October 2023
VOL. 32, 31, NO. 6 7 OCTOBER NOVEMBER 2023 2022 POWERED POWERED BYBY KAMLOOPS KAMLOOPS THIS THIS WEEK WEEK | A|PROUD A PROUD PART PART OFOF ABERDEEN ABERDEEN PUBLISHING PUBLISHING
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Keeping people in the land of the remembered
E
verybody loves a good mystery but not everybody makes it their mission to solve them. Charlotte Gorley, originally from Salmon Arm, discovered while working on her own family tree that she has an insatiable desire to “re-home” found photos of total strangers. Charlotte Gorley Gorley often wishes the old photos she finds in antique shops and thrift stores were accompanied by a thousand words because every hint counts. “I developed an interest in genealogy research and as I researched my family tree, and my husband’s ancestry, I had a deep appreciation for the photos that brought a personal element to our ancestors’ records,” said Gorley. “I’ve always liked visiting antique stores and found myself drawn to photos and documents in those shops. If a photo had a name or other clue on the back, I thought it would be fun to see if I could “home” it and unite it with the family it belongs with,” explains Gorley.
By Moneca Jantzen
Some photos are virtually impossible to rescue because they offer no clues. If Gorley has a name, a place, a date, an address or any other solid information she can begin to piece together a story using various online tools such as ancestry.ca, FamilySearch.com, tineye.com, DeadFred. com, Find-A-Grave.com, Google, census records, obituaries, etc. “It’s always sad to find photos with nothing written on the back, or “Grandma and Grandpa”. A name is very helpful, and if the photo has a date, it makes it easier to narrow down the individual. In the early 1900s many people had photos made into postcards so I might have the name of the recipient, or if it is a studio photo the photographer’s name is often helpful,” said Gorley. “Perhaps the image might have a background that gives a clue to the location, or even the season the photo was taken in. There might be another object in the photo that helps to identify the person, time, or place, such as an automobile,” said Gorley. When asked about the response she gets from families that are reunited with their ancestor’s photo, Gorley says: “The families are excited and grateful. Often, they will share a story about their loved one if they knew them, or tell me a passed-downthe-generations story about them. They often say
things like “She had the best laugh” or “He collected the darnedest thing”. I can hear the smile in their message when they share things like that.” Gorley doesn’t expect anything in return for a successful reunion and just hopes the recipients might pay her kindness forward. Sometimes they do more, like send her a gift card or a bouquet of flowers. On the flip side, some are skeptical and hesitant when she first contacts them.
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