I found a mystery photo album of my family and it's kind of bugging me

Yes, I admit, my office is a little messy. It's not full of old food wrappers, but there are some stacks. Okay, many stacks.

A little while ago--maybe a year, maybe three--I noticed one of those old tyme photo albums in one of the stacks. I cracked it open and recognized the people--my family. Then I went back to whatever I was doing. 

The other day I was talking to my cousin and mentioned the album (hi Keri). You know, I told her, it's time to scan and share the photos. Yep, it's our family from the mid '70s. Looks like a collection of family gatherings. 

But where did the album come from and who took the photos? 

My dad has long been into photography, but right away I knew these weren't his--too many blurry photos, photos of people's backs, etc. It's not his work. Plus he largely shot chromes back then. 

I was handed a camera when I was but a wee lad, but I'm in too many of these photos. 

One of the photos shows my brother holding a camera, but he would have been too young to really take these. Plus he didn't 'fess up to producing the album. 

My mom doesn't recognize the album.

My grandfather took a lot of photos, but he's in several of these. And, again, too many marginal shots. 

Did I have a mystery sibling? (I asked and my mom says no.) I guess we could do some math to figure out the height of the photographer. 

And how long has this album been sitting in my office? How did it get here? 

My dad suggested that it's from an alternate reality. Or that I should clean my office more often. 

Oddly, earlier this week we also heard from a distant cousin who we didn't know about. He helped fill in some spots on the family tree. 

So, weird timing. 

Reverse Mandella effect.  Lol. 
 

How long has the photo album been in your stack do you think? No idea of how it got there?

This is how a novel starts

Just because someone is in a few of the photos does not mean that did not take all of the other photos......

Just sayin........welcome to the Twilight Zone.......

My guess is they were the pictures from each of you left over after they got film developed and these weren't deemed good enough for the main photo album. This was the b side album that everyone forgot about.

In reply to gearheadmb :

Sounds super plausible.  I remember as a kid how few photographs ever got thrown away because they were rare and expensive.  My, how the tables have turned.

In reply to David S. Wallens :

Maybe the leftovers from FBI surveillance?

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

That's kind of what it feels like. 

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to David S. Wallens :

Maybe the leftovers from FBI surveillance?

That's just silly.  Everyone knows that the FBI hadn't been weaponized against US citizens way back then!

This is something we are going through as a family. Dad passed a while back and mom is in a memory care facility. Us kids now have all the stuff and we are finding things like this still.  
 

Just be happy you can still ask mom and dad about things like this. With dad gone and every day is a new day for Mom many of the mysteries we have will stay that way.  

Soon you will be presented a choice, two sets of keys. On one ring, a red rabbit's foot. The other, a blue resin skull.

Decide wisely.

gearheadmb said:

My guess is they were the pictures from each of you left over after they got film developed and these weren't deemed good enough for the main photo album. This was the b side album that everyone forgot about.

does his discovery and investigation of this album make him a hipster of his own family?

You're saying it couldn't be x, y or z because they're in the photos, but what if it is a collection of photos from x,y and z all mixed together.

The "B Roll" shot hypothesis sounds good, and if if they're photos from a bunch of different people, that might make sense.

When I was a kid we had a older cousin who always had a camera in his hand. He shot most of the pictures. 

My dad shot the rest of them. His failing was to take pictures of things instead of people. He shot 30mm slides exclusively. We have thousands of them to go through. Probably 20% will be worth scanning to the computer. The rest are things like buildings, museums, and clouds out of a plane window. 

Recently went through and there is a picture frame at my moms with.....many people I dont know.   Thought it was Sisters friends, but she called saying she had my photo frame *the same one.*.

No idea, and I hae no idea who anyone is on it.

This sounds like a better version of leaving a watermelon on someone's front step and never confessing.

Or you made it yourself and you have the beginning stages of dementia. 

Wow, good thread to see back at the top.

Three years later, no new news on the mystery photo album. I tucked it back into a corner of my office, and there it still sits....

Logically, if you don't remember bringing the album into the office, either you're getting a wee bit senile, or someone dropped it off.  Let's go with the latter case, shall we?  That means someone, and most likely someone you know well, dropped it off while you weren't looking.  How often do family members visit you at work?  If you recall where in the strata of accumulated office detritus this album was first discovered, you may be able to use that information to identify a timeframe and correlate that to a visit by a likely family member.

Sadly, it’s been more than a decade since my parents visited us. 

When I first read the thread title I was thinking you'd found a random online album of surveillance photos. The actual scenario is much less creepy. But only a little less like the plot of a low budget thriller.

After my parents died we discovered evidence that my dad had made a lightning fast trip by train from British Columbia to New York City. He was only gone a week which must have been mostly travel time. He talked a lot about his other two trips to the East Coast and had photos and correspondence, but he and my mother never mentioned that trip once in 50 years and there was absolutely no record of what the heck he did there. It's a family mystery that will never be solved.

You weren't transporting back to the ship during an ion storm were you?

Sorta related, while visiting my parents for Thanksgiving, my dad shared some old home movies–including footage of me coming home from the hospital. My dad still does a bit of photography, but I didn’t remember the super 8 camera. (I believe I have it here somewhere, too.)

I've had in-law family pictures and albums dumped on my lap for identifying. Varying degrees of success, but most pictures were 60-130 years old, with varying amounts of info included.

Tips:

If they can be removed from the album, most commercial prints will tell you where they were printed, and possibly the date. If it's a different city, that's a clue.

Sometimes whoever made the album or took the picture will have written notes on the back of the picture. Handwriting can be linked to certain individuals, if other samples are available.

The album itself may have information embossed in it.

Look at the backgrounds, not the people. If it's a gathering at an unusual place, it may have been a special occasion. Maybe it will ring a bell with someone.

You could also compare to other pictures/albums with known history, and see if similar pictures are there. Maybe it's the same photographer, just a different angle or a few minutes earlier/later.

As to how it came to be in your possession, I'd guess a funeral or family get together, and someone said "here, you should look at/have these" and you didn't really want to then, so you forgot about it.

Or you're a klepto.