Luck, Serendipity, and the Kindness of Strangers Work Together to Save Family Artifacts

Longtime readers of both this blog and our StLGS Quarterly journal know that people frequently contact StLGS after discovering photographs, diaries, or other family memorabilia. Although we try very hard to reunite objects with their families if there is identifying information, we aren’t always able to find matches. Recently, however, we have had some heartwarming success that we wanted to share with you as a way to encourage you to identify your photographs, write down and publish those all-important family stories, and reach out to help others when possible. Ironically, both of our success stories start with a woman called Bobbi(e)!

Lost and Found Photos on the StLGS Website

Genealogists’ hearts ache when we see old photos discarded at estate sales, antique stores, or flea markets. We lament the unidentified photos in our own relatives’ albums and long to reunite photos we find far away from home with the families that lost them. Alas, that is not always easy.

Finding a family of origin of a photo with no identification is truly the old needle in a haystack cliché. We very often have people send photos to St. Louis Genealogical Society with nothing more than the name of a photographer and his address on the back, but there is little to no chance of ever discovering the subject's identity. There are people who collect photos from certain photographers, so that’s always a possibility, but ascertaining a family or descendants is virtually impossible, as there is no way to search for an unnamed person on a photo.