How to identify people in old family photos
TL;DR
Start with the people who might know: show the photos to the oldest relatives you can, as soon as you can. Then use clues in the photo itself, such as clothes, the photo studio's name, the paper and the handwriting on the back, to narrow down the date and place. Compare faces with photos where you already know who is who. With patience, most "unknown" faces can be named.
Start with the people who might know: show the photos to the oldest relatives you can, as soon as you can. Then use clues in the photo itself, such as clothes, the photo studio's name, the paper and the handwriting on the back, to narrow down the date and place. Compare faces with photos where you already know who is who. With patience, most "unknown" faces can be named.
Ask now
The single best source is a person who was there. Take a small pile of photos, not the whole box, to an older relative. Ask open questions: "Do you recognise anyone here?" and "where do you think this was taken?" Write the answers on a sticky note and put it on the sleeve, not on the photo.
Even when they don't know a face, they may know the house, the dress or the car, which narrows things down.
Look at the back
Check the back of every print, carefully. You may find:
- names or dates in pencil, sometimes very faint
- a photo studio's name and address, which tells you the town
- a developing lab's stamp, sometimes with a date
- a handwritten note to someone, which tells you who the photo was sent to
Read the photo itself
The format. Very early photos are often small and mounted on thick card. Prints with white borders and a date printed on the edge are common from the 1950s onwards. Square colour prints with rounded corners usually come from the 1960s and 1970s.
Clothes and hair. Fashions changed quickly. A coat, a hat or a hairstyle can often place a photo within a decade.
The background. Cars, shop signs, church towers and street names can point to a place and a time. Zoom in on a digital copy; small details are easier to read on a screen.
Compare faces
Lay photos side by side. Ears, the shape of the nose and the hairline change little with age, so they're useful for matching a child in one photo to an adult in another. Family resemblance can mislead, though. Brothers, sisters and cousins can look very alike.
Build a simple timeline
As you identify people, write a short list: name, birth year, where they lived, when they married. Then each new photo can be checked against it. If a photo looks like it's from the 1930s and shows a "grandfather" who was born in 1940, something is wrong.
Use your wider family
Post a few photos in a family group chat with "does anyone know who this is?" Distant cousins often have copies of the same photos, sometimes with names written on them.
Write it down
When you find out who someone is, record it in two places: a note with the digital copy, and lightly in pencil on the back of the print. Our guide to storing old family photos explains how to write on photos without damaging them.
Make faded faces easier to see
When a print is badly faded, faces are hard to compare. A restored copy can help, because it brings back contrast and detail. You can restore a photo online from a phone copy, keeping the original safe, and then compare the restored faces side by side.