young right now to really know anything or to realise whats going on, I'd like them to be able to just grab a book and have a look and be able to see what they looked like at least!

[IntenseMagic]

I keep saying I am going to go to my mother's house and gather a lot of photos to scan and just haven't done it. She has boxes and boxes, and she was really good about dating most of them. A couple of years ago, I spent several days scanning photos of my 2 older children, who were born before digital. I was not so good about dating photos, and when I couldn't remember for sure, I gave it my best guess as far as the year.

[nesser1981]

I helped my mom a few years ago put hers into albums. I can't stand loose pictures. We just did the best we could to guess the dates.

Everything thing I've taken pictures of myself since about 9th grade is in a scrapbook, I did scan our wedding photos and make an album of those, but otherwise I left everything, it would drive me insane to try and re do those. I do scan some to put in my All About Me album, if I need something for that topic I'm working on.

I think if it were me and I was tackling it, without dates, I'd break it down into categories, do multi page layouts with journaling on the relationship you had with the people in the photos, or just talk about childhood, etc.

Like Siblings
Mom
Dad
Fav Toys
Holidays
Birthdays
Etc

[rach3975]

My brain works linearly; I'd scrap them by approximate year. How are they organized/stored in the box? My parents have most of their photos still in the envelope they came from the developer in, so it's pretty easy to tell what was taken at the same time. Some of those envelopes even have a date written on them from the developer.

If yours aren't in any order and you don't get much info from asking relatives, I'd start with things that you can identify, like birthdays where you can count the candles or a photo that you know was from the 5th grade play, etc. Then you may be able to just guess at the others based on how people look compared to the known dates.

If your goal is to scrap as many of the photos as possible, I'd go with pocket pages for most and maybe mix in traditional layouts for special photos or memories. Good luck!

[staciahall]

I've done a little guessing on my own scanned photos based on hair styles and the glasses I was wearing. If I scrap a scanned photo I'll use a date like "about 1980" or "early 1980's" and an approximate age for me. I figure I'm the only one that will ever know or care about it any more exact than that. The fact that my kids can read that I was about 16 when I did whatever is enough for them and for me.

[NellahBean]

These are all fantastic suggestions ladies! Thank you so much! I'll have to keep you posted on my progress!

[aussiegirl]

There are some great ideas here! My mom was/is very good about dating the back of all her old photos (or even putting a small datebook in the box with the photos so I have an idea of what is going on). I have tons of photos of my girls (the oldest is 12 and the youngest is 7) from when they were babies (before digital cameras). They are all organized in boxes, but not scanned or scrapped- too much work to go back through all those printed photos and scan them.

My oldest needed some photos of her from when she was younger for a school project, and it was sad to think they were all hidden away in boxes. I've started the process of putting them in albums, and adding my own pocket style arrangement to them also. It's not exact, and by the time I'm actually finished it might change like 12 times...but for now, at least I'm working on them. So that the next time my oldest wants to see photos of her at age 3, they're easier to access!

Good luck with whatever you decide. The key is that you are doing SOMETHING! All those memories and stories will get scrapped...eventually! Just take your time, and enjoy the process!