Preserving the Photographic Family Record

People in the Photo: My Great Grand Parents, William Monroe Lambertson, Ada Grace (Goodman) Lambertson, and their son, Lonnie.
Date Taken: 1892 or 1893
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Source: An original photograph made into a Xerox copy, and then scanned into my computer – someone else in the family has the original
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Tax Day has just slid by: Joy for some…Anguish for many.

Well, it got me thinking about Family History and the Preservation of the Family Photographic Record. Now, how is it that taxes and historic preservation of the photographic family record are linked…I don’t rightly have a clue. Maybe it’s just the way my mind works, and that my friends, is sort of scary.

Well, whatever the case may be, all I know is that members of my family have been paying taxes in the United States of America before it was ever called the United States of America!

My 11^th Generation Grandfather, Henry LAMBERSON (b. about 1594 in England – d. about 1645), immigrated to the Americas before 1641, and paid some sort of taxes, and/or duties, in the Shire of Accawmack, Virginia.

The name “Accawmacke” was a Native American term meaning “across the water place.” This seems reasonable since the area known as Accawmacke was situated across the Chesapeake Bay, from what I guess would be called the ‘mainland’ of Virginia.

The Shire of Accawmack was established in 1634 – One of the eight original shires of Virginia. [Source: Gene Williams, History of Accomack County. [website] Available from http://www.rootsweb.com/~vaaccoma/ history.htm. Accessed 11 May 2005]. In some online references, I’ve also seen the original Shire with the name spelling as “Accomac”.

In an effort by the British to “Anglicize” place names in the New World, the shire’s name was changed from Accawmack to Northampton in 1642. By 1663, again, the county name was altered: The northern section became Accomac and the southern portion remained as Northampton.

In 1670, in what could be considered an historical hiccup, the name Accomac was abolished; and in 1671, as if it never happened, the Virginia General Assembly established Accomac again. It was only in 1940 that the “k” was added to the end of the name, making the current spelling of the county: Accomack. I hope to be able to visit this place someday; the Chesapeake Bay area looks simply beautiful, is full of history and most probably a wonderful place to take photographs.

Certain of my family’s records live on and have been preserved in written documentation, by the government, museums, libraries, churches, individuals in the family keeping good genealogical details, and of course, by word of mouth. In addition to written records, there is also photography of the family.

However, being that photographic technology where a copyable positive or negative is available is relatively new (that is, when considering the history of the world), an average family may be lucky to have photographic family records dating back to, well, maybe the around the time of the American Civil War (1861 to 1865). Many will not have photo-records before 1900, I’m assuming.

Paper photographs, negatives, and other types of photographic images (Daguerreotype, Calotype, Tintypes or Ferrotypes, etc.) tend to get destroyed over time: Getting Misplaced, Burning/Melting in Fires, Floods, Disasters, Lost at Sea, War, etc. There are any numbers of ways that photographs can get lost, fade away or be totally destroyed.

Even if there was one image of your Great-Great Grandfather that survived time, only one person in the family could have the original. Chances are that the negative or original image (whatever image-type it was) would no longer exist.

Nowadays, if one person in the family has an old family photo, they could make numerous digital prints or color copies and send out to the rest of the family. However, chances are that many people in the extended family would probably be missed. You would still need someone willing to go to the trouble and the work of making the copies and mailing the prints to everyone.

Another option is to scan your old (and new) family photos and burn them onto CD’s or DVD’s; and to put some insurance on the deal, make many copies of the family photo CD’s and DVD’s.

You can also make digital files of your old family photos and upload the files to the Internet. There are several places you can store your photos to help insure they survive time and are accessible to others, these include, but in no way is a complete list of photo depositories: 1) Your Website, or a Family Website; 2) Online File Storage Facility (such as Mozy); 3) Possibly, donate digital family photo files to libraries or museums in the towns and counties where your ancestors lived. They may have, or want, an archival photo-record of early members of the community. There are more ideas than listed here, that you can explore to preserve your ‘digital’ copies of your old family photographs; 4) Make sure you put a couple of your family record CD/DVD copies in your safe deposit box. The safety box rooms are typically climate controlled and that may help keep these records safer.

If you manage to get your historical family photos published online, then all you need to do is send the URL to family members who may be interested in seeing, and copying the photos from your site. This is one instance where you will want to allow visitors to copy photos from your website, right.

The written records of your family’s history could cover several hundred years. The photographic records of your ancestors, in your possession, will more than likely cover only the last few generations. Both the written and the photographic records are important in your goal to preserve the history of your family. So, when protecting these records, remember that both the text and the photographic records can be digitized, copied, recopied and preserved by many methods.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on Preserving the Photographic Family Record.

Ps: If anyone who’s direct ancestral grandparents were any of the following (this is my direct line through my paternal grandmother), then drop me a line: 1) Henry Lamberson (b.1594 lived in Accomac County, Virginia); 2) Henry Lambertson (b.1645) & Katherine Schoolfield (b.about 1653); 3) Abraham Lambertson (b.1677) & Sarah Timmons; 4) Samuel Lambertson (b. 1708, lived in Snow Hill, MD) & Elizabeth Watson Smith; 5) Levi Lambertson (b.1751, of Snow Hill, and served in the Maryland State Militia in the American Revolution) & Rebecca Parker; 6) John W. Lambertson (b.1789, and lived in Snow Hill, MD) & Priscilla Jane Brewington (b. 1790, of Snow Hill, MD); 7) Samuel Lambertson (b. 1828, of Moores Hill, Indiana) & Mary M. Shade (b. 1834, of Portage, Ohio); William Monroe Lambertson (b. 1864, of Peoria County Illinois) & Ada Grace Goodman – and William Monroe and Ada Grace were my Great Grandparents.

Pss: Genealogy is sort of mind-boggling: I’m still trying to figure out through which Great Uncle or Great Aunt, that I’m 2^nd Cousins with Samuel Huntington (1731-1796) (I would need to see his ancestral line to count back how many times removed [how many generations back]). Huntington was a Connecticut Representative and signer of the Articles of Confederation and Declaration of Independence. When I don’t have a headache from this never ending outbreak of Iritis, and perchance more time, I’ll have to attempt to figure this out – that is, if the records are correct – there’s always possible human error with regard to Genealogy.

UPDATE to Pss 17 June 2008: Supposedly, someone has my line of Lambertson(s) [Lamberson(s)] with the Clark family (Amy Clark) so that Huntington and I share a Great…Grandfather John Clark. HOWEVER, I’m not quite seeing the geographical connection. Supposedly, this Amy Clark was married to a Jesse Peck Lambert, of the New Haven Lambert(s). So far, I don’t see my line of Lamberson(s) of Accomac being closely related to Lambert(s) of New Haven.

UPDATE & Additions to Post: 17 June 2008

This is an excerpt from the “Wills and Administrations, Accomack County, Virginia, 1663-1800,” by Stratton (Originally published in 1931, but recently republished:

Published 1999 Genealogical Publishing Com

Accomack County (Va.)

567 pages

ISBN:080631589X

This is a portion quoted from the reference above, regarding my Great….Grandmother Katherine (Tully?) Schoolfield’s will (b. around 1653 [Accomac], and she died around 1702 in Talbot, Maryland). She was married to Henry Lamberson (b. 1645 in the Shire of Accomac, and died 24 Nov. 1680, in Talbot, Maryland).

“TULLY, KATHERINE – 8 Oct. 1702 – No ord. or prob. To eldest son Henry Lamberson ½ of the worth of the land Richard Lamberson lives on in Somerset County, Maryland. To son Richard Lamberson the remainder of the plantation where he now lives. To Sarah Lamberson. To son Abraham Lamberson planta. Where I now live & all the rest of my personal est. To grandson Henry Lamberson. Should my son Abraham marry with Sarah Timmons all my personal est. to be divided bet. His 2 bros. Henry & Richard – Witt: James Taylor, William Taylor. – p.306”

I’m not sure what my Great…Grandmother Katherine didn’t like about my Great…Grandmother Sarah Timmons, but my Great…Grandfather Abraham got JE’O’IPT BIG TIME! Bummer…