Family Photo Reunion

A lifelong passion for genealogy led to helping old family photos find their way home

- Carol MacKay

It pains me to see old family photos for sale in antique stores and thrift shops. I wonder how a portrait of great-great grandfather Hiram could end up with a price sticker on it when, surely, there is some family member, somewhere, who would cherish the image. After all, every family seems to have at least one genealogist!

Having been a genealogist myself for the past 35 years, I know what a coup it is to find a photograph of a previously unseen ancestor from the 1860s. It’s exciting—almost as good as winning the lottery. It’s also very rare. As a first generation Canadian, I don’t have deep Canadian roots so it’s unlikely I will wander into an antique shop and find a photo of my great-great grandfather sitting atop a Rogers Golden Syrup tin from the 1930s. Very little was brought over from the homeland to Canada by my parents, so I’ll probably never experience that moment, still, I can hope. In the meantime, I decided to do my best to reunite some of these abandoned images with their families, where I could.